Today, Condoleezza Rice tells students at Auburn University that they are key to revitalizing America’s democracy. Peter Robinson discusses the future of the conservative movement with none other than Ben Shapiro. And Matt Turpin discusses the difference between conducting a lethal and an effective military campaign, and the political and social implications of warfare.
Revitalizing American Institutions
American democracy survives only when citizens take part in it, and not merely watch from the sidelines, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice said during a USA 250 Speaker Series event at Auburn University on March 30. Drawing on experiences from the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the aftermath of 9/11, Rice told host and Hoover Institution overseer Margaret Hoover that democratic systems endure because they provide institutions that let societies manage conflict peacefully and adapt over time. Without those institutions, she warned, rights can collide and disputes can turn violent. Rice argued democracy is more than elections, courts, and constitutions; it also depends on civic habits such as service, volunteerism, and community engagement that knit people together. Read more here.
Conservatism
The latest episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson asks: Is conservatism losing its way? Ben Shapiro, founding editor of the Daily Wire, says yes—and explains why. In this candid interview, Shapiro takes aim at conspiracy culture, fractures inside the right, and the growing distrust of institutions that is reshaping American politics. From college campuses to foreign policy to and future of media, this is a blunt assessment of where the movement stands—and where it could be headed next. Watch or listen to the episode here.
Iran
On his Substack, Visting Fellow Matthew Turpin contrasts the concept of conducting a successful military campaign, as the US is so clearly doing in Iran, with the wider requirement of conducting a successful war, which moves from operational military competence to the political realm of designing a strategy and articulating a war’s aims and goals to the public. “If the war itself is poorly designed, inadequately explained, and improperly resourced, it is difficult for even brilliantly executed military campaigns to achieve the aims of the war or to retain public support when there are setbacks,” Turpin writes. Beyond that, Turpin says leaders should reach out to domestic political rivals and foreign allies before launching a military campaign to build consensus for a strike domestically and create a coalition of foreign allies to assist. Unfortunately, Turpin writes, Trump did neither. Read more here.
The Economy
Visiting Fellow David Neumark spoke to Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp attendees in August 2025 about how the common understanding of minimum-wage laws and their ability to reduce poverty is misunderstood and often wrong. Neumark said the reason minimum-wage increases do little to reduce poverty is because the link between earning the minimum wage and happening to be part of a poor household is extremely tenuous. Furthermore, those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution now work fewer hours in a year than they did in the 1960s. Neumark said poorer Americans worked only 17 weeks of the year on average in 2018, down from 37 weeks per year in 1967. He said a better remedy for poverty in the US than raising the minimum wage would be to adjust the tax code and make measures such as the earned income tax credit more generous. Watch his talk here.
What does a lone sailor circling the globe have to do with the fall of empires, the Model T, and the rise of AI? Everything—because maintenance, the quiet act of keeping things going, turns out to be the hidden force behind success and failure in nearly every domain of human endeavor. EconTalk's Russ Roberts speaks with Stewart Brand—creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, founder of the Long Now Foundation, and one of the great connective thinkers of the last half-century—to explore why some people and civilizations thrive while others collapse. From the 1968 Golden Globe Race, where three sailors' radically different attitudes toward maintenance determined their fates, to the M-16's deadly design flaws in Vietnam, and the cultural reasons Israel excels at crisis response but struggles with prevention, Brand’s thoughts range across history, warfare, technology, and philosophy. Along the way, host and guest discuss John Deere's war against its own farmers, the Model T as democratic revolution, and what AI might mean for human vigilance and connection. Watch or listen to the episode here.
Related Commentary