In case you missed it, president-elect Donald Trump just announced that Susie Wiles will be his chief of staff. Here is CNN: CNN reported earlier Thursday that Wiles was considered the front-runner for the job but had some reservations about […]
Archives for November 2024
Democrats need to “ditch” DEI thinking and “get back to fighting for the poor, the working class, and the middle class”
Writer Rand Richard Cooper asks whether the Democrats have “lost the country.” Here is a taste of his piece at Commonweal: The wealthy, worldly, and highly educated parts of this nation are Democratic, while the struggling, provincial, and undereducated parts […]
Thomas Chatterton Williams: “It wasn’t sexism and racism alone”
Here is a taste of Williams‘s piece at The Atlantic: “What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong“: Yet I fear that far too many elite Democrats will direct their ire and scrutiny outward, and dismiss the returns as the result of […]
Trump is us
Carlos Lozada of The New York Times thinks we should stop pretending that Donald Trump is not who we are. Here is a taste: Trump is very much part of who we are. Nearly 63 million Americans voted for him […]
Democratic politicos on what their party needs right now
Politico has gathered the thoughts of ten “Democratic thinkers” to reflect on their party’s “pathway out of the wilderness.” They are Andrew Yang (2020 presidential candidate and math guy), Matthew Duss (former Bernie Sanders adviser), Sandra Peri (former Obama speechwriter), […]
Liz Cheney as James A. Bayard
I tell my students that the present often shapes our understanding of the past. In a short piece at The Panorama, veteran American historian James Banner Jr. writes about how Liz Cheney’s resistance to Donald Trump and her defense of […]
Election Day was two days ago. What are evangelicals saying?
Over at The New York Times, Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham write: “Mr. Trump is not only the leader of the Republican Party but also the de facto figurehead of conservative American Christianity.” *** The Christian Right is not alone […]
The Author’s Corner with CJ Martin
CJ Martin is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. This interview is based on his new book, The Precious Birthright: Black Leaders and the Fight to Vote in Antebellum Rhode […]
REVIEW: Words for Conviviality
Donât be a tool
Blessing of Unicorns: Python hunters, writer-welder, Chesterton, and swapping babies (but you get âem back)
There are pythons in Florida–and python hunters too.
In the Fall of 2024, history matters
Here is Harvard intellectual historian James Kloppenberg at Commonweal: Before entering graduate school I had read a little book by the Oxford historian E. H. Carr, What Is History? I found his answer persuasive: it is a practice of interpretation. Historians can […]
David Brooks: “As the left veered toward identitarian performance art, Donald Trump jumped into the class war with both feet.”Â
Check out David Brooks’s New York Times piece, “Voters to Elites: Do You See Me Now?” A taste: The Democratic Party has one job: to combat inequality. Here was a great chasm of inequality right before their noses and somehow […]
Pamela Paul: By making abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign, Harris had a “reductive view of womenâs lives as citizens.”Â
New York Times columnist Pamela Paul joins the chorus of voices trying to explain what happened on Tuesday. Here is a taste: But do not blame women for Kamala Harrisâs loss. Blame Kamala Harris and her campaign strategists. Apart from […]
The American left must now “have a debate about what Americanism means to them â beyond policing pronouns and categorizing grievances.”Â
Matt Bai of The Washington Post gets it right: I woke up this morning hoping that the American left might now have a debate about what Americanism means to them â beyond policing pronouns and categorizing grievances. It ought to be clear that voters […]
Post-election reading list: books to encourage and discourage
A short, idiosyncratic, and utterly eclectic post-election reading list of books that might encourage or discourage.
Tuesday was Election Day: What are evangelicals saying?
Over at NBC News, Mike Hixenbaugh is covering the MAGA evangelicals who believe Trump’s victory yesterday was a fulfillment of prophecy. Here is a taste: Lance Wallnau, a celebrity evangelist who has spent decades calling on conservative Christians to occupy […]
Descartes or Pascal?
What if the story of the modern world had been told differently?
The Author’s Corner with Christopher R. Pearl
Christopher R. Pearl is Associate Professor and Chair of History at Lycoming College. This interview is based on his new book, Declarations of Independence: Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2024). JF: What led you […]
Bernie Sanders explains what happened on Election Day 2024
The belief that Trumpism is “a movement for aggrieved white men” unraveled last night
I guess it wasn’t all about toxic white masculinity after all. If last night’s election was any indication, the Trump coalition is essentially made up of educated people and Black women. Here is Tufts University environmental science professor Tyler Austin […]