"Pushing the Boundary of Public Debate"

The Mood of America is changing.

All is not what it was.

Before a summer's last sun could set,

the fall of two tall towers cast a pale shadow of peril

over every hearth and home.

Terror is taking its toll.

A society in shock sees that

its safety and security can no longer be assured.

It wants life to return to normal, but has gotten

a glimpse of the grave challenges it could confront

And it isn't just the matter of mapping out a winning

battlefield strategy,

hammering out a hardened shield of

homeland security,

and sending our sons and daughters into danger

Once again the nation is at war and once again

it confronts an old, familiar dilemma.

How can we afford to spend ever larger sums to

assure public safety and maintain a strong

national defense,

while furnishing myriad forms of social assistance

and managing an already unimaginable

national debt?

How much suffocating smoke might all that spending

stack on an economy laboring to produce the jobs

and supply the bountiful standard of living

we all depend on but, like liberty itself,

too often take for granted?

The "Guns-and-Butter" debate is back . . .

. . . and it begs a multitude of lesser budgetary questions,

in fact, too many to ever balance or reconcile.

Which and what number of specific ledger items

should Congress and the President cut

in order to raise spending for who

knows how many "essential"

services the public sector

must still perform?

How many hundreds of special interest groups will rush

their representatives in Washington, to insist that

"the other guy's" programs get pared first?

How can so many questions and contests be reduced,

so that the odds of avoiding future calamity

may be steadily increased?

A decision to set clear priorities according to a single standard,

would certainly represent a novel departure.

And it would leave us with just a few questions to address.

But what momentous questions they are.

Of what does the national interest consist?

And what is the purpose of government, per se?

Not easy questions, no. But once they are raised,

complexity can be reduced to simplicity and answers

that pack a real political punch can finally be

placed on the block for debate.

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Only back in Washington, it's business and bickering as usual.

The competitive atmosphere that permeates American politics,

that produces piecemeal compromise and permanent conflict

and that so many Americans, today, find so very troubling

is as it is precisely because the kinds of questions that

could finally quell the acrimony and contention

continually escape public notice.

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This workshop of ideas and political commentary

seeks to change

the culture of controversy in this country.

It proceeds from the opinion that much of what passes for

profound political debate is really just shallow trench warfare,

a quagmire over questions that are essentially inessential,

hence inconsequential, and unproductive.

The most explosively charged debates are simply

too dull to penetrate the surface of things.

So our leaders end up dealing in details,

never hitting any real pay dirt.

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On the premise that

it is the basic questions that matter most,

this website aims to get to the bottom of things,

This can be done only by peeling the skin off the

"hot-talk" topics ripped from today's headlines

& biting into the attitudes and assumptions,

the principles and precedents that lie at

the core of our current predicaments.

The preservation of the American way of life

deserves as much and demands no less.

In sum:

The commentary that will appear on this site is informed

by deeper historical and conceptual reflection and

guided by an abiding respect for this nation's

founding traditions and institutions.

The selections consist of essays and chapter excerpts drawn

from the published and unpublished writings of

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Jerome Huyler.

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"There is nothing this nation now needs more than

a spirited body of patriot intellectuals."

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Stay tuned for further installments and announcements and

thank you for your interest.

We hope you will come back often & pass the word around.

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And, yes, do consider:

If you're not satisfied with the

PRESENT

It's very likely that for much of the

PAST

You didn't think hard enough about the

FUTURE
©Copyright by Jerome Huyler 2002

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