| Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with a focus on Memorial Day. At RealClearPolitics, John Waters reports on the “Gold Star Memorial Day Parade” in Columbia, Missouri. Organized by Sherry Wyatt, whose son was killed by an IED in Afghanistan, the parade was established to fill a noticeable gap on the morning of Memorial Day in the fourth-most populous city in Missouri, which stopped having annual parades in 2019. The Gold Star parade featured “vintage cars and hotrods, marching bands” – and “even the university’s prized ‘Missouri Mules’ spiffed up in ceremonial hitch.” Waters reports, “Of Boone County’s eight Gold Star families from the post-9/11 wars, six will be grand marshals leading the parade.” “In reviving the Memorial Day parade,” he notes, “Sherry hopes to share some of her affection for Columbia with a new generation, and to thank the community for helping her family survive the unthinkable.” In conclusion, Waters writes that, for Sherry, “Memorial Day isn’t just a three-day holiday but an occasion to be grateful for neighbors and country, to look on with awe and admiration at generations of young Americans who gave their lives, families, and futures for an ideal.” At Public Discourse, Richard Reinsch argues that “the progressive conception of executive power has become almost definitive for the presidency in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.” He contends that Americans of both parties rank presidents based on their command of our politics and the rhetoric they use. “All of this is happening, with only the vaguest of directions from Congress, the branch of government that the Constitution easily accords the widest berth of powers,” Reinsch writes. Instead of deliberation in Congress, which was a key feature of the Constitution as it was ratified, Congress watched during the time of COVID as a multitude of policies were set that they virtually had no hand in discussing. Reinsch urges Americans to “recover the unwritten premise of the founders’ constitutionalism: when man and power are joined without constraints that limit the use of government authority, the result is a mess.” In the News Bradley C.S. Watson, Civitas Institute John Danforth, RealClearPolitics Mark David Hall & Ernie Walton, Law & Liberty Robert Curry, RealClearEducation David J. Bobb, The Fulcrum Sabine Martin, Des Moines Register John O. McGinnis, Law & Liberty Richard M. Reinsch, Public Discourse John Fritze, CNN Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times Quinn Delamater, Daily Signal G.W. Bush Presidential Center John Johnson, Deseret News Michael Kazin, The New Republic John Waters, RealClearPolitics Retro Report The Trump administration is reviving a controversial budget tactic, putting a Nixon-era fight over presidential power and... Jack Miller Center As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we reflect on the vital role... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories Happy Earth Day, everyone! Today is the 55th anniversary of the home-grown American celebration. It's not a federal holiday, but ... Even if one considers Ibram X. Kendi's "antiracism" schtick an Orwellian scam, Robin DiAngelo's "white fragility" idiotic, and the whole "diversity, ... One of the joys of my childhood was exploring Yosemite National Park with my father. Anyone who has ever been ... | 
