America is a nation of immigrants. America has always been a nation of immigrants. Or so we are constantly told. Strange, then, that the phrase did not become common until John F. Kennedy published a book with that title in 1958. “All Americans have been immigrants or the descendants of . . . . Continue Reading »
My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search For Home by michael brendan dougherty sentinel, 223 pages, $24 Irish artists face a problem unknown to artists in, let us say, uninterrupted nations. It is possible for things, places, people to be “too Irish”—the gist of a note I . . . . Continue Reading »
Right-wing nationalists and populists have been the main beneficiaries of the grinding away of the European center. Continue Reading »
Immense practical obstacles stand in the way of making the liberal principles of the Universal Declaration truly universal. Continue Reading »
liberal politesse R. R. Reno’s point in “The Civility Trap” (March) is well-taken: Nobody on the wrong side of contemporary liberalism, either to its right or left, would likely disagree that the expectation of civility masks exercises in raw power. Manners aren’t simply politic, in other . . . . Continue Reading »
For much of my life, I believed in open borders. Aside from violent criminals, I could think of no person who had entered this country illegally or overstayed a visa who deserved to be sent away. But in fact, I had thought little about the matter. I simply meant well, and I knew that all . . . . Continue Reading »
Any attempt to revive the failed conservative consensus that preceded Trump would be misguided and harmful to the right. Continue Reading »
Lay Leadership Citing mass disenfranchisement in a “papal-episcopal oligarchy,” Bronwen McShea (“Bishops Unbound,” January) argues for institutional representation of “entire classes of lay and clerical members of the Church” currently “at the mercy of episcopal authority.” She . . . . Continue Reading »
What has been known as conservatism in the Republican party since Ronald Reagan left office, fully thirty years ago, has become inadequate. This has been evident for a while, though we’re only now noticing. From the Great Recession and loss of manufacturing jobs to perpetual war in the Islamic . . . . Continue Reading »
The instinct to reject the claims of nationalism and patriotism as unacceptable is dangerous and destabilizing. Continue Reading »
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