Is America a Republic or a Democracy? The Founders' Answer Is Better Than Either Slogan
The Framers built a constitutional republic on purpose. Its democratic engine runs through representation, and its brakes are written into the Constitution.
Civic Education Columns
Columns
Two running series: what the Constitution actually says, and the American story with its full context. For paired arguments from the left and the right, see our guest columns.
Constitution Explained
More →Plain-English corrections of common misunderstandings about the Constitution, read in light of its original public meaning.
'Fire in a Crowded Theater' and Other Free-Speech Myths
The most quoted line in First Amendment debates comes from a case that sent a man to prison for opposing the draft. Here is what the law actually protects, and what it doesn't.
American History
More →Setting the record straight on the American story: the full context, the real achievements, and the ideals that let the country correct its own wrongs.
Was America Founded as a Slave Nation? What the Founding Record Actually Shows
Slavery was a grave wrong present at the founding. But the founding also produced the ideas, the laws and, eventually, the sacrifice that ended it.
Colonizer? What America Did With Victory in 1945
Great powers have usually kept what they conquered. After the largest war in history, the United States rebuilt its enemies, freed its largest colony, and fed a city its rivals tried to starve.