I’ll always remember summer 2024 as the first “real-world summer” of my adult life—the summer I fundamentally changed how I interact with my smartphone. I left social media behind in 2022, but according to my screen-time reports, I was still spending around two hours a day on my phone. Two hours. I have a full-time job and two kids. Surely I could have been doing something else with all that time! As a mom of young children and a high school teacher, I’ve always paid attention to the research that suggests screens, smartphones, and social media negatively affect children’s development. Targeted ads, algorithms, and bottomless feeds always bothered me. This summer, the surgeon general’s warning about social media use for children gave me hope that my kids might have a better future with technology. But I wondered about myself. How was my smartphone affecting my life—in particular, my relationship with the Lord? In June, I asked myself two simple questions: How “unsmart” could I make my smartphone? And how would less dependence on my phone change me? Swiss Army Phone As a teenager, I owned a tiny pink Swiss Army knife, a collection of tools including miniature tweezers and those springy little scissors I can still picture squeezing between my thumb and index finger. I wondered if I could turn my smartphone into a Swiss Army knife of sorts: a simple tool instead of the scrolling, energy draining, magnetically time-wasting force it had become. It was hard, but I whittled away my apps. Anything with a bottomless feed that kept me scrolling had to go. I still had my laptop, so if I could convert something to a computer-only task, designated to limited times of the day, I did. Social media was already gone, but email, my internet browser (yes, no more Google on my phone), and online shopping apps including my beloved Amazon didn’t make the cut. I kept only utilitarian apps like weather forecasts, banking, and maps, which served as tools in my modern-day Swiss Army knife. I had to untether myself from my smartphone in other ways too. I turned off all notifications except for text messages, switched my phone to grayscale, and began utilizing the “Do Not Disturb” settings. I bought a phone stand for my foyer to help me treat my smartphone more like a landline instead of an extra appendage, following me from room to room. I purchased an alarm clock for my nightstand and plugged my phone in across the room at night. No more scrolling before bed or first thing in the morning. Back Into the Real World It took me a few weeks to get used to my new life in the real world, especially my life without the whole internet in my pocket. But as time went on, I became more and more detached from the online world and more present in the real world. As my screen time plummeted, my attention span lengthened, especially for spiritual practices like prayer and studying God’s Word. I enjoyed moments of actual silence. My memory improved. I was bored and had to deal with my boredom without my smartphone’s help. The persistent low-level feelings of anxiety and depression I’d felt for years diminished significantly. I slept better than I had in my entire adult life. As my screen time plummeted, my attention span lengthened, especially for spiritual practices like prayer and studying God’s Word. I’d felt a difference in all these areas when I quit social media, but the change was even greater now that I’d downgraded my whole smartphone. Still, the best part of my “real-world summer” was how it changed my relationship with Jesus. Focusing on Jesus The first and most important change I observed when I finally set myself free from my phone was the improvement in my ability to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice. Try as we may, humans can’t actually do two things at once. If my mind is constantly distracted by the screen in front of me, it isn’t focused on hearing from the Spirit, who guides me to the rich relationship God desires to have with me. Turning off the booming volume of the entire world coming through my phone has allowed me to hear more clearly the one most precious and most important voice of my Savior. Second, I’ve become profoundly aware that God is the Creator of the world and I’m his creature. He’s all-knowing, and my knowledge should and does have limits. Leaving the house every day without the ability to Google the answer to every question that comes to mind has reminded me of my dependence on my omniscient Creator. The 17 years I spent on social media provided the illusion I could keep up with hundreds of friends if I just kept scrolling, when in fact my capacity for relationships is finite and should be reserved for the people God has placed in my “real life” in-person circles. Third, I’ve meditated far more on 1 Thessalonians 4:11: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life” (NIV). A quiet life. A life that’s not for the followers, not for the likes, not for the dopamine shot that comes with a successful post. It’s a life where Google isn’t the omniscient being who can answer all my questions—God is. It’s rediscovering my Creator’s majesty by taking in the beauty of the real world all around me, not in the pictures I see on a screen. It’s giving the people I love, especially my husband and children, the full attention they need and deserve and allowing my mind to reset after years of smartphone-induced rewiring. Different Standard Romans 12 tells Christians who are in the world not to be conformed to it. In a world where smartphone dependence is the gold standard, believers have the unique opportunity to be different. Turning off the booming volume of the entire world coming through my phone has allowed me to hear more clearly the one most precious and most important voice of my Savior. We have the opportunity to choose less online connection in exchange for more in-person connection. We can wonder and ponder and wait as we turn our eyes away from glowing screens and toward the true light of Christ, being present with his people and doing the humble work he has for us in person each day. I’m thankful for my journey back into the real world, back into a fuller and richer relationship with the King of the whole universe. He was there all along, even when I was too distracted to hear his voice. My only regret after my “real-world summer” is that it took me 13 years to do it.

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Politics The Cheap Hegemon: How Donald Trump Exemplified a New Foreign Policy Approach Trying to get more for less is a surprisingly novel idea in Washington. Credit: image via Shutterstock Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign and national security policy has been marked by inconsistency and a lack of coherence. Successive administrations have oscillated between overreaction and underreaction to global events, often incurring significant costs to American citizens—whether through costly military interventions or the consequences of inaction. In this landscape of uncertainty, the United States has struggled to define a clear and sustainable role on the global stage. Enter Donald Trump. His administration’s foreign policy, often criticized for its unpredictability and transactional nature, can be seen as an embodiment of what might be termed the “cheap hegemon” approach. Trump’s foreign policy aimed to maintain U.S. dominance while minimizing costs, both in terms of American lives and financial resources. This approach, while unconventional, represented a shift towards a more pragmatic and cost-effective form of global leadership. Trump’s presidency marked a significant departure from the traditional U.S. foreign policy framework that had largely been in place since the end of the Second World War. The traditional “hawk” view, dominant in Washington, emphasized maintaining American hegemony through a muscular foreign policy that often involved extensive military interventions. This approach, rooted in the belief that the U.S. must act as the world’s police force to ensure global stability and protect American interests, had led to costly engagements in regions like the Middle East. Trump, however, approached foreign policy with a different mindset. He questioned the need for America to bear the brunt of global leadership costs, particularly when these interventions did not clearly serve the national interest. His administration prioritized U.S. economic interests, renegotiated trade deals to benefit American workers, and pressured allies to share the financial burden of defense. Trump’s foreign policy was transactional, often framed around the question: “What’s in it for America?” One of the clearest examples of Trump’s cheap hegemon approach was his administration’s stance on military engagements. Trump was vocal about his desire to reduce U.S. troop deployments abroad, particularly in conflict zones like Syria and Afghanistan. While his decision to withdraw troops from Syria faced criticism from both sides of the political aisle, it was consistent with his broader goal of reducing the financial and human costs of American involvement in foreign conflicts. Trump also sought to redefine U.S. alliances, insisting that NATO allies contribute more to their own defense. By pushing European nations to increase their defense spending, Trump aimed to reduce the financial burden on the United States while still maintaining its leadership role within the alliance. This approach was emblematic of the cheap hegemon strategy: maintaining influence without bearing unnecessary costs. Trump’s foreign policy was also characterized by a transactional approach to diplomacy. He engaged in high-profile negotiations with adversaries like North Korea, aiming to secure tangible benefits for the U.S. while avoiding costly military confrontations. While these efforts yielded mixed results, they demonstrated Trump’s willingness to leverage America’s dominant position in unconventional ways, prioritizing economic and strategic gains over ideological commitments. Trump’s renegotiation of trade agreements, particularly NAFTA (which was replaced by the USMCA), further exemplified his emphasis on securing better deals for the U.S. at a lower cost. By focusing on economic interests and using America’s market power as leverage, Trump sought to maximize benefits for American workers and industries without resorting to costly and expansive international commitments. Critics of Trump’s foreign policy argued that his “America First” approach risked alienating allies and emboldening adversaries. However, his strategy was not one of isolationism, but rather of selective engagement. Trump understood the importance of maintaining U.S. leadership but was intent on doing so in a way that minimized unnecessary expenditures and focused on the national interest. In the Middle East, for example, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords, facilitating diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations. This achievement underscored Trump’s ability to wield U.S. influence without resorting to military force or costly interventions. It was a clear example of how a cheap hegemon could maintain and even expand its influence through diplomacy and strategic partnerships, rather than through force. Donald Trump’s foreign policy was far from conventional, and it sparked considerable debate among policymakers and scholars alike. However, it undeniably represented a shift towards a more cost-conscious form of global leadership. By emphasizing the importance of reducing financial and human costs while maintaining U.S. influence, Trump’s approach exemplified the principles of the cheap hegemon. As the U.S. continues to navigate a complex and often chaotic international landscape, the lessons from Trump’s foreign policy may prove increasingly relevant. Future administrations might find value in a strategy that seeks to balance global leadership with fiscal responsibility, ensuring that America remains a dominant force on the world stage without overextending itself. In this way, the concept of the cheap hegemon may become a guiding principle for U.S. foreign policy in the years to come. The post The Cheap Hegemon: How Donald Trump Exemplified a New Foreign Policy Approach appeared first on The American Conservative.

The Republican VP nominee J.D. Vance turned back toward the car door as rain streaked across a barren Ohio tarmac to reach for Atlas. The nine-month-old German Shepard bounced out of the black SUV and hurriedly pawed his way up the steps of Trump Force 2.  Meet Atlas, the Vance's dog. pic.twitter.com/y3pSvNpuA7— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 16, 2024 “He was *not happy* about the wet metal stairs,” Vance wrote in response to video of the two that was already going viral on ?Friday afternoon. “He’s doing good on the plane though. We’ve had two GSDs, and both of them do this thing where they find the one person who doesn’t like dogs and they suck up to them.” Vance never looked happier than he did chasing Atlas up the steps with a black umbrella in one hand and a leash in the other. When he departed the plane in Wisconsin, he let Atlas run ahead of him without restraint as the press pool chased the dog down the steps.  .@JDVance, Usha and Atlas are ready for you, Milwaukee! #TrumpVance2024 ?? pic.twitter.com/f9fC2gTEVF— Taylor Van Kirk (@taylorvankirk) August 16, 2024 Following his speech at the Milwaukee Police Association, Vance joked about the addition of Atlas to his traveling entourage: “If you know what a German Shepherd looks like, you know he looks like a police dog,” Vance said. “So, we’re about to hit the road but nobody kidnap my dog because we want him back.” Vance’s polite pooch runs a stark contrast to President Joe Biden’s German Shepherds, Commander and Major, who were removed from the White House after biting Secret Service agents “at least 24 times” throughout Biden’s tenure. The post Canine Compadre Joins Vance on Campaign Trail appeared first on The American Conservative.

Politics It’s Kamala’s to Lose The race is slipping away from Trump. Credit: image via Shutterstock It was August and Donald Trump was not supposed to be in North Carolina. After one of his best months ever as a presidential candidate, rumors were swirling that Trump was raging in private and on the verge of firing his campaign managers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. Whether the reports were true or not, the writing was on the wall—something, somewhere had gone terribly awry. The Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is suddenly neck-and-neck with Trump across all the battleground states as independent and black voters coalesce behind her campaign. Buoyed by newfound momentum and backed by an ever-growing stockpile of cash, some are even suggesting Harris could make a run at Florida.  And in North Carolina, where Trump was previously leading Biden by a comfortable margin in mid-July, Harris has now vaulted into a statistical tie according to an aggregation of polls compiled by polling site FiveThirtyEight. This was the backdrop as Trump arrived at a hurriedly-scheduled rally in the state on Wednesday.  Trump’s “last-minute” rally appears to be an open admission the campaign is concerned about losing a critical state that the former president narrowly carried in 2016 and 2020 and one he must carry in 2024 if he is to return to the White House. Asheville city officials announced the Trump team had only contacted them on August 8, evidence the campaign is moving quickly (and reactively) to reinforce sagging momentum in the state at a time when Trump’s numbers are falling nationwide.  The Trump campaign, which has a history of failing to pay venues and cities for billed rally fees, coughed up $82,000 ahead of the rally to cover venue fees and staffing. Organizers learned from the mistakes of other cities that failed to secure up-front cash from the Trump campaign—officials in El Paso, Texas for example are still seeking $500,000 in unpaid rally fees from the Trump campaign’s event there over half a decade ago. And yet none of this appeared to sour the mood of Trump’s loudest acolytes on ?, who were wowed by the several thousand Trump fans milling about outside the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on Wednesday. In their eyes, the polls were wrong (they’re always wrong) and Trump was coming off a massive ? “interview” that registered 1 billion “views,” according to ?’s internal data. It didn’t matter that those viewership numbers were heavily disputed, or that the event began nearly an hour late following a series of technical glitches, or that Trump sounded like he had a lisp throughout what could only be characterized as a stump speech featuring the background “oohs and ahs” of the Trump-supporting ? CEO Elon Musk. It didn’t matter that Trump-friendly commentator Megyn Kelly called the discussion “boring,” or that Trump’s UFC buddy Joe Rogan was praising Harris’s speech in Atlanta and labeling her a “problem” for the former president, or that The American Conservative contributing editor Dan McCarthy was practically begging the Trump team to quit the virtual games and hit the road to “campaign like it’s 2016.” It didn’t matter that Florida, a reliably red state, is suddenly in play, or that Harris is surging with Latinos, or that Trump is (allegedly) reevaluating his campaign managers. And it certainly didn’t seem to matter that the campaign was now scrambling to schedule a rally in a battleground state that 30 days ago was firmly in Trump’s grasp. For his greatest warriors, Trump’s “triumphant return” to ? was evidence the tide was shifting in their favor.  Never mind news that Trump’s media platform Truth Social had just posted a quarterly loss of $16 million, with less than $1 million in revenue, and even less cultural currency among the internet community at large. For the “digital soldiers,” as Ret. General Michael Flynn once put it, Trump’s return to ? was a momentous occasion that could concretely reenergize the MAGA base.   But the metrics on the ground suggest something completely different.  While Trump supporters spent the better part of the next 24 hours defending Trump against the “lisp hoax,” Harris and the VP nominee Tim Walz were organizing a campaign rally in Milwaukee at the site of July’s Republican National Convention. It will be Harris’s third campaign rally in the swing stage of Wisconsin since she became the nominee in late July.  When asked on Tuesday about a recent New York Times/Siena poll that found Harris leading in Wisconsin, Trump dismissed the numbers and bullishly replied: “I think we are winning.” Harris’s momentum is such that the Cook Political Report changed its ratings for Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.” Only a week later, the service now has Harris winning Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin—and, of course, North Carolina.  The days of Democrat doubt are gone. Only weeks prior, Trump looked destined for a second term in the White House. Now, he’s struggling to lock down the Tar Heel State. Biden’s embarrassing debate performance served a fitting bellwether for the 2024 race; two (very) old men, shadows of their former selves, struggling to hit their marks, as the 96 percent of Americans who do not identify as octogenarians gnashed their teeth and wondered who could meet the lowest bar ever set in American presidential politics. Missing were the old Trump’s brilliant strokes of wit and charisma. The Republican standard-bearer sounded bitter and confrontational throughout but without the zingers. By the end, Trump had only won because Biden’s brain ate itself alive in front of the nation.  In the runup to that now-iconic debate, 50 percent of registered voters repeatedly stated their desire to vote for anyone but Biden or Trump in 2024. The staunchly millennial “double haters” were about to get their wish. Exit Biden. Enter Harris. For all their prognostications that the former First Lady Michelle Obama or Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) were waiting in the wings to be swapped in for Biden at the last moment, the Trump campaign and its strategists appear to have spent little time considering what a Harris ticket would look like and how to attack it.  The former president’s jabs at Harris about her race have alienated mixed-race voters, a key demographic the Trump campaign is attempting to win over this election cycle. In more worrying news, Harris’s favorability has risen sharply since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket. She’s up 30 points with black women, 20 with Democrats, and 13 overall as Trump’s characterizations of the former senator fail to land. And, as her numbers rise, Trump continues to attack Biden, a man who is no longer in the race.  The broader right’s myopic attempt to position Harris as a social climber who rode the former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to the Senate (so to speak) hasn’t taken either. Speaker Mike Johnson has consistently warned that attacking Harris on race and her controversial past will not lead to victory, and top Republicans, including Vivek Ramaswamy, reiterated their desire Wednesday for Trump to focus on policy instead of personal attacks. The message from Trump’s team was clear in Asheville as they attempted to steer the Republican frontrunner toward the struggling economy. But Trump didn’t seem interested in the prepared remarks, quickly ditching the teleprompter to riff about Tic Tacs, how America has become a “third world nation,” how he will “fire Kamala,” and how Kim Jong Un respects him, not Harris. It was the sort of wild and unabridged salvo that has made Trump the titan political figure he is today. And it’s exactly the sort of rambling speech that over the years has turned off many of the independent voters he is so eager to win.  Speaking of the independents, Harris, not Trump, has all but ended the fledgling campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and turned lukewarm Democrats back in her favor. Now, the Washington Post reports Kennedy has approached Harris about serving in her Cabinet. Much of the strongest criticism aimed at the Democratic ticket has fallen at the feet of Walz, whose military record, pro-socialism rhetoric, and friendship with a Muslim cleric who shared antisemitic content have been rapidly leveraged by the Trump campaign. Though such accusations and rhetoric have sunken the aspirations of politicians before, the stories surrounding Walz have failed to land a knockout punch.  Walz is one of the most progressive Democrats in the country. No one disputes that. But he’s being pitched as a friendly football coach who has actually filed a W-2 and, by all measures, it’s working. “He genuinely does have authenticity and that’s an extremely rare commodity in Washington,” argued liberal commentator Krystal Ball. “He provides incredible class diversity. Here’s a guy who doesn’t own any real estate, crypto, stocks, bonds. Nothing. Has like a teacher’s pension. Earns a sufficient living but this is not a guy or a family who is living high on the hog. Actually relates to the average American in a real and tangible way.” As the Republican VP nominee J.D. Vance and Donald Trump Jr spent Tuesday disputing accusations that the junior senator from Ohio is “weird,” Walz escaped serious scrutiny from the major players in American media.  They ran the stories but no one demanded he drop off the ticket. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) rallied to Walz’s side. And so Walz stays.  Another strategy from Trump and Vance has been to paint Harris’s failure to sit for an interview with the American press as “revealing” her inability to face off against world leaders. It’s a fair criticism, but one that has failed to gin up political momentum on the right or pose any real concern for the Democrats. As we learned in 2020, tens of millions of American voters are perfectly happy to pick a basement candidate.  Though Harris has yet to sit for an interview, she is barnstorming the country with political rally after political rally in major battleground states. Harris hit six of seven swing states last week as the Trump campaign weathered criticism from supporters who questioned why Trump was only visiting Montana during that same period.  Harris has the money, the manpower, and the momentum. The only thing stopping her from becoming the 47th president of the United States now is herself. The post It’s Kamala’s to Lose appeared first on The American Conservative.