When President Trump was running for a second term in 2024, he promised to end the Ukraine war “in 24 hours.” Of course, that did not happen, but now we are seeing how he seeks to end this atrocious war, now over 3 years old. As the Wall Street Journal editorially observed, Trump’s plan is a “tilt toward a Ukraine sellout.” As a student of history, I believe it also ignores one of the profound lessons of history from the 1930s in Europe.

In our democratic-republic in America, there are three branches of the federal government. In the brilliance of the design articulated by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, all three of whom wrote The Federalist, these three branches are to form a checks and balance system without the national government. The judicial branch interprets the Constitution as cases are brought before it. There are federal District Courts, Courts of Appeals and then of course the Supreme Court. The founders argued forcefully for an independent judiciary.

The age of amateur sports at many American colleges and universities is apparently over. Year 2024 is the last year where the College Football Playoffs will be played by amateur athletes. Next year they will all be pros. It is pretty clear that the NCAA has embraced some form of “pay for play” that enables schools to pay players for their athletic skills.

When Hamas militants led a deadly cross-border raid into Israel on 7 October 2023, Hamas leaders were convinced that this event would trigger a wider Middle East war that would result in the end of Israel. The exact opposite has occurred. The Hamas terrorist attack triggered a war with Israel that has devastated Gaza, and it set off additional shock waves that have reshaped the Middle East: Powerful alliances were upended. Long-established “red lines” were crossed. A decades-old dictatorship at the heart of the region was swept away. The Middle East has been radically transformed.

President Trump had made immigration a major aspect of his presidential campaign and now a policy goal of his presidency. Few would disagree with his commitment to end illegal immigration. Few would doubt that dealing with illegal immigrants already in the country must be addressed. But, solving these challenges must be balanced with the reality of a serious worker shortage in the US. In this Perspective, I hope to review the issue of the worker shortage facing the US along with the volatile issue of immigration.

More recent cultural shifts around gender identification and the push for transgender rights represent a profound change in society that has led to battles over medical procedures for minors and public school policy. For example, former President Biden proclaimed that Easter Sunday 2024 was also the 2024 Transgender Day of Visibility. He declared to the transgender community: “You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back.” That this “Day” also occurred on Easter Sunday provoked outrage and anger—understandably. Arguably quite political in nature, Biden’s proclamation backfired and further eroded the legitimacy of the transgender revolution.

In 1958, political theorist, Isaiah Berlin, delivered a lecture entitled “Two Concepts of Liberty,” which established two strands of thought on the concept of freedom.

Jordan Peterson is a cultural phenomenon. He has been called both “the world’s most famous public intellectual” and “the stupid man’s smart person.” His most famous book is 12 Rules for Life, which is an unusual mix of existential philosophy and common sense pronouncements. The Economist reports that an entire Peterson industry has flourished around him: There is a Jordan Peterson newsletter (“Mondays of Meaning”), a “Peterson Academy ($500 a year gets you lectures on a variety of “manly” topics) and a “self-authorizing program.”

Assisted dying, the current phrase for active euthanasia, has until recently been a debate between the progressive idea of personal autonomy and the Christian idea of public morality. But, today there is less talk about the sanctity of life and the moral injury of suicide and more of a focus on notions of “safeguarding” and “informed consent.” In other words, Christian ethics rooted in the infinite value of human life is rarely a part of the debate. Let’s explore this issue in light of 21st century morality.

Over 30 years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his famous essay, “Defining Deviancy Down.” Bret Stephens summarizes his thesis: “Every society, the senator-scholar from New York argued, could afford to penalize only a certain amount of behavior it deemed ‘deviant.’ As the stock of such behavior increased—whether in the form of out-of-wedlock births, or mentally ill people living outdoors, or violence in urban streets—society would most easily adapt not by cracking down, but instead by normalizing what used to be considered unacceptable, immoral or outrageous.”