Ford Leadership Forum

10/16/2024

Nice work, Hope chapter students! We are proud to see your Ford Forum chapter show fellow students the power of bipartisanship.

In a show of political unity, several groups from Hope College invited officials from Ottawa County to teach students and the public about how elections work.

08/23/2024

Have you been following our series on The Federalist papers? Part II just dropped this week.

"Hamilton’s theory is better than his practice, and his apparent hypocrisy shouldn’t dissuade us from embracing the recommended approach of being charitable toward our opponents and suspicious of ourselves..."

https://fordforum.org/2024/08/22/federalist-1/

by Jeff Polet, director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Last week we introduced our readers to The Federalist, that collection of essays essential to understanding the animating ideas and principles of American Constitutionalism. One of the distinctive features o...

08/15/2024

What do you look for in a leader? Gerald Ford stands as a prime example of the standard for excellence, if you ask us.

And one of our favorite virtues of President Ford? Good character. But that's only the beginning...

by Gleaves Whitney, executive director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation From August 6-9, the Ford celebrated the 50th anniversary of Gerald and Betty Ford becoming president and first lady of the United States. The museum opened a new exhibit on the Ford presidency and the foundation ho...

07/25/2024

"The 2023 American military budget of $916 billion is 38% of the world’s total military expenditures. We spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined," shares this week's Observer article.

Can we do anything about this? Will any of our partners step in to increase their own spending?

by William H. Volz and Rodney M. Lockwood Jr. In the 1980s, kudos were given to Ronald Reagan for introducing Star Wars technology that shielded America from nuclear attack and forced an expensive Soviet response. The innovative American missile defense system forced the Soviet leaders of a beleague...

07/11/2024

Have you heard of the Otis family in American history? Few have, despite their impact being key in the American Revolution.

According to Professor Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug, Mercy's 1788 pamphlet entitled “Observations on the New Constitution” is considered a lynchpin in securing the Bill of Rights.

And her brother Jemmy "was in many ways the beating heart and foremost mind among the Sons of Liberty, poised to become one of its central leaders as the movement for American independence gathered steam."

What happened to the Otis family? And what might have been if they had not faded from the stage?

by Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug, Hope College Most Americans know the mythology of the American Founding—its key events, characters, and narrative arc. However, few high school history classes examine the roads not taken in this particular historical moment, or the coincidences that altered its traje...

07/04/2024

President Ford had the unique opportunity of presiding during our nation's Bicentennial. What an experience! Today we are sharing the president's speech from July 4, 1976 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

"...But the struggle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is never truly won. Each generation of Americans, indeed of all humanity, must strive to achieve these aspirations anew. Liberty is a living flame to be fed, not dead ashes to be revered, even in a Bicentennial Year."

https://fordforum.org/2024/07/03/president-ford-bicentennial-speech/

06/20/2024

Do you ever turn on the TV or scroll through your phone and just feel overwhelmed and helpless? Well good news! This article gives you 49 ways can make a difference in helping make the world a better place, starting in your own community. (Starting in your own backyard?)

https://fordforum.org/2024/06/20/forty-nine-ways-to-fix-the-world-hint-start-locally/

(And if you're local to West Michigan, 616 Service is a great resource as well!)

By Timothy D. Kilbourn & Thom Shanker Crisis at the border. You fear the other guy will win the November election. Are we really talking about nuclear war with Russia, again, and maybe with China, too? Worried about the economy, your job security, your rent or mortgage increase, rising utilities, ex...

06/14/2024

On this Flag Day, we reflect on the words of our director, Jeff Polet:

"Our flag has evolved as our nation has evolved, not only in the sense that it has more stars on it, but in the sense that it represents something different now than it did 247 years ago... Despite the ways in which we’ve commodified it, profaned it, and ignored it, it still flies as a reminder not only of what we created ourselves to be but also what we might still become, if we are up to the task of becoming a people once again."

https://fordforum.org/2024/06/13/symbols-and-american-politics/

by Jeff Polet, director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Tomorrow, June 14th, is Flag Day. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States by the Second Continental Congress in 1777. As is typically the case the White House recently issued its Flag W...

06/06/2024

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a force. Before he became our 34th President, he was renowned for the difficult decisions he made regarding D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Today we remember the thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice on the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago, and hope we can learn from figures like Dwight D. Eisenhower on what it takes to be a great leader.

By Phillip G. Henderson June 6, 2024 marks the eightieth anniversary of the most important military operation in American history. The greatest amphibious landing in world history—D-Day—took place on the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. The anniversary should be remembered with vener...

05/23/2024

Normally, "middle" is an unwanted position. The middle is so...forgettable, right?

But "working from the middle is how democracy is meant to operate," shares Presidential Forum director Jeff Polet.

"Restoring the middle class is not only a matter of economic policy, it is also a matter of restoring the virtues and social norms and arrangements that made the American middle class the envy of the rest of the world."

by Jeff Polet, director of the Ford Leadership Forum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you. --Stealers Wheel Being in the middle has a bad reputation. Middle children often seem willful and resentful. Middle-of-...

05/23/2024

"Social morality is not something that can be mandated, but it also cannot be altered at will by political force. It is something that is instilled in us through a long, slow process of enculturation and practice..."

The latest Observer piece, by Louis Markos.

by Louis Markos, Houston Christian University Rousseau’s seemingly optimistic theory that man is good in nature (the “noble savage”) but is corrupted by private property and by traditional social, political, and ecclesiastical institutions proved disastrous, leading to the irrational and deadl...