American Consequences

Andrew Ferguson

June 2019

The Upside of Dystopia

By Andrew Ferguson If I may begin on a personal note: I’m a veritable Little Mary Sunshine, all-star division. Show me a half-empty glass and I’ll swear it’s half-full. Show me an empty glass and I’ll show you how to fill it up halfway, never half...

April 2019

Green New Deal

Like What FDR Did, Except the Trees Get Social Security By Andrew Ferguson Among much else – reporter, humorist, analyst, a Yoda for the Upper West Side – the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman considers himself a phrase maker. One of his most...

February 2019

Do Dirty Socks Make You a Liberal?

The Social Sciences Strikes Again By Andrew Ferguson The vast majority of social psychologists – easily over 90%, by most estimates – count themselves on the left politically and culturally. So it’s no big surprise that gobs and gobs of social...

December 2018

Christmas: Inside Out

Why commercialization can’t kill the Spirit of Christmas By Andrew Ferguson If you asked me to name my favorite Christmas song – though I can’t imagine why on Earth you would do such a thing – I would offer a list with several songs clustered...

October 2018

Midterm Madness

SUPER BOWL FOR SCALLYWAGS By Andrew Ferguson The Republican Party has been synonymous, at least notionally, with political and cultural conservatism for two generations. Now it is synonymous with President Donald Trump – not “Trumpism,” because...

May 2018

The Social Sciences

In the summer of 2015, a group of well-credentialed researchers announced that they had tried to replicate the findings of the most influential experiments in the field of social psychology... and 61% of the attempted replications failed.

October 2017

Does Character Matter in Politics?

The relationship of character to politics was much in the news last year, as two candidates of – shall we say? – questionable character sought to lead us. Whether the character of our leaders truly matters is a question as old as the idea of self...