EPPC Briefly: The Party of Reagan Is No More

The Party of Reagan Is No More
In a cover essay for Time magazine, EPPC Senior Fellow Peter Wehner laments the rise of Donald Trump and observes that “when the mantle worn by Reagan might be settling on the likes of Trump, this end-of-an-era moment demands that we reflect on what has happened to our Republican Party.”

‘A Tiny Bit of a Man’: Evelyn Waugh’s Anticipation of Donald Trump
EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel finds keen similarities between Donald Trump and a character in Brideshead Revisited who is depicted as “amoral” and “simply callous, unable to understand how others could not perceive that his way is the best way, the expedient way, successful way – the only way, these days.”

An Appeal to Our Fellow Catholics
EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel and Prof. Robert P. George, vice chairman of EPPC’s board of directors, issue an urgent call for fellow Catholics and other citizens to reject Donald Trump and consider other candidates “who do not exhibit his vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and — we do not hesitate to use the word — demagoguery.” The letter was also signed by various other EPPC scholars. (See also Mr. Weigel’s column decrying Mr. Trump as “utterly unfit—by character, by wit, or by life experience—to lead America for the next four years.”)

A Conversation: How Can Evangelicals Support Trump?
In an interview with Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, EPPC Senior Fellow Peter Wehner discusses why “many faith voters — like many conservative Trump supporters — are jettisoning long-held convictions in order to rally around Trump.”

Ted Cruz Can Win It All
EPPC Senior Fellow Stanley Kurtz argues that “on a wide range of issues, Ted Cruz is well-placed to make the kind of case that GOP establishment candidates have never yet dared to make.”

For the Establishment
EPPC Senior Fellow Mona Charen makes the case that “those who encouraged the ‘burn it down’ mania and who popularized the narrative that a malign Republican ‘establishment’ was responsible for the state of the nation may be many things but they are not conservative.”

What We Are For — An American Cultural Catechism
EPPC Lehrman Institute Fellow in Economics John D. Mueller takes up Senator Ben Sasse’s call for “cultural catechesis” by offering a short “catechism” outlining core American values.

Don’t Forget About the IPAB
Opponents of “one of the more notorious provisions of the Affordable Care Act,” the Independent Payment Advisory Board, “must keep up the pressure and look for opportunities to kill it altogether,” argues EPPC Senior Fellow James C. Capretta. (See also Mr. Capretta’s in-depth article explaining why “IPAB is a clear example of an unelected and unaccountable technocratic body making decisions that should be handled by the people’s elected representatives.”)

A Sordid Anniversary, to be Remembered
EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel recalls a 1946 episode of “calculated aggression, in which Russian Orthodoxy acted as a front for the brutal assault on a sister Church by an atheistic regime,” and explains why it continues to hinder progress in relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Biggest Problem with U.S. Foreign Policy? Obama’s Own Preening Self-Regard
EPPC Fellow Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry writes that President Obama’s recent interview in The Atlantic on foreign policy “paints quite the picture of someone disconnected from reality and sure of his own perfection.”