Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum
By President George Washington With this Address President Washington officially began the tradition we celebrate today. But that’s not the only reason this proclamation is of interest. Washington carefully highlights the relationship between the American experiment, gratitude, and belief in God. Granted, he uses somewhat abstract terms, but we shouldn’t take this as evidence of …
by Jeff Polet, director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Our reflection essay this week provides a brief overview of the complex nature of religion during the founding era and how it shaped our Constitutional order. We emphasized two elements: that the debates about public order largely took place within the …
by Gary Gregg, director of the MCCONNELL CENTER 2023 is the 70th year since Regnery Publishing brought Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind to the reading public. The book helped transform modern American politics and inform many emerging conservative minds. When I was interning in Washington, DC more than thirty years ago, I remember answering a question …
by Gary L. Gregg, director of the MCCONNELL CENTER This is the fifth article in a series about the Electoral College that I think a lot of Americans want to know the answers to. In the previous four, I laid out the origins, history, evolution and current functioning of the institution. Here I take up …
by Gary L. Gregg, director of the MCCONNELL CENTER This is the fourth installment of a series of articles on the Electoral College and our presidential election system. Today’s installment deals with what happens after the American people go to the polls. What happens after we vote? Despite the most passionate arguments against the Electoral …
by Gary L. Gregg, director of the MCCONNELL CENTER This is the third installment of columns exploring the history and operation of the Electoral College. The previous two explored the origins and evolution of the institution. Today we look at the underlying mathematical assumptions that shape our elections. How does the Electoral College work today? Over …
By Jeff Polet, Director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation We celebrate Constitution Day, September 17th, amidst concerns about its future. We would do well to reflect on its successes. We can imagine a variety of items being offered up as evidence of “success”: Others may find fault with America, but …
by Gary L. Gregg This is the second installment in a series based on questions asked about the Electoral College. The previous one outlined the origins of the selection system that emerged from the Constitutional Convention in 1787. As I detailed previously, the Electoral College was designed by the Framers of the Constitution as a …
by Gary L. Gregg, Director of the McConnell Center I recently had the chance to talk with a group of high school students who asked me questions about the Electoral College. When I asked them to rate their own knowledge of the institution between 1 (near none) and 5 (metaphysically complete), they mostly ranked themselves …
By Jeff Polet, Director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation One of the central conceits of this website is that good action comes from sound thinking, and sound thinking requires attention to how words are used. At the core of our political crises is confusion, often times intentional, about what words …
