Here: The Washington Post Magazine is looking for journalists to contribute to a special issue about the diminished state of local and community news in the United States. Our goal is not to report on the state of local journalism, […]
Archives for April 2021
The ever-usable John Brown
Here is Yale graduate student Bennett Parten at History Today: …John Brown became an American sensation, a source of both fear and enchantment. Slaveholders reviled him; abolitionists wept for him, tolled bells in his honour and came to see him […]
James Carville is glad that Joe Biden is not into “faculty lounge” politics
The political consultant best known for running Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns comes from an era when Democratic politics was all about making appeals to the things working and middle-class people had in common. He has reacted strongly to the identity […]
Unlike Evangelicals, Catholics have a high vaccination rate
A significant number of evangelicals do not want to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Catholics, on the other hand, have a high vaccination rate. Here is Robert David Sullivan at America: In an attempt to more closely examine the link between […]
“They’re 18 years old…and already they’ve decided to devote the rest of their lives to accountancy”
Yesterday I taught Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in my Created and Called for Community class. This text speaks volumes about the value of a liberal arts education. Today college and universities sell programs. When my daughters visited college campuses […]
American Temptations
The conservative Catholic dilemma isn’t just a challenge for Catholics
Goldberg: “Republicans are mad at big business, but not mad enough to raise taxes”
Michelle Goldberg on Marco Rubio: Senator Marco Rubio is extremely mad at corporations for “bending a knee to woke progressive craziness,” and he’s going to do, well, something about it. On Sunday, in a fulminating New York Post opinion article, Rubio […]
Wehner: The Republican Party is a threat to democracy
Here is a taste of Peter Wehner‘s recent piece at The Atlantic: The Trump presidency might have been the first act in a longer and even darker political drama, in which the Republican Party is becoming more radicalized. How long […]
No more op-eds at The New York Times
The Times has decided that op-eds are no longer relevant in the digital age. Here is Kathleen Kingsbury: The first Op-Ed page in The New York Times greeted the world on Sept. 21, 1970. It was so named because it appeared […]
Making sense of congressional redistricting
Yesterday the Census Bureau released 2020 state population counts. What does this mean for seats in the House of Representatives and Electoral votes afforded to each state? David Wasserman at The Cook Political Report explains. Here is a taste: The […]
On fighting “a guerilla battle at the grassroots of a generation of lower-middle-class people who feel betrayed and exploited”
Here is Rick Perlstein in Reaganland on the rise of the New Right in the 1970s: That notion–conservatism as an ideology for working people–was another New Right theme. [Richard] Viguerie’s father had been a construction worker; his mother toiled in […]
The Washington Post gives Biden a B+ for his first 100 days
Not bad. Actually, the Washington Post opinion writers gave him a “B,” but The Washington Post readership gave him an “A-.” E.J. Dionne gave Biden his only “A” (on presidential leadership) from the writers. He received his lowest grades from […]
Episode 2 of “A History of Evangelicals and Politics” podcast is here!
Episode 2: “Obama Goes to Church” (our third episode) dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this brand new narrative history podcast. In this episode I talk about Obama’s first encounter with Jeremiah Wright and what the […]
More Than Enough
Baseball’s offerings are endless—especially in spring
What the heck is Rick Santorum talking about?
Please do not get your American history from my former U.S. Senator. Here is part of a recent lecture to the Young America’s Foundation: Let’s just get some facts straight: Some, but not all, Europeans came to North America to […]
U.S. Air Force Academy graduate: “Enough about ‘not picking sides.’ The only right position is against white supremacy and extremism.”
Esteban Castellanos is a 2003 graduate of the Air Force Academy. and a member of the Air Force Reserve. Here is a taste of his op-ed at Air Force Times: In late March, the U.S. Air Force Academy held its […]
Howard University students protest the loss of the classics department
Last week we called your attention to Howard University’s decision to drop its classics department. Cornel West called it a “spiritual catastrophe.” We now learn that Howard students are not happy about the decision. Here is a taste of Allyson […]
Evangelical roundup for April 26, 2021
What is happening in Evangelicalland? An evangelical pastor is concerned about how students at conservative Christian schools and homeschoolers will remember January 6, 2021. It’s a legitimate concern, especially when you have folks like David Barton, Eric Metaxas, and Charlie […]
The Destroyer Came
In the aftermath of Trump, beware of rubble
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Speaking to kids in the wake of the Chauvin verdict Keith Whittington reviews Ulrich Baer, What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Truth, and Equality on Campus. Gerson on MLK Michael […]