Leo Strauss is often blamed for inspiring neoconservatism, and by extension, the most zealous forms of interventionism it produced.

In his latest, @RonDodson adds to the writings of those who have worked to correct the record on a Straussian approach to foreign policy. A truly Straussian foreign policy is realist in understanding and restrained in action, because it recognizes that both domestic and international politics are governed by the tragic limits of human wisdom and the necessity of prioritizing one’s own polis.

🧵1/4: It’s now established that the primary results can be voided if poll numbers of the nominee are not sufficiently robust...Primary voters’ choice will turn out to be mere suggestion, reversible by party insiders depending on their political judgment.

This is not democracy. 2/4: What the Democrats are now attempting, then, is a last-minute switch to evade responsibility for the administration that they elected and supported for the last three and a half years. They are trying to hang on to power by desperate trickery...

.@martyrmade: “17-year-old boys should not have to take up arms to defend their communities from attacks incited by Democratic Party politicians & the corporate media & facilitated & carried out by organizations funded by multinational corporations.” americanmind.org/salvo/america-… “We live in a society where mass political violence has been normalized, & because it’s being used as a political & ideological bludgeon to threaten & intimidate the people of this country, the authorities have abdicated their responsibility to protect life & property.” 2/

The 2020 election is not over. The fight has just begun. This is the moment that decides everything. Republicans must rise to the occasion. This means rallies and protests as well as investigating and ensuring that this election was lawful! americanmind.org/post/the-fight… We are expected to sit quietly while the vote is counted. We will not. Instead, the President and his supporters must publicly rally and protest what any reasonable person would judge looks illegitimate.

In this time of national insanity, what is needed is clarity and firmness...Republicans should tell the truth, without any attempt to appease the woke: BLM is racist, not America. In America, all lives matter! americanmind.org/post/stand-up-… Only a few Republicans have been bold enough to speak the truth. As @RepJimBanks notes, "what's happening right now is a fundamental shift in the narrative about who we are, what we are, and why we are a nation." Understand what 1619 is all about. americanmind.org/post/exclusive…

Americans must decide whether their country is worthy of praise or contempt. The elections on November 3, 2020, hinge on one question: “Do you stand with the Party of 1619 or the Party of 1776?” americanmind.org/post/americas-… "Politicians seeking election under the banner of the Dem Party, at all levels, can fairly be said to belong to the 'Party of 1619,' & politicians seeking office under the banner of the Republican Party, roughly speaking, can fairly be said to belong to the 'Party of 1776.'"

"If Republicans conceived of their mission as preserving the American way of life, they would pay more attention to the institutions that nurture the foundations of that life—family, religion, education, & community. All else rests on those foundations." americanmind.org/essays/preserv… As the chairman of the Board of Directors of the @ClaremontInst Thomas D. Klingenstein notes, "Today those foundations [family, religion, education, and community] are giving way. Strengthening them should therefore be the top priority of the Republican party."

“Oligarchic class now owns as much as 50% of the world’s assets. 5 companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft—account for over 20% of market capitalization of the entire S&P 500 index.” @joelkotkin explains in “The Pandemic Road to Serfdom.” americanmind.org/essays/the-pan… “Today’s new oligarchs constitute a modern-day equivalent of the Medieval aristocracy. Like the barbarians who seized control of land during the demise of Rome, they seem well-positioned to benefit from the emerging social distance-driven recession...”

“China believes that its rightful place is at the center of the world and views the last 100 years as an aberration it intends to correct.” - @marcorubio #ThrowbackThursday americanmind.org/essays/america… They have no interest in adhering to the rules of a post-war international system, instead seeking to upend or replace it. They pursued these plans while “hiding their strength & biding their time,” portraying themselves as a poor developing country and a non-expansionist power.

“Regardless of when Trump acts to reopen the country, ruling class will do whatever is in their power to prevent him from exiting the path to political perdition which he has entered.” -Angelo Codevilla, Senior Fellow at @ClaremontInst. h/t @theamgreatness amgreatness.com/2020/04/07/is-… “The ruling class savors the grip on us that it has achieved during the past three weeks—above all the presumption that we must quietly accept non-legal decrees from on high. It will not give up that grip without a fight”, warns Codevilla. 2/