Here is Tom Raabe’s piece on the end of the Concordia Invitational Tournament: “Keep C.I.T.! Keep C.I.T.!” That was the chant that rose from the packed gym on the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin last year about this time. The final game […]
CURRENT’s 2024 Best American Essay nominations
Please join us in congratulating our nominees for this year’s Best American Essays collection. These are: Colleen Vasconcellos, “Funeral Food.” April 22, 2024. Amanda McCrina, “The Unmysterious Russian Soul.” May 28, 2024. Jim Wildeman, “Messiah.” July 22, 2024. M. Elizabeth […]
The culture wars (or lack thereof) at Gettysburg
Great long-form reporting here from Virginia Heffernan at Politico. Sometimes historical reenacting offers an escape. Here is just a small taste of her piece, “How Gettysburg Became a Refuge for Conservatives Battered by Trump-Era Strife“: The Gettysburg reenactment certainly shimmers […]
George Will: “Donald Trump’s second inaugural speech will be remembered as worse than 59 others, including his first.”
I wrote about Trump’s inauguration address here. But I am no George Will. Here is the conservative commentator on Trump’s second inaugural address: Although few presidential inaugural addresses are remembered, six etched in the nation’s memory felicitous phrases, perfect for […]
Commonplace Book #317
…studies have found that educating people about “white privilege” does very little to change anyone’s attitudes or behaviors toward African Americans or other minorities. Instead, the training primarily leads white elites to hold poorer whites in even lower esteem–it convinces […]
As Inauguration Day winds down, what are evangelicals saying?
Evangelicals helped put him in office. Let’s see how what some of them have to say today. (We did a similar post yesterday.) Shane Claiborne quotes MLK on MLK Day: Albert Mohler chooses to write about Biden’s “mental abilities”: And […]
American Carnage 2.0
The new president did not use the phrase “American carnage” today like he did in his 2016 inaugural address, but it sounded like the same speech. The central theme was that America sucks, but Trump will restore a “golden age.” […]
What Franklin Graham could have learned from Abraham Lincoln today
During the first Trump term, Franklin Graham was one of the many “court evangelicals,” the phrase I coined to describe the evangelical Protestants who frequented the White House—Trump’s “court”—to flatter him, get photo-ops with him, and influence him on public […]
Title of the day: “Michelle Doesn’t Want to Go to Barack’s Work Thing”
Here is Caitlin Flanagan at The Atlantic: No constitutional scholar or judge has ever questioned the American right to skip a spouse’s annoying work thing. Has anyone ever had a good time at one of these horrible events? You’re clutching […]
Raise the American flag today. I think Jimmy Carter would agree.
On December 29, the day former president Jimmy Carter died, sitting president Joe Biden ordered all U.S. states to lower their flags to half-staff for thirty days in accordance with the country’s flag code. Here is USA Today: On Inauguration Day […]
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead” –MLK
Here is Martin Luther King Jr. on April 3, 1968 in Memphis: Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. […]
Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
Commonplace Book #316
Should consecrated minority voices produce content that is genuinely challenging or threatening for mainstream symbolic capitalists–something that is actually unpleasant for them to engage with, something that powerfully calls into question rather than affirming their preferred values and narratives, something […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught our attention this week: American loneliness “Hamilton” turns ten Joseph Epstein‘s memoir Thorstein Veblen and “tradwives“ Reading obituaries Madison Smartt Bell reviews Marlene L. Daut, The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise […]
It’s the day before Trump’s inauguration. What are evangelicals saying?
Jenna Ellis is celebrating with a bottle of what appears to be Trump champagne. She calls Biden “the worst president in American history” and describes as “incoming 47.” It apparently all comes down to complementarianism and “bad theology”: According to […]
American Historical Association Council vetoes a resolution condemning Gaza scholasticide
We covered this resolution on January 8 and January 9 (Pamela Paul op-ed). Here is the original resolution: Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between […]
A populist inauguration ceremony with no people? Where is the spirit of March 4, 1829 and January 6, 2021?
In case you haven’t heard, Trump’s inauguration tomorrow will be held indoors. Due to the cold weather, Trump will get sworn-in and deliver his inaugural address in the United States Capitol Rotunda. Ronald Reagan was the last president to have […]
TikTok may be gone, but CURRENT is still here!
And we’d love your support! Here are two ways you can keep us in business: TikTok may be gone, by CURRENT is still here!
Commonplace Book #315
Far from using their elite position to meaningfully help genuinely disadvantaged members of the groups they claim affiliation with, symbolic capitalists typically attempt to leverage collective identities in the service of their individual benefit. Discussions turn on what I am […]
Commonplace Book #314
…in the contemporary United States, social status and a sense of victimhood seem to travel hand in hand, with each reinforcing the other. For instance, those who are genuinely marginalized and disadvantaged in society are much less likely to perceive […]