This classic format episode of the Power Line podcast features Steve Hayward all by himself, and breaks some news: Steve is returning to Pepperdine University this academic year as the Edward Gaylord Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy. Steve will be filling the large shoes of the late Ted McAllister, who passed away earlier this year, leaving a big hole in the SPP program.

Pepperdine’s SPP Dean Pete Peterson asked Steve to offer the faculty address to this year’s incoming class of graduate student last week, and he spoke on the relevant contemporary lessons from Max Weber’s famous lecture “Politics as a Vocation,” which intersects perfectly with Karl Rove’s Wall Street Journal essay over the weekend on how America has sometimes been in much worse shape than today. True, but not exhaustive, and supposing natural cycles of history will take us out of our current funk is likely a mistake, akin to fiddling while Rome burns.

In one sentence, Steve’s message to incoming students is that they’ll need to step up their game even more than they might have thought. That’s what Weber told students in 1919, and his lesson didn’t fully take.

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