Patrick Garry column
Patrick Garry is a professor of law at the University of South Dakota, and Director of the Hagemann Center for Legal & Public Policy Research.
He has published ten books, including Wrestling With God: The Court's Tortuous Treatment of Religion and An Entrenched Legacy: How the New Deal Constitutional Revolution Continues to Shape the Role of the Supreme Court (Penn State University Press).
He is a frequent speaker on conservative legal and political issues, and has delivered invited lectures at more than 60 universities. His popular audience essays and articles have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Washington Times, Cincinnati Post, Indianapolis News, Commonweal, and the Omaha World-Herald.
He has also been interviewed on dozens of radio and television programs.
He has published ten books, including Wrestling With God: The Court's Tortuous Treatment of Religion and An Entrenched Legacy: How the New Deal Constitutional Revolution Continues to Shape the Role of the Supreme Court (Penn State University Press).
He is a frequent speaker on conservative legal and political issues, and has delivered invited lectures at more than 60 universities. His popular audience essays and articles have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Washington Times, Cincinnati Post, Indianapolis News, Commonweal, and the Omaha World-Herald.
He has also been interviewed on dozens of radio and television programs.
Subscribe to Patrick's columnPatrick Garry
July 6, 2023
Whenever I have acted out of fear or anger, I have made mistakes—sometimes serious mistakes. Whenever I have embraced gratitude as a guiding principle of . . .
Patrick Garry
April 14, 2022
American liberals effusively praise the courage and perseverance of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion. Ironically, however, the entire thrust of . . .
Patrick Garry
March 28, 2022
If one listens closely enough, one hears the faint but steady hum of envy buzzing through American society. The envy is directed toward Ukraine, a country . . .
Patrick Garry
February 9, 2022
The media does not enjoy an exalted position in public opinion. Polls continue to show an eroding confidence in the American media. Without question, the . . .
Patrick Garry
February 4, 2022
The great face mask conflict has been raging for nearly two years. It shows no signs of weakening or disappearing. Instead, it has become the most intense . . .
Patrick Garry
January 29, 2022
The divisions in American society keep building, despite all the talk of tolerance and unity. Divisions between the genders, as well as between the gendered . . .
Patrick Garry
January 14, 2022
Voter identification and election integrity laws, according to Democrats like Kamala Harris, pose the gravest danger to American democracy. Not only are . . .
Patrick Garry
January 8, 2022
We never tire of hearing the Nativity story about the birth of Christ. It is perhaps the most beloved of all biblical stories. And its power and inspiration . . .
Patrick Garry
December 28, 2021
The political Left in America has its roots in dissent. It arose as a dissent against the prevailing norms, ideology, and institutions in American society. . . .
Patrick Garry
January 18, 2021
That is a question all conservatives seem to be asking. With the most socialist-sounding Democratic Party in history controlling the presidency and both houses . . .
Patrick Garry
October 12, 2020
No serious argument can be made today against the importance of diversity, the value of facilitating diversity, and the need to protect the rights of the . . .
Patrick Garry
May 10, 2016
As reflected by the dramatic growth of government into new spheres of social and economic life during periods of "progressive" governance, progressives believe . . .
Patrick Garry
September 30, 2015
Pope Francis came to America as the head of the Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ, and a committed advocate for the poor. And he delivered to Congress a . . .
Patrick Garry
May 8, 2015
Conservatism stands for something much larger than public policy prescriptions, government structure, and individual rights. It stands for a uniquely American . . .
Patrick Garry
April 30, 2015
America is a country of immigrants, but that immigration historically occurred within an enforced national policy on immigration. The arrival of immigrants to . . .
Patrick Garry
April 20, 2015
The Obama presidency has demonstrated a fundamental difference between modern liberalism and conservatism. As reflected by Obama's dramatic extension of . . .
Patrick Garry
April 2, 2015
An article I wrote twenty years ago described the Internet as America's next frontier. And for the past twenty years, it has been a wide-open, innovative, . . .
Patrick Garry
March 25, 2015
For the past six years, conservatives have been on the defensive, opposing various aspects of the Obama agenda. But now that Republicans control both houses of . . .
Patrick Garry
March 20, 2015
It is generally agreed that the most important social mobility function a government can perform – or promote – is education. In an open society, . . .
Patrick Garry
February 25, 2015
The conservative opposition to Obamacare is well documented, as are the problems with the law and the unpopularity of it. With each passing day, the American . . .
Patrick Garry
January 23, 2015
Perhaps the clearest distinction between the liberal and conservative political philosophies lies in their respective focus on government as the essential . . .
Patrick Garry
January 19, 2015
The argument used by liberals since the New Deal is that a bigger federal government is a necessary aid to the poor and the average American. It is as if . . .
Patrick Garry
January 1, 2015
Job creation at every level. The ability of every parent to choose the school his or her child attends. A greater mobility for those at the bottom rungs of . . .
Patrick Garry
December 15, 2014
A wide array of issues and controversies dominate the political terrain, but none is as important as the health and future of the middle class. A strong middle . . .
Patrick Garry
December 2, 2014
Throughout the Obama era, the issue of income inequality has been a central tool of political strategizing. Liberals have used the issue as a sword against . . .
Patrick Garry
November 20, 2014
The traditional conservative economic approach has often been a reaction to an intrusive and suffocating liberal approach. It has advocated less government . . .
Patrick Garry
November 3, 2014
With the 2014 election season coming to an end, conservatives must transition from the campaigning to the governance mode. Throughout the campaign season, a . . .
Patrick Garry
April 4, 2014
Religion continues to take a beating in the political arena. In the wake of Governor Brewer's recent veto of the Arizona law providing legal protections to . . .
Patrick Garry
February 28, 2014
Modern conservatism may be in a process of transformation. Ever since the 2012 elections, more and more conservatives have been calling for a revival of the . . .
Patrick Garry
January 24, 2014
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is historic in several ways. It marks an unprecedented expansion of an over-indebted federal government into every aspect of a . . .
Patrick Garry
January 2, 2013
There has been no shortage of analysis, advice, and accusations among conservatives over the 2012 presidential election. Much of that analysis and advice . . .
Patrick Garry
October 25, 2012
In other elections, with an incumbent in the position now occupied by President Obama, the challenger would be polling much better than Governor Romney is. . . .
Patrick Garry
September 15, 2012
Our electronic media culture supports an ever-shortening attention span. It focuses all attention on the immediate, the here and now. The past seems to . . .
Patrick Garry
July 30, 2012
The term "big government" gets volleyed continually over the net of political dialogue. It generally relates to debates over the public budget and deficit, but . . .
Patrick Garry
June 1, 2012
There are two promises that modern liberalism asserts — two images about itself that it propagates. First, that it strives to fulfill the communal bonds . . .
Patrick Garry
April 16, 2012
In his emerging re-election campaign, President Obama's message is becoming clear and simple: be afraid, be very afraid of those heartless conservatives. What . . .
Patrick Garry
April 7, 2012
The healthcare law, promoted and pushed by the Obama administration, was recently litigated before the Supreme Court. Because the constitutionality of this law . . .
Patrick Garry
March 5, 2012
The Obama administration has been preaching the language of social redistribution ever since it assumed leadership of the federal government. Indeed, President . . .
Patrick Garry
February 27, 2012
The framers' belief in limited government pervades the entire constitutional structure. It is the continuous theme of The Federalist Papers. Until the New . . .
Patrick Garry
January 17, 2012
Politics in contemporary America does not operate in a realm of wide consensus, and there are few restraints on the conflict that so often erupts in the . . .
Patrick Garry
December 16, 2011
Regarding the current political debate over government tax and spending issues, there are several points on which all conservatives agree.
First, the federal . . .
Patrick Garry
December 4, 2011
Despite the abysmal record of President Obama and the struggling economy, polls show that middle and working-class Americans still view the Democratic Party . . .
Patrick Garry
October 22, 2011
The issue currently dominating the political spotlight is the tax-on-the-wealthy issue. It has become the pillar of President Obama's re-election campaign. It . . .
Patrick Garry
July 9, 2011
With federal budget talks at a tense and near urgent stage, perhaps it is important to remember that spending levels and budget deficits are not the only . . .
Patrick Garry
July 3, 2011
In two decisions announced this week, the Supreme Court's liberal wing shows a curious and seemingly inconsistent stance toward First Amendment freedoms. In . . .
Patrick Garry
June 16, 2011
We live in a time of dire predictions and warnings. The newspapers and television talk shows teem with prognostications of doom. There is no shortage of . . .
Patrick Garry
June 14, 2011
Ever since the 2010 elections, with the prominent role of the Tea Party, there has been much discussion about big, centralized government.
Conservatives, . . .
Patrick Garry
May 31, 2011
Republicans seem to be on the defensive in the debate over Medicare and the federal budget deficit. They are being branded extremists willing and eager to shut . . .
Patrick Garry
May 13, 2011
The advice of my grandmother, whom no one would call a spontaneous optimist, was: Be careful of success, because there's always a failure somewhere in it.
. . .
Patrick Garry
April 16, 2011
There are three incontrovertible facts concerning the federal budget and the government health care entitlement programs. First, each is in a crisis state. . . .
Patrick Garry
April 5, 2011
Short memories come from short attention spans, which in our hyper-active media age can be quite short. And it is short memories that perpetuate hypocrisy.
. . .
Patrick Garry
March 19, 2011
Even in this often bitterly divisive partisan atmosphere, there is one value that transcends all partisan division. Notwithstanding all the ideological . . .
Patrick Garry
February 23, 2011
A great struggle is taking place in Wisconsin. And it is not just over the projected $3.6 billion state budget deficit; it is over the integrity and . . .
Patrick Garry
January 11, 2011
There is only one thing that at this time should be said about the shootings in Arizona. It is a horrible act of evil, in which the lives of 6 innocent people . . .
Patrick Garry
December 18, 2010
Most Republican members of Congress are celebrating the tax bill signed last Friday by President Obama. This bill provides a two-year extension for the Bush . . .
Patrick Garry
November 9, 2010
One thing is clear from last week's elections: the vote in 2008 was about changing the party and people running the government; it was not about changing . . .
Patrick Garry
October 20, 2010
This may end up being a very special election. Not just a momentous or dramatic one. But an election about how special America is.
A momentous election . . .
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
