Eugene McCarraher, the author of The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, does not think so. He discusses his 2019 book with Peter Mommsen at the Plough podcast: Listen here. A taste of the transcript: Capitalism, […]
Commonplace Book #266
I would like to claim that the coming of modern secularity in my sense has been coterminous with the rise of a society in which for the first time in history a purely self-sufficient humanism came to be a widely […]
Mike Pence: “Conservatives can either be for politically motivated government intervention in the private sector, or we can be against it.”
As the populist candidates for president attack woke corporations, Pence is trying to shore-up his lane as the Ronald Reagan candidate. Today he turned to the libertarian Reason magazine to defend free markets. Here is a taste of his piece […]
Liberty University spokesperson invokes Stalin, Mao, and Hitler on “education”: “We have to get back to that for conservative values”
I am not sure Ryan Helfenbein, the director of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, really meant what he said in an interview on the pro-Trump Right Side Broadcasting Network this weekend, but it sure sounded like he was calling […]
NBC News poll puts Trump nearly 30 points ahead of DeSantis in GOP nomination race
The poll was taken between June 16 and June 20, 2023: The NBC News poll also gives Biden a four point lead over Trump in the 2024 general election. It has DeSantis in a dead heat with Biden in 2024. […]
Joe Biden is amassing an electable resumĂ© “without making a big show of it”
Here is a taste of Michael Tomasky’s New Republic piece “Democrats, Wake the Hell Up!”: Nobody seems to have noticed this, but over the course of the spring, the country’s four leading freight rail carriers agreed to grant the vast majority of […]
Cabrini University will close next year
The Catholic university in the Philadelphia suburbs is closing its doors. Cabrini University, which was founded in 1957 by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is named after Mother Francis Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen (naturalized) to […]
Evangelical roundup for June 26, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? We spent the weekend covering the Christian Right “Road to Majority” conference. Read our posts here. This weekend The Way of Improvement Leads Home podcast dropped Episode 113. Historian Larry Eskridge joins us to […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Anne Applebaum on the Russian people’s response to the Wagner Group’s attempted insurrection. The Nation saves Bookforum. Old magazines and change over time. Saving baseball. Jon Zoebenica reviews Alexander Stille’s […]
The Trump cult of personality was on full display yesterday at Road to Majority 2023: “I’m being indicted for you!”
Nearly all the candidates running for the GOP nomination in 2024 got a chance to speak at Ralph Reed’s “Road to Majority” conference. Some seemed to get more time than others. But if you want to get a glimpse of […]
Nikki Haley is running as a common sense conservative in a political party that has abandoned common sense
Former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley was in Washington D.C. yesterday to speak to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference. Her walkout music was Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Watch: Like some of the […]
Episode 113: The “Jesus Revolution”
In this episode we talk to historian Larry Eskridge about the film “Jesus Revolution.” Eskridge, the author of God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, places the film in context, discusses the legacy of the Jesus People Movement for […]
Kari Lake at the Road to Majority conference: Let’s “make sure we get that brash New Yorker back in the White House”
Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spoke at Ralph Reed’s Road to Majority conference earlier today. Some of you may remember when Mark Driscoll anointed her with oil. Watch: Lake is all in for Trump in 2024: “I’m looking forward […]
Ron DeSantis to evangelicals: “Put on the full armor of God”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis spoke yesterday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference. DeSantis’s speech might be titled, “Woke, Woke, Woke.” It seems like DeSantis was given more time than the other presidential candidates who spoke yesterday. […]
Conservative evangelicals boo Chris Christie after he delivers a speech on character that was rooted in biblical and Christian teaching
Chris Christie came to the Road to Majority conference to discuss–surprise!– presidential character. Earlier in the day Ralph Reed, the conference host, rejected the idea that conservative evangelicals were part of a Trump “cult.” He said that Christians do not […]
Tim Scott hopes that he can win the GOP nomination by playing his own version of the race card
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference. Watch: It looks like Scott is going to run as Black conservative at a time when most conservatives believe that Democrats are dividing the […]
North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson endorses Trump in 2024
Mark Robinson is running for governor of North Carolina. Watch his speech at Ralph Reed’s Road to Majority conference: Robinson was the first non-candidate to make an endorsement: The right move [for America] is to get someone into office who […]
Asa Hutchinson: A 1980s-style conservative evangelical and a seemingly good guy with no chance at winning the GOP nomination
Yesterday former Arkansas governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson visited the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority 2023 conference. Watch: Like most of these candidates, Hutchinson established his evangelical credentials. Let me pause at this moment to […]
Lindsey Graham keeps pushing his 15-week abortion ban
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham came to pay his respects to the Christian Right at the rally known as “Road to Majority.” Abortion was the focus of his speech. Watch: Graham attacks a new bill introduced by House Democrats called […]
Vivek Ramaswamy’s does a nice job articulating a basic conservative message, but as a Hindu he’ll have a hard time resonating with the Christian Right
Businessman and author Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at Ralph Reed’s “Road to Majority” conference. The director of the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition introduced him by saying that he was responsible for removing Don Lemon from CNN. Ramaswamy says that he […]