free enterprise a wider hand, and find the proper balance Among Americans of Hispanic ethnicity, the out-of- Voices of CCU between local and central governments, we will recalibrate wedlock birth rate is 56 percent. Among white Americans, America onto a better path. that number is 29 percent, leaving America with an out- WHY NOT SHARE THE WEALTH? of-wedlock birth rate of nearly 40 percent overall. The This analysis is a powerful and pressing one; it is the correct By Gary Ewen and right one, as far as it goes. But it is not a complete vision. numbers tell a sobering story. They quantify the brokenness Centennial Review and fragmentation that William J. Bennett was writing about One day in my class the question arose, That is because the most pressing problems in our country “What’s wrong with a little governmen- when he said “the hearth is broken.” Western Conservative Summit 2010 Special Report • August 2010 are cultural and moral matters rooted in the institutions of tal redistribution of wealth?” I gave family, marriage, and parenting. Problems in this realm are Forty percent of all American marriages end in divorce, a good economist’s answer, but it was by and large not problems that government can fix, but they and 75 percent of second marriages. Fatherlessness is of obvious that several students continued are problems government can and will likely exacerbate by epidemic proportions in many American communities, to wonder. over-reaching, which is a recurring and dangerous problem and is probably the most pressing social problem in urban The next week, I returned their graded during progressive eras like the current one. America today. quarterly exams. Apart from a handful ‛This is going to be fun’ of A’s, most of the students had earned - Summit closing speaker Dick Morris, talking of America’s right turn Two Revolutions Fatherless Generation low marks. I told them that since the Our country has had two revolutions: the American Patrick Walsh, who has taught English in a public high class had done so poorly on the exam, I was going to take some of the points away from the “A” students and give Revolution and the sexual revolution. Both profoundly school in Alexandria, Virginia, for nearly 40 years, regularly them to the students who had scored lower. Hundreds rally for liberty at conservative summit impacted our country. But the latter one has resulted in a writes on education for The Washington Post. “Focusing on a Western Conservative Summit 2010, Centennial Institute’s first annual rally in the Rockies, made waves July 9-11 social and moral decay that, if not arrested, could ultimately ‘racial achievement gap’ is too simple,” he said in a column A cheer went up, but not everyone was happy. One young woman said she had studied 16 hours for the exam. She with a stellar speaker lineup, overflow crowds, and sizzling enthusiasm for the conference theme of “Right Turn, negate the original one and destroy our liberty. Our last year. “It’s a gap in familial support and involvement didn’t think it was fair of me to take points from her and Right Now.” This special report gives you a feeling for the weekend’s excitement in pictures, words, and personal Founders rightly warned that we could not have freedom too.” Walsh is right. If we want a healthy economic climate, give them to students who had put forth less effort. The glimpses. A video record of the full 15 hours is now on sale. Plans for Summit 2011 will be announced soon. without virtue. Today's deficit of moral excellence strikes at a healthy educational climate, a healthy cultural climate other top students nodded their agreement. I asked the overall, it can all be traced back to the health or illness of rest of the class how much time they had spent studying. in the way it did with President Carter. Why? Probably the core of our national DNA. It is a spiritual dearth of the the American family. The family is the central institution of The average was between two and three hours. because the reality of what is possible in the politics of any first magnitude. The culture is “chewing up our kids and American culture—both the bedrock and the foundation. presidency became apparent by the end of Reagan’s two chewing up our families,” as the president of Focus on the A spirited discussion ensued regarding my plans to Family, Jim Daly, puts it. One of his students “level the playing field.” The higher-achieving students terms. concluded that, since there was no reward for hard work, Government cannot urged Patrick Walsh The Reagan presidency The great conservative thinker Russell they would simply study less for the next exam. Kirk: To have order in the Kirk posited that social and cultural to ask the class proved that, even when the cause a family to fall I then revealed to the class that I had never really intended “just how many of most prominent conservative commonwealth, first have crises were ultimately spiritual or moral to redistribute their grade points. I merely wanted to il- in love again, repair a us have our fathers president of the contemporary crises. He said that, if you wanted to lustrate for them what’s wrong with sharing the wealth. living with us.” Not Michele Bachmann, congresswoman from The Battle, a new book by Arthur Brooks of America must resist Islamic aspirations for era came to power, and despite order in the soul. have order in the commonwealth, broken marriage, or Redistribution demotivates people by decoupling effort you had to have order in the soul first. The breakdown a single hand went from reward. Suddenly my students could see how the Minnesota, roused the summiteers with her AEI, focused his warning on the threat to dominance through jihad and sharia, said his best efforts in so many important and historic ways (such Friday keynote on defending liberty. free enterprise from big government. retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin. parent a single child. up. He commented overreach of government today is eroding the American as the elevation of William Rehnquist to be chief justice of of the American family, the breakdown of marriage, the later, “It hit me that work ethic. the United States, the nomination of Antonin Scalia to be breakdown of parenting: These are the urgent spiritual these kids understood what I know too well. The lack of a At Colorado Christian University we’re concerned about a justice on the Supreme Court, the famous tax cuts, etc.), crises which underlie our cultural crisis and ultimately father in their lives had undermined their education.” And this war on achievement. We teach that all the so-called politics came to be seen as having definitive, measurable impact our political and civic lives. presumably so much else, too. “secrets of success” will not work unless you do. ■ limits when it comes to impacting the culture. When Moynihan wrote his famous analysis “The Negro Family: The Case for American Action” for President Similar examples abound: A recent NBC program, Dateline, Dr. Gary Ewen is dean of the School of Business That recognition was and is a good and healthy thing. The and Leadership at Colorado Christian University, Centennial Johnson in 1965, out-of-wedlock births among those said that in the city limits of Detroit there are 400 liquor boundary line between culture and politics should remain where he also continues to serve as a professor of man- Institute families was 25 percent. Today, that number is a staggering stores and zero supermarkets. The Manhattan Institute’s agement and leadership studies. He holds a bachelor's ever before us. As the late Irving Kristol, godfather of Colorado Christian University 73 percent. Only 37 percent of black children now live with Heather MacDonald has found that “around 80 percent of degree from Illinois State University, a master's from neoconservatism, wrote, “Political problems, even many Former congressman Tom Tancredo "Peace through strength," Reagan's Colorado Springs columnist Michelle a mother and father in two-parent families. That should Chicago’s black youth are born to single mothers, creating a Colorado State University, a doctorate from Regent University, and is a U.S. Army social problems, are at heart ethical and cultural problems. veteran. deconstructed liberalism, a week before watchword, must now be ours, urged Frank Malkin joked that the rollicking crowd at dysfunctional culture that is failing to civilize young males.” his late entry into the governor's race. Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. Saturday lunch was no "angry mob." And improving the attitudes and virtues of a nation is, cause us all to weep. Most of America’s major cities now have gangs comprised at best, a slow, halting process.” Kristol’s analysis, like of tens of thousands of young boys and men who never Moynihan’s, was prescient. Recognizing the limits of nationhood, and if this transcendent dimension is stripped spent a single night in the same home as their natural-born politics, while giving the greater emphasis to culture, is now away, you strip away the very foundations of a great country. CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at father. We are testing that proposition. the preeminent conservative task. Colorado Christian University. Designer, Danielle Hull. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 Roger Scruton, the Anglo-American conservative writer, So what is the way forward toward a healthier culture? It is Yet many conservatives believe America’s most pressing W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online at observes that in addition to external enemies, we in the West problems are rooted in the central battle over the size and www.CentennialCCU.org. to actively re-energize what Edmund Burke called “the little confront “a belligerent atheism at home,” which is among scope of government. It is widely held that if we can just platoons,” those voluntary associations which the American Please join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial the greatest threats to our way of life. Herbert London, philosopher Robert Nisbet termed the “intermediary re-limit government, cut taxes, decrease regulations, give donor, you can help us restore America’s moral core and prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Your gift is tax-deductible. Please use the chairman of the Hudson Institute, makes a related point institutions” of family, church, synagogue, fraternal groups, Freedom is inborn, because we are each Foster Friess, investment wizard turned Adversity is easier, said radio host Dennis envelope provided. Thank you for your support. in contending that there exists a “spiritual dimension” to neighborhoods, healthy communities, and civil society in precious to God, proclaimed author and policy innovator and philanthropist, argued Prager after a standing ovation. Playful - John Andrews, Director Hollywood actor Joseph C. Phillips. for market reforms to replace Obamacare. booing, now on YouTube, resulted. Centennial Review, September 2010 ▪ 2 Centennial Review, September 2010 ▪ 3 Centennial Review Centennial Institute ‛Not a place to find liberals’ September 2010 Colorado Christian University - Denver Post, July 11 8787 W. Alameda Ave. To Revitalize America, Lakewood, CO 80226 Summit Snapshots: “Crazy Great” Remoralize the Family Centennial Review Over 850 people from a dozen states took part during the three days. By Timothy S. Goeglein Return Service Requested Who Came: Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute Publisher, William L. Armstrong Summiteers heard greetings from U.S. Senate candidates Ken Buck and Jane Norton, Politics is downstream from culture, Governor candidates Dan Maes and Scott McInnis, Congressional candidates Cory not the other way around. The Volume 2, Number 7 • September 2010 Editor, John Andrews Gardner, Ryan Frazier, and Scott Tipton, plus numerous local candidates. breakdown of family, marriage, and The election stakes are a freedom revival parenting is a crisis government or economic ruin, warned Fox News Such a faith can never deliver because politics cannot can't fix. It's up to us. TO REVITALIZE AMERICA, contributor Dick Morris at Sunday brunch. Who Helped: Twenty-four conservative partner groups including Heritage Foundation, adequately or fully address or resolve the most pressing Focus on the Family, KNUS Radio, Independence Institute, and Tea Party Express all REMORALIZE THE FAMILY moral and cultural concerns facing us. pitched in, along with a volunteer corps of CCU students and staff. By Timothy S. Goeglein It is not that politics is unimportant. Quite the opposite: Who Raved: Nearly everyone. 93% of comment sheets rated the conference as Excellent, Politics is both useful and central, and Christians need to the rest as Good. “Invaluable,” “inspirational,” “exceptional,” “superb,” “insightful,” The late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick be more involved than ever in the civic life of our country. “fantastic,” “superb,” and “crazy great” were among the superlatives used. Besides several Moynihan of New York was among The first duty of Christian citizenship is to vote, and we Western Conservative Summit 2010 • Full Program Now on Video the most thoughtful liberals of our have never needed men and women of faith more actively days of Denver Post coverage and a Fox News mention, the Summit was noted on local TV and radio, Facebook, YouTube, and two national columns. time. He came to see the hollowness engaged in American civic and political life than now. Relive the Summit on DVD • Order Today of Great Society liberalism, and Moral imagination is lacking in our public square, and this warned that America was beginning to is a vacuum that men and women of faith are uniquely Starring on Fox News before she was 30, Student Jacob Delargy: Unexpected Lesson in Patriotism As a future soldier, the words I remember most are: “What price are you willing to pay for "Right Turn, Right Now" was the theme when 850 lovers of liberty from a dozen states rallied with the Centennial “define deviancy down.” equipped to fill. Mary Katharine Ham enlivened the Summit Hon. Michele Mr. Dennis Prager Institute in Denver, July 9-11. All 15 hours of this historic weekend are now available in a professionally produced six- with insights on the youth vote. freedom?” They were from the last man from whom I would expect to receive a lesson in Bachmann DVD set, or as individual disks. Moynihan often spoke Right while But in our lifetime we have seen the net result of the over- patriotism – the former PLO operative, now an American and a Christian, Kamal Saleem. voting Left. “The central conservative extension and over-promise of what politics can achieve. Too few of us today are willing to make a conscious decision to stand guard for freedom. Full set is $20 post paid. Separate disks for each keynote speaker (pictured) are $5. Separate disk for Arthur Brooks, $ truth,” he once said, “is that it is culture, not politics, that American evangelicals by and large remained outside Whether it be with a microphone, a pen, a computer, or a rifle, we all have a part to play. Jerry Boykin, Frank Gaffney, Tom Tancredo, Foster Friess, and Mary Katharine Ham is 5. Separate disk for Joseph $ determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth the political arena until Jimmy Carter emerged, our first Delargy is a CCU sophomore and ROTC cadet. He posted this on our ’76 Blog. Phillips, John Eastman, Tea Party Panel, Greg Brophy, Kamal Saleem, and Lee Strobel is 5. is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.” contemporary evangelical president. He gave reason for Order online at www.Centennialccu.org Or use envelope provided millions of fellow men and Professor Gregory Schaller: Now Maintain the Momentum • Are we conservatives focused like a laser beam on These conservatives had a positive agenda to restore our sacred faith, protect the Mr. Dick Morris Ms. Michelle Or write Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Avenue, Lakewood CO 80226 the culture? Or have we succumbed to the trap of Politics is downstream women of faith to give the entrepreneur, revitalize our nation, protect our fundamental liberties, reestablish our Malkin preoccupying ourselves with politics as the answer political system a fresh look. leadership in the world, and defend our nation. What we seek to conserve is important. to our most pressing social concerns? from culture, not the Carter succeeded at bringing America is indeed “the last best hope.” Coming down from the Summit weekend, we must general. These are the institutions that can most effectively Chuck Colson, who was Moynihan’s colleague in the Nixon John Eastman of Chapman Law School Moynihan was correct in saying that conservatives other way around. evangelicals into politics in the maintain the momentum for accountability. Schaller teaches political science at CCU and is a address our most pressing social problems, and not more White House all those years ago. Burke was right: Morals and told how the founders' grievances against believe politics has definitive limits. It does, and we election of 1976. But when George III remain relevant today. Centennial Institute Fellow. This also ran on our ’76 Blog. government. manners are actually more important than laws, because the evangelicals measured Carter’s rhetoric versus the reality of former are rooted in personal responsibility and are the fabric push beyond those limits at our peril. The high degree of Government cannot cause a family to fall in love again; prowess liberals ascribe to politics is an article of faith, not his policy promises, they became quickly discouraged and Columnist Jay Ambrose: Summiteers Marching toward Something Big government cannot repair a broken marriage; government of the cultural tapestry of any great and confident nation. made a historic pivot to another political possibility. Maybe we've come to a non-violent revolutionary moment in America. The Summit im- really a truth. Culture is in fact preeminent. Conservatives cannot parent a single child, much less millions. David Brooks of The New York Times entitled a recent column, must always remember that politics is downstream from When Ronald Reagan famously told the National Religious pressed me not just because of the recitation of principles, but because of the mood. The “The Limits of Policy.” He warned that “when we’re arguing audience and speakers struck me as cheerful, positive and informed more by an idea of More Washington-directed solutions will not work, and culture, and not the other way around. Broadcasters during the heat of the 1980 campaign that, attempts to force them to will make already difficult matters about politics, we should be aware of how policy fits into the although they could not endorse him, he endorsed them, mission than anger at the other side. Dennis Prager told the crowd that liberals were mostly larger scheme of cultural and social influences. Bad policy Misplaced Faith good people. Don't attack them, he said. It's their fallacious arguments you want to deal worse. In fact, more government is a trap, and does not Reagan tapped into a deeply discouraged evangelical base. can decimate the social fabric, but good policy can only This is the reality, yet too much of the Left and Right presume with. Michele Bachmann talked about self-sacrifice, unity and dedication to one another offer the solutions to the human need that is so great and so He welcomed them into the Republican fold, and the New modestly improve it.” This is a near-perfect summation of that the most pressing problems of our time can best be as Americans. She told of four chaplains in World War II who went down heroically on a profound in our land. Right changed the political landscape for the next 30 years. where American is as we step off into a new century. addressed through politics. The reasoning goes something troopship. From such earnestly conveyed feelings, I had an image of an emotionally bal- Traditional-values voters became the mainstay of the GOP, Ex-terrorist Kamal Saleem hushed the The Dream and the Nightmare, Myron Magnet’s magisterial like this: “If we could just get the right political calculus room with his question, "What price are anced, powerful, alert, energized, morally informed, widely inclusive force awakened from history of the Great Society, powerfully shows how all the Hope is just ahead, but it will depend on what the great American and the Republican Party’s firmest, truest foundational base. you willing to pay for freedom?" slumber by an overly leftist administration and marching toward something pretty big. Am- historian Gertrude Himmelfarb calls a “remoralizing” of into place—if we could just elect the right men and women promises—the dreams—of the politicians and the social to office—then we could begin to right the listing ship of Disillusionment with President Reagan did not materialize brose writes a twice-weekly column for Scripps Howard Syndicate. This ran July 13. engineers of the 1960s ultimately ended in a spectacular our basic institutions and our basic assumptions. We need to focus like a laser beam on healthy families, marriages, and state and the fate of our country.” Timothy S. Goeglein is vice president for external affairs in the Washington, D.C., nightmare, inflicting on countless millions of Americans only office of Focus on the Family. A graduate of the University of Indiana, he was Centennial Institute parenting. This is a miscalculation of the first order. If we are not Relive the Summit on DVD • Order Today more misery and worsened conditions. formerly a print and broadcast journalist, a staffer in the U.S. Senate, and a top careful—and regardless of how the elections turn out this assistant to President George W. Bush. This essay is adapted from his lecture at Western Full set of six is $20 post paid. Separate disks for Bachmann, Prager, Malkin, and Morris are $5. If these are healthy, a healthy cultural and social life will surely Time to Remoralize Colorado Christian University on April 8, 2010. Conservative Separate disk for Arthur Brooks, Jerry Boykin, Frank Gaffney, Tom Tancredo, Foster Friess, and Mary Katharine Ham is $5. follow. Government overreach will be less of a temptation. November—the net result will be millions of disappointed, Separate disk for Joseph Phillips, John Eastman, Tea Party Panel, Greg Brophy, Kamal Saleem, and Lee Strobel is $5. With more government comes more potential for tyranny. We'll be better defended against misplaced utopian faith disillusioned Americans who are being encouraged to put Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance Summit 2010 Intentions may be good, but they result in “strangling public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By Order online at www.Centennialccu.org • Or call 303.963.3424 in politics. The challenges will still be great, but if we are their faith in politics as “answers” to the “problems” that st proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, Right Turn. Right Now. Or write Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Avenue, Lakewood CO 80226 community spirit and works of charity,” in the words of successful, a new American renaissance may await us. ■ most concern us in 21 -century American life. and renew the spirit of 1776. Centennial Review, September 2010 ▪ 4