Michael Austin

Professor-turned-administrator and political commentator. Author of six books including "That's Not What They Meant! Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from the American Right" (Prometheus Books).

Packing Courts and Playing Politics

Good news folks: by the end of the week, everybody you know will be an expert on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. And people who have never been quite

By Michael Austin

June 3, 2013

The Rage of Caliban

“The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not

By Michael Austin

June 1, 2013

Why Can't We Be Friends? Social Media and Democracy in the Age of the Echo Chamber

So, Thomas Jefferson aside, I was unfriended today. It’s not the first time, I’m sure; Facebook is a big place. But it is the first time that the

By Michael Austin

May 30, 2013

Why Can't We Be Friends? Social Media and Democracy in the Age of the Echo Chamber

Free Markets Are Useful, Not Moral

To true believers, both communism and capitalism are immune to historical critique. Tell a group of devout Marxists that communism has failed wherever it has been tried, and they will

By Michael Austin

May 29, 2013

Two Cheers for Capitalism

"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands. . . the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard."-Alexander Hamilton Knowing full well that I will

By Michael Austin

May 27, 2013

The Partisan Fantasy

“The principle that the end justifies the means is and remains the only rule of political ethics; anything else is just a vague chatter and melts away between one’s

By Michael Austin

May 24, 2013

Three Quarts of Strawberries: The Queeg Congress and the Specter of Watergate

Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny--now there was some serious crazy. And nothing that Queeg does in the book, or the movie, says "crazy" quite like the hunt

By Michael Austin

May 18, 2013

Three Quarts of Strawberries: The Queeg Congress and the Specter of Watergate

What's Really at Stake in the Student Loan Debate?

“Before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of

By Michael Austin

May 14, 2013

What's Really at Stake in the Student Loan Debate?

“Before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of

By Michael Austin

May 14, 2013

What Kind of Good Thing Is Education?

"Every single day, this country invests in big banks by lending them money at near-zero rates. We should make the same kind of investment lending money to students, who

By Michael Austin

May 12, 2013

These Kids Today. . . (an Encomium)

This afternoon, I participated in my 24th commencement ceremony. This one (like the last nine) was for the students at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, where I am an administrative

By Michael Austin

May 11, 2013

The Art of the Scandal

Tell me, ye prim adepts in Scandal’s school Who rail by precept, and detract by rule, Lives there no character, so tried, so known,So decked with grace, and

By Michael Austin

May 9, 2013