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Scott Powell

Scott Powell is senior fellow at Seattle-based Discovery Institute and managing partner at RemingtonRand LLC.
Reach him at scottp@discovery.org

Most Recent Articles by Scott Powell:

Cancel Culture: Its Origins and Implications for America

Cancel Culture: Its Origins and Implications for AmericaAs Americans we have had it good for so long that we often take important things for granted until they are about to be taken away. As recently as five or six years ago, who would have thought that America’s dominant social media platforms, such as Facebook, Google-You Tube, or Twitter would assault their host country’s First Amendment rights by engaging in the silencing of a huge number of its users through censorship, cancellation and deplatforming? Of all the impediments to America’s progress on every front, censorship and the cancel culture probably rank right at the top. Many of the younger generation accept cancel culture as being part of depersonalized relationships that social media has fostered. It seems many have gotten used to cyberbullying and the flippant cancellation of people, ideas and relationships—all facilitated with just a few clicks.
- Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Our 1776—Red Sea Moment

Our 1776—Red Sea MomentAll of us want to figure things out and understand what is going down.  Everything in America’s capitol is now surreal and yet real.  The facts of Joe Biden’s family corruption involving large payments resulting from questionable business activities with high profile people in foreign countries—and particularly with CCP people in China—are now well-known.  The facts of Joe Biden’s fraudulent election and preparations for an illegitimate inauguration are now on display for all to see.  
- Thursday, January 21, 2021

Will it be THE HAMMER or the Constitution that Determines the People’s Vote?

Will it be THE HAMMER or the Constitution that Determines the People’s Vote?The only source of legitimacy of government in America is from the people. At the time of the founding of the United States, Samuel Adams stated, “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that…he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
- Friday, November 13, 2020

How the Hunter Biden laptop reveals pervasive corruption that’s destroying America

How the Hunter Biden laptop reveals pervasive corruption that’s destroying AmericaOh, those pesky laptop computers, and the problems they create for corrupt politicians in election years! Just two or three weeks prior to the Presidential election in 2016, it was files on the Anthony Weiner laptop that became public as the subject of an FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton, which helped seal defeat in her 2016 Presidential bid. Now less than two weeks before the 2020 Presidential election, information retrieved from the hard drive of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop revealing international money laundering and politically corrupt deals struck with the Chinese using the Biden name—with new details breaking every day—could and should doom the Presidential candidacy of Joe Biden.
- Monday, October 26, 2020

The November Election: a Return to Civilization or More Chaos and Decline

The November Election: a Return to Civilization or More Chaos and DeclineSurveying the urban war zones, property destruction and the shuttered and bankrupt businesses across so many American cities from lawless rioters and extended Covid-19 shutdowns imposed by feckless political leaders, many wonder, “Just how did we get here, and will we ever regain normalcy?” Those two questions loom over the November election, but what’s really at stake is a choice between civilization and chaos.
- Saturday, September 12, 2020

Crushing the Barbarians Inside the Gates

Crushing the Barbarians Inside the GatesMore and more Americans are being forced out of denial to face the reality that their country is on verge of being lost, with the barbarians not only inside the gates, but driving policy for the rest of us.
- Thursday, August 13, 2020

George Washington’s Prophetic Warnings About Enemies Within

George Washington’s Prophetic  Warnings About Enemies WithinPresident Trump just delivered the 2020 convocation speech at West Point, congratulating the cadet graduates and reminding the world that the U.S. has rebuilt its military forces with such high-tech capability as to have unchallenged superiority in any theatre. While the President’s speech was entirely appropriate, it is ironic that it comes at a time when it’s wholly apparent to most observers that America’s greatest threat now is not external, but internal. And while the response to the recent urban chaos and violence requires more effective National Guard, police action and law enforcement tactics, strategically what is most important are soft power initiatives that invalidate false narratives and reduce misunderstanding and division in the country, which would in turn diminish issues and opportunities for exploitation by bad actors.
- Tuesday, June 16, 2020

America needs a New Declaration of Equal Justice under the Law

America needs a New Declaration of Equal Justice under the LawIn prior times of war, crisis, suffering and loss of life from causes outside the U.S., Americans of both parties would pull together and focus on what can be done to quickly help, alleviate and solve the problem. No longer. The COVID-19 crisis provides us a window into our national social and spiritual health, and what we see from much of America’s Left as expressed in the media and Democrat Party reveals a degree and strain of moral impoverishment we haven’t seen before.
- Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Is America on a Slippery Slope to Becoming a Banana Republic?

Is America on a Slippery Slope to Becoming a Banana Republic?Who would have ever thought the United States could lose its way and find itself on a slippery slope to becoming a banana republic in which political power is typically determined by coups rather than elections? But it appears that many in the Democrat Party are willing to go down this road and risk the nation’s continuity and stability in a desperate effort to regain power and control.
- Friday, November 22, 2019

Like Him or Not, Trump is Uniquely Suited for Such a Time as This

Like Him or Not, Trump is Uniquely Suited for Such a Time as ThisWith the constant drumbeat from the mainstream media, Democrats now hope that the whirlwind in Washington of the so-called impeachment investigation will spread so much smoke that people won’t be able to see what’s going on, except to subliminally conclude that with all that smoke around Donald Trump, there must be a fire, and that it’ll die down with his removal from office.
- Sunday, October 20, 2019

Whether a Con or a Hit Job, the Kavanaugh Saga is Revealing

Whether a Con or a Hit Job, the Kavanaugh Saga is Revealing Was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Judge Brett Kavanaugh a total con job? It had all the earmarks of an 11th hour ambush, facilitated by the irrelevance of the lack of corroborating evidence, a predictable presumption of guilt ginned up by a media that feeds sensationalism and mob rule, and the calculated protection of the impenetrable shield of the MeToo movement. It almost worked.
- Thursday, October 11, 2018

The Whirlwind is Already Here

The Whirlwind is Already Here In Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee to refute the unsubstantiated allegations by Christine Blasey Ford regarding an alleged sexual assault 36 years ago, he charged the Democratic senators on the committee with sowing “the wind for decades to come…[and]…the whole country will reap the whirlwind.”
- Monday, October 1, 2018

Constitution Day, the Most Important Commemoration of 2018

Constitution Day Constitution Day, which falls on September 17, is the national observance holiday that most Americans have never heard of. Yet this year, 2018, it may well be our most important holiday. For the Constitution is threatened more now than at any time since seven southern states seceded from Union and Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861.
- Friday, September 14, 2018

Labor Day, the Holiday in Need of an Update

Labor Day, the Holiday in Need of an Update Among American holidays, Labor Day is probably the one in most need of an update. The idea of a “labor day holiday” was conceived in the 1880s by union labor leaders who sought recognition for the social and economic achievements of American workers. Finally in 1894, U.S. Congress voted to establish Labor Day as a national holiday to celebrate workers and their contributions to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the country.
- Saturday, September 1, 2018


The Big Picture behind Memorial Day

The Big Picture behind Memorial Day Memorial Day had its origin as Decoration Day following the Civil War, but it only became an official federal holiday to honor those who lost their lives while serving in the armed forces of the United States in 1971.
- Monday, May 28, 2018

Results and Substance Trump Form and Appearance

Results and Substance Trump Form and Appearance Preoccupation with form over substance combined with denial and avoidance behavior are the chief causal factors for human failure—from the individual and family right up to the national level.
- Friday, May 11, 2018

The Day that Transformed the World Forever

The Day that Transformed the World Forever Of all holidays, Easter is the one that celebrates a single event that transformed the world forever. There are many religions with different founders, prophets and teachers going back thousands of years, but only one of them has a founder who professed to be the messiah—the son of God who could save mankind.
- Friday, March 30, 2018

Valentine's Day Wake-up Call from Parkland

Valentine's The Valentine's Day massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was the latest in a series of mass school shootings dating back to the Columbine, Colorado shooting in 1999. Evoking shock, these tragedies inevitably prompt a call to pray for the victims and their families.
- Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Democracy’s Highest Crime and Misdemeanor

Democracy’s Highest Crime and Misdemeanor In his Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln reminded Americans that they were uniquely privileged to have a new birth of freedom that was contingent on “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That was then. What about now?
- Tuesday, January 30, 2018

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