Donald Devine Seminars

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Dr. Donald Devine, author, columnist and TFAS Senior Scholar leads TFAS's Future of Freedom Initiative. Read about the latest program below.

Donald Devine Seminars

Dr. Donald Devine is a columnist, author and a senior scholar at The Fund for American Studies. Devine served as President Ronald Reagan’s civil service director during the president’s first term in office. During that time, The Washington Post labeled him Reagan’s “terrible swift sword of the civil service” for cutting bureaucrats and reducing billions in spending. Today, Devine travels the country teaching Constitutional Leadership Seminars to young people and speaking to groups about reviving the Constitution and saving the marriage between libertarianism and traditionalism.

Devine spells out the solution for the modern GOP – a fusion of the best of conservative ideas with those of the liberty movement, all rooted in the Constitution.” – Senator Rand Paul

About Dr. Donald Devine

Before and after his government service, Devine was an academic who taught for 14 years as an associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and for a decade as a professor of Western civilization at Bellevue University. He is a columnist and author of 11 books, including his most recent “Ronald Reagan’s Enduring Principles: How They Can Promote Political Success Today.” Devine served as an advisor to Reagan from 1976 to 1985, to Sen. Bob Dole from 1988–1996 and to Steve Forbes between 1998–2000.

Book Dr. Devine

If you’re interested in scheduling Dr. Donald Devine to speak at your event, please contact Jane Mack at jmack@TFAS.org. For media inquiries, please contact Kristin Underwood at info@TFAS.org or 202.986.0384.

Twitter

Follow Dr. Donald Devine on Twitter at @DonaldDevinCo1.

Op-Eds by Dr. Donald Devine

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The American Spectator - 8.20.24

A Political and Ideological Scoreboard of the Right to Separate the Sheep from the Goats

As a conservative lecturer and symposium leader, no question is asked of me more by students and activists than: “How do the different ideological factions relate to one another”? They want a political spectrum scorecard to straighten things out.

The American Spectator - 7.10.24

Teaching the Constitution in a World Without Books

An important conservative intellectual was here teaching an attentive post-graduate audience about the contributions of a dozen intellectual leaders of the early conservative movement. But it soon became obvious from the questions posed to him that the students were confused.

The American Spectator - 6.29.24

The Media Is Clueless About Shift Toward ‘Populism’

David Brooks is the regular alternative voice discussing politics and public affairs for the government-supported Public Broadcasting Service’s News Hour. He is a regular columnist for the New York Times, a former editor for The Weekly Standard (from its inception), and a contributing editor to progressive Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly.

The American Spectator - 5.21.24

It’s Time to End the Anti-Democracy Myth: Trump Must Reform the Insurrection Act

Anglo-American tradition long ago set the principle that law should be enforced locally — the idea that the county sheriff and able-bodied local private citizens were the prime institutions for maintaining public order. In England, service on what was called the “posse comitatus” was mandatory, and refusal to serve meant loss of citizenship. As power became more centralized, the posse remained a major colonial institution that kept order and controlled insurrection.

The American Spectator - 4.14.24

New Ways of War and Meeting the Human Challenge

The war in Ukraine has had one positive effect. It is waking up our defense establishment to the fact that we are still fighting the last (lost) wars. Success today demands recognizing that technology creates new problems that require human spirit more than artificial intelligence.

Modern Age – A Conservative Review - 4.2.24

Are Straussians Fusionists?

Claremont Institute research fellow Glenn Ellmers has written an insider book delving into the hidden messages of the great philosopher Leo Strauss and his West Coast Straussian students, led by the late irascible debater and theorist Harry Jaffa. Ellmers challenges what most twentieth-century theorists thought they knew about Strauss, especially his most famous claim that knowledge comes either from Athens or Jerusalem—reason or revelation—but not both.

The American Spectator - 3.29.24

Promoting Everyday Freedom Requires Rewriting the Rule Books

What would you think about a Washington insider who was a partner in a big D.C. lobbyist law firm called Covington & Burling, the founder of a self-identified “nonpartisan” advocacy group called Common Good, and was a self-described “radical centrist,” whose main goal was to reform government administration to make it more effective? Your first impression would probably be wrong.

The American Spectator – 2.17.24

Apples and Oranges: Mixing Atheists, Agnostics and Nothings

The highly regarded Pew Research Center has released its latest analysis of the religious beliefs of Americans and consequently acquired its usual major media headlines. The Washington Post print version led: “Nones — nonreligious Americans — increasing in U.S.”

The American Spectator - 1.15.24

Does Economic Recession Loom in Our Future?

The first 2024 Wall Street Journal front page headline set a euphoric economic outlook for the coming new year: “Optimism Flows on Wall Street, Fueled by Economy, Rise of AI.” With the “S&P 500 within 0.6% of a record high,” what could go wrong?

The American Spectator - 12.19.23

Confronting the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Backward-Looking Bureaucracy Trap

Former Secretary of State and White House national security administrator Henry Kissinger’s last service for his country was to warn his fellow Americans that substituting artificial intelligence for real human intelligence was “simply a mad race” toward “catastrophe.”