September 16, 2025

Now, on to the news…

In 1800, German political writer Friedrich von Gentz posed an important question: Why did the American Revolution produce the world’s most prosperous, freest nation while the French Revolution descended into chaos and authoritarianism? Because the Americans sought to separate themselves from Great Britain to preserve their freedoms, he argued, while the French sought to tear down existing institutions.

Amid the murder of Charlie Kirk and the rise of political violence in America, von Gentz’s answer holds important lessons for us today, Josh Appel writes.

“We need to reaffirm our commitment to working within the existing constitutional framework,” Appel maintains. “This means defending free speech, even when it protects views we despise. It means not vilifying political opponents. It means pursuing change through legislation and persuasion rather than intimidation and violence. And most crucially, it means rejecting the revolutionary fantasy that violence can purify politics.”

Read his take.

Last month, Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. The alleged murderer, Decarlos Brown, Jr., was seriously mentally ill and had gone untreated. He reportedly claimed that Zarutska, whom he did not know, was trying to read his mind.

“In my years studying America’s crisis of untreated serious mental illness,” Stephen Eide writes, “I have become convinced of two things: (1) our public mental-health system should be mainly community-oriented, and (2) the institutionalized population is too small.” Eide argues that we’d see fewer tragedies like the one in Charlotte if more seriously mentally ill individuals were placed in facilities long-term.

Read more about the failures of America’s mental-health system.

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” shows that one-third of U.S. high school seniors are reading at a below-basic level, with just 22 percent achieving proficiency in math. What’s going on?

Jennifer Weber points to failed education policy. In 2015, Congress replaced No Child Left Behind with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which gave states flexibility to lower academic standards and avoid consequences when students failed to reach proficiency. “Academic progress collapsed as accountability weakened and instruction shifted in the wrong direction,” she writes.

Governors and legislatures must correct course, and Weber suggests three steps they can take. Read more here.

Last month, SpaceX’s Starship rocket completed its tenth test flight, demonstrating the power of innovation in an area where government efforts once dominated. Private industry will be the key if America is to maintain its edge in the space race, Alexander William Salter writes. Read his take on the future of space exploration.

“All countries are eventually called beautiful, but few would deny that Vietnam is beautiful,” Jonathan Clarke writes. “The crowdedness of the Saigon streets is overwhelming, but what initially presents itself as chaos is revealed in time to have an underlying order.” Read more of his reflections on the country 50 years after the U.S. withdrawal amid defeat in the Vietnam War, “the event in our history that we cannot seem to metabolize.”

What does the assassination of Charlie Kirk reveal about the state of political discourse and public safety in America today? In this powerful episode, Stu Smith, Jesse Arm, Josh Appel, and Kerry Soropoulos discuss the shocking murder of the conservative activist. Their conversation explores Kirk’s legacy, the rise of online radicalization, and how progressive policies may be fueling crime in urban centers. They also examine the deepening ideological divide in American society and consider what it will take to restore civility—and security—in our country.

“You can’t do anything against the skew at the skewed institutions. They are stuffed with true believers up to their gills and above. This is exactly the reason the federal government should withhold the grants from Harvard, Columbia, and similar Ivies. They don’t want to be ‘saved.’ Just stop grants going there and build new institutions.”

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YT14, commenting on leftist ideology

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