| Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal leads off with a new series at RealClearPolitics called “Disputed Questions,” which is designed to bring notable writers, thinkers, policy analysts, and political commentators of diverse viewpoints together to discuss and debate, with civility, the great issues of our time. In the first installment of this series, Professors Lee Drutman, Daniel DiSalvo, and Steven Teles debate the merits of America’s two-party system. Drutman argues that we should abandon the two-party system and instead embrace “major structural reforms to make multiparty democracy possible in America.” Meanwhile, DiSalvo and Teles question this arugment and contend, in different ways, for reforms to our existing political system. Teles, for instance, posits that more factionalized parties, which would be composed of smaller groups with differing ideological commitments, are “our constitutional order’s substitute for multipartyism.” “We should embrace and enable them – rather than dream of more radical reforms with theoretical advantages but no anchor in our constitutional practice,” Teles concludes. Elliott Drago of the Jack Miller Center commemorates the 174th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, which he describes as “the origin of the women's suffrage movement and a landmark event in our historical journey to realize the promises of the Declaration of Independence.” Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, over 200 women and men gathered in upstate New York to read “The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments,” a treatise drafted by Stanton that grounded its argument of political equality between the sexes on the Declaration’s promise that all human beings are created equal. At the Washington Examiner, Quin Hillyer argues that Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and James Madison’s Montpelier “are on a malevolent mission to trash the reputations of those two great founders.” As evidence, he points to the Independence Day message posted on Montpelier’s website, which he says discusses racism and slavery but does not mention “why we celebrate the Fourth of July.” “No decent person wants the reality of slavery to be swept under the historical rug,” Hillyer writes. “Still, to posit that slavery is the single lens through which to view U.S. history is flagrantly dishonest.” Original Posts Elliott Drago, RealClearAmericanCivics Essential Reading Lee Drutman, Daniel DiSalvo, & Steven Teles, RealClearPolitics Is America headed for a second civil war? To judge from recent columns, books, and polls on the topic, we might be. If violence is... In the News Jonathan Turley, Washington Times Isabel Olmos, Miami Herald Jay Schalin, James G. Martin Center Joerg Knipprath, Constituting America Robert S. McElvaine, Salon Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal Julian Adorney, Foundation for Economic Education Kellen Quigley, Salamanca Press Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today Samuel Postell, Constituting America Lee Habeeb & Vince Benedetto, Newsweek James Hankins, Law & Liberty Brooke Migdon, The Hill Samuel Postell, Constituting America Quin Hillyer, Washington Examiner RealClearPodcasts For years, but especially in recent times, many political observers have bemoaned the fact that American voters face a binary... Ashbrook You can see the symptoms of America’s crisis all around. Too many Americans — especially young people — do not understand or... Steven Smith, Keeping It Civil Steven Smith is a political philosopher at Yale. His most recent book, “Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes,” makes the... Robert George, Prager U Winning the War of Independence brought a new challenge to the American people: what sort of government should they choose... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories Good morning, it's Friday, July 15, 2022, the day of the week when I pass along a quotation intended to ... On this date in 1895, Oscar Hammerstein was born in New York City. Although his grandfather, a Jewish German immigrant, ... On this date in 1918, a young man from the Chicago suburbs was wounded in Italy fighting in the Great ... | 