1/23/2024

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with a piece at RealClearPolitics by Jason Lantzer, a Jack Miller Center fellow, who explains how Dwight Eisenhower can show us how to deal with a resurgent antisemitism today. In light of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, antisemitic language and actions have exploded at colleges and universities throughout the United States. Eisenhower, the five-star general (and future U.S. president), documented the horrors of Nazi concentration camps to make sure that public officials and the public at large “never forget the Holocaust.” As Lantzer concludes, “While there are points of policy that necessitate contentious debate at times, there are events and movements that should only be seen as evil. Attempting to dismiss antisemitism endangers not just civility but our common humanity. Ike would want us to remember that, too.”

Also in the Jack Miller Center orbit is The Constitutionalist podcast, hosted by Professor Benjamin Kleinerman, the RW Morrison Professor of Political Science at Baylor University, and his student, Shane Leary. On the latest episode, Greg Weiner, President of Assumption University, joins Kleinerman and Leary to discuss the response to antisemitism on college campuses. They also investigate the moral and intellectual sources of antisemitism, along with the original purposes of higher education in American political life. Each week, the podcast “discusses political news in light of the Constitution, explores a unique constitutional topic, ranging from the thoughts and experiences of America's founders and statesmen, historical episodes, and the broader philosophic ideas that influence the American experiment in government.” The podcast is also part of a blog that features engaging essays and articles on political thought and philosophy.