![Edwards Mickey Aif2019](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b9bf7bc1-da63-43bb-bc91-2e4cc7ef97bc/Edwards_Mickey_AIF2019.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1330%2C97%2C1784%2C1784&w=290)
Mickey Edwards is a vice president of the Aspen Institute and program director of its Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership. He previously taught at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Edwards represented Oklahoma in the US House of Representatives from 1977 to 1992 and served in the House Republican leadership. He began his career in newspapers and public relations. Author of four books, including The Parties Versus the People and Reclaiming Conservatism, he has been a regular political columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune and is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Previously
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While the politics of gun reform remain divisive, many Americans are convinced that when it comes to gun violence, something has to change. Whether it’s getting more data abou...
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During the 2016 presidential campaign, some prominent Republicans — appalled by candidate Trump’s crude remarks, his chaotic campaign, and his ideological inconsistencies — pr...
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Trust in civic, religious, and academic institutions is at an all-time low in America. But this phenomenon did not, as some Americans might believe, begin on November 7, 2016....
![Dispatches from the Front Lines of American Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulla22360a7-f642-4150-a78d-72170060b638/35402107962_899b801855_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C89%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Americans speak with many voices, and nobody hears more of those voices than the people they elect to represent them and to fulfill the various tasks of governing. A member of...
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Featured Ideas Festival Scholar includes Liz Plank. A robust fourth estate is central to the education of an engaged citizenry and healthy democracy. It informs us, shapes our...
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Much has been written about the elections this year – about the candidates, their policies, their personalities. But there is another story of equal importance: about us. Am...
![Can We Reclaim Civitas in American Society?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null606de59d-5f85-4851-b328-57413c792851/27981458245_6b37492b19_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C42%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Faced with the upcoming general election, the United States has many hard choices ahead. Everything—from the country’s place in the world to the social contract between citize...
![The Choice 2016: What Does it Mean for Health and Health Care?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullda2e3e17-4e02-4496-8908-3c7f1d8d54ab/27267975414_7a8a789d81_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C37%2C1599%2C901&w=400)
The upcoming US presidential election is likely to have significant implications for health and health care. On the domestic front, the choice could influence efforts to overh...