Falling In Love With America Again

Serving within the supposed pinnacles of power as a respected and influential U.S. Senator from South Carolina, Jim DeMint often felt frustrated and powerless to fight against the frightening growth of the federal bureaucracy and refute the mistaken idea that ever-bigger government is the solution to the nation's problems. In his new role as president and CEO of The Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint has taken on the daunting responsibility of helping to lead Americans themselves to change their country's course, of redirecting us back to our founding principles and restoring and protecting our economy and culture for future generations. He realized that he - and all of us as fellow citizens - must fall in love with America - again. In this book, DeMint illustrates why Americans must rediscover the power, ingenuity and creativity of our little platoons. He then introduces Americans all across the country whose patriotism was nurtured in exactly the same way, recounting example after example of how they're working together locally in what he calls the "little platoons" - the families, churches, communities and voluntary organizations succeeding on the model that smaller is better. They are the hands-on citizens who make America the exceptional, caring and can-do country it has always been. DeMint illustrates why each of us - regardless of political party, age, race, religion or ethnicity - must rediscover the power we represent. The country's future is at risk, not just because of constant pressure from "the Bigs" (big government, big banks, big labor, big Wall Street cronies etc.), but because so many of us fear it's too late to solve problems so huge and seemingly intractable. Jim DeMint is here to reassure us that this is not true. In riveting yet plainspoken style, he tells real-life success stories and educates us via logical, historical and fact-based explanations of the issues (education, taxation, regulation, poverty, labor, health-care, environmentalism, Federalism and more). He affirms the compelling truth that conservative ideas are really American ideas, and they must guide us as we turn our institutions upside-down, taking them from the top-down centrally-controlled bureaucracies they've become back to the bottom-up democratic framework the Constitution intended. Through this heartfelt, fascinating and inspiring look inside the America of both yesterday and today, and the everyday citizens who are working tirelessly and selflessly to insure its future fulfills the promise of its beginnings, Jim DeMint is beckoning us to join him on one of the most meaningful and momentous journeys we have ever undertaken together: FALLING IN LOVE WITH AMERICA AGAIN.

In his new role as president and CEO of The Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint has travelled the country talking to Americans about how to return to our founding principles and restore and protect our economy and culture for future generations. He's realized that he-and all of us as fellow citizens-must fall in love with America-again. In this book, DeMint introduces Americans all across the country who are working towards the same goal, We see example after example of Americans coming together locally in what DeMint calls the "little platoons"-the families, churches, communities and voluntary organizations succeeding on the model that smaller is better. They are the hands-on citizens who make America the exceptional, caring and can-do country it has always been. DeMint illustrates why each of us-regardless of political party, age, race, religion or ethnicity-must rediscover the power we represent. The country's future is at risk, not just because of constant pressure from "the Bigs" (big government, big banks, big labor, big Wall Street cronies etc.), but because so many of us fear it's too late to solve problems so huge and seemingly intractable. Jim DeMint is here to reassure us that this is not true. In riveting yet plainspoken style, he tells real-life success stories and affirms the compelling truth that conservative ideas are really American ideas, and they must guide us as we turn our institutions upside-down, taking them from the top-down centrally-controlled bureaucracies they've become back to the bottom-up democratic framework the Constitution intended. Through this heartfelt, fascinating and inspiring look inside the America of both yesterday and today, and the everyday citizens who are working tirelessly and selflessly to insure its future fulfills the promise of its beginnings, Jim DeMint is beckoning us to join him on one of the most meaningful and momentous journeys we have ever undertaken together: FALLING IN LOVE WITH AMERICA AGAIN.

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

The public intellectual, as a person and ideal, has a long and storied history. Writing in venues like the New Republic and Commentary, such intellectuals were always expected to opine on a broad array of topics, from foreign policy to literature to economics. Yet in recent years a new kind of thinker has supplanted that archetype: the thought leader. Equipped with one big idea, thought leaders focus their energies on TED talks rather than highbrow periodicals. How did this shift happen? In The Ideas Industry, Daniel W. Drezner points to the roles of political polarization, heightened inequality, and eroding trust in authority as ushering in the change. In contrast to public intellectuals, thought leaders gain fame as single-idea merchants. Their ideas are often laudable and highly ambitious: ending global poverty by 2025, for example. But instead of a class composed of university professors and freelance intellectuals debating in highbrow magazines, thought leaders often work through institutions that are closed to the public. They are more immune to criticism--and in this century, the criticism of public intellectuals also counts for less. Three equally important factors that have reshaped the world of ideas have been waning trust in expertise, increasing political polarization and plutocracy. The erosion of trust has lowered the barriers to entry in the marketplace of ideas. Thought leaders don't need doctorates or fellowships to advance their arguments. Polarization is hardly a new phenomenon in the world of ideas, but in contrast to their predecessors, today's intellectuals are more likely to enjoy the support of ideologically friendly private funders and be housed in ideologically-driven think tanks. Increasing inequality as a key driver of this shift: more than ever before, contemporary plutocrats fund intellectuals and idea factories that generate arguments that align with their own. But, while there are certainly some downsides to the contemporary ideas industry, Drezner argues that it is very good at broadcasting ideas widely and reaching large audiences of people hungry for new thinking. Both fair-minded and trenchant, The Ideas Industry will reshape our understanding of contemporary public intellectual life in America and the West.

**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** From one of the most followed booktubers today, comes Again, but Better, a story about second chances, discovering yourself, and being brave enough to try again. Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents...sounds ideal -- but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance...what’s that? Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change -- there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure! Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart. Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic - the possibilities are endless.

A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and currently Acting Senior Vice President for Research at The Heritage Foundation, Kim R. Holmes surveys the state of liberalism in America today and finds that it is becoming its opposite—illiberalism—abandoning the precepts of open-mindedness and respect for individual rights, liberties, and the rule of law upon which the country was founded, and becoming instead an intolerant, rigidly dogmatic ideology that abhors dissent and stifles free speech. Tracing the new illiberalism historically to the radical Enlightenment, a movement that rejected the classic liberal ideas of the moderate Enlightenment that were prominent in the American Founding, Holmes argues that today’s liberalism has forsaken its American roots, incorporating instead the authoritarian, anti-clerical, and anti-capitalist prejudices of the radical and largely European Left. The result is a closing of the American liberal mind. Where once freedom of speech and expression were sacrosanct, today liberalism employs speech codes, trigger warnings, boycotts, and shaming rituals to stifle freedom of thought, expression, and action. It is no longer appropriate to call it liberalism at all, but illiberalism—a set of ideas in politics, government, and popular culture that increasingly reflects authoritarian and even anti-democratic values, and which is devising new strategies of exclusiveness to eliminate certain ideas and people from the political process. Although illiberalism has always been a temptation for American liberals, lurking in the radical fringes of the Left, it is today the dominant ideology of progressive liberal circles. This makes it a new danger not only to the once venerable tradition of liberalism, but to the American nation itself, which needs a viable liberal tradition that pursues social and economic equality while respecting individual liberties.

Humor and polemics from one of America's most quotable pundits. A call for renewal and a howl of laughter and derision at the woke mob that seeks to stand in the way of a great nation's patriotic resurgence. Fans of Mark Levin, Matt Walsh, and Ben Shapiro will love it! In 1991, the smoldering ruins of Saddam Hussein’s regime testified to America’s unchallenged might. Having defeated one of the world’s largest armies in a matter of days, the United States looked forward to a new century of peace and prosperity. Thirty years later, a ragtag Taliban chased us out of Afghanistan in a humiliating rout. At home, our cities are cesspools of homelessness and crime. The former land of opportunity seems to be in irreversible decline. How did we suffer such an unimaginable fall? And is our current impotence permanent? With his trademark wit, Kurt Schlichter—warrior, lawyer, and commentator—makes a compelling case that America’s decline is not irreversible. No Pollyanna, he offers a sobering catalogue of the dangers ahead, from subjugation to China to the poverty of socialism. Even civil war. But Schlichter was among the U.S. forces that took down the tyrant of Iraq in 1991. Having seen American greatness in action and appreciating the virtues that produced it, he knows that decline is a choice—a choice that we need not make. Sometimes mordant, often humorous, always incisive, Schlichter shows that our resilience is far from spent. American society is uniquely blessed with the ingredients of greatness. A pushback is coming. Schlichter offers no guarantees but something more important—hope.

Eighteen-year-old maid Tess Davies is determined to escape the wealthy, troubled family she serves. It’s 1912, and Tess has been trapped in the employ of the Lisles for years, amid painful memories and twisted secrets. But now the Lisle family is headed to America, with Tess in tow. Once the ship they’re sailing on—the RMS Titanic—reaches its destination, Tess plans to strike out and create a new lifefor herself. Her single-minded focus shatters when she meets Alec, a handsome first-class passenger who captivates her instantly. But Alec has secrets of his own. He’s in a hurry to leave Europe, and whispers aboard the ship say it’s because of the tragic end of his last affair with the French actress who died so gruesomely and so mysteriously. . . . Soon Tess will learn just how dark Alec’s past truly is. The danger they face is no ordinary enemy: werewolves exist and are stalking him—and now her, too. Her growing love for Alec will put Tess in mortal peril, and fate will do the same before their journey on the Titanic is over. In Fateful, New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray delivers paranormal adventure, dark suspense, and alluring romance set against the opulent backdrop of the Titanic’s first—and last—voyage.