At least Mike Lee takes an occasional interest in the struggles of middle-class and working poor families. My On The Square column is on how the Republican establishment and Tea Party populists each have self-serving and self-destructive illusions about persuadable voters. . . . . Continue Reading »
This year is the 1700th anniversary of Edict of Milan, and Constantine is academically hot and politically invisible . What might it mean for our politics if Constantine disappeared into the graduate seminars? . . . . Continue Reading »
I haven’t had much to say about the partial government shutdown/debt ceiling squabble because I find it simultaneously confusing, irritating, and boring. I wouldn’t have adopted the strategy of Ted Cruz and the House Republicans, but I hold out hope that all the huffing and puffing on . . . . Continue Reading »
The Supreme Court has two culture-war cases on its menu this term. At the NYRB , David Cole sums up several of them. Greece v. Galloway addresses the question of “whether government-sponsored religious speech violates the Establishment Clause.” Cole elaborates: “That test, which . . . . Continue Reading »
George Will favorably passes on Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus’s plan to limit the number of Republican presidential debates in the 2016 cycle. Debates give “the oxygen of free publicity” to marginal candidates who have weak fundraising operations.” . . . . Continue Reading »
I heard Senator Mark Begich of Alaska on NPR one evening this week saying, “The Republicans are being held hostage by a small group in their party for political advantage and the American people hate it.” This, naturally raised the question, if the latter is true, where is the political . . . . Continue Reading »
While I appreciate Peter Lawler’s suggestion, I’m taking myself out of the running. The sight of me on the television screen does not go well with breakfast. Based on my Facebook feed, the two top candidates would be Mark Steyn and Ross Douthat. You would have something really great if . . . . Continue Reading »
I think Beinart’s article should be read in light of this College Republican report on the attitudes of young voters. Young voters are more ideologically ambivalent than Beinart lets on. A larger fraction of young voters have “conservative” positions on major issues than . . . . Continue Reading »
The Frankish monk Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel is reputed to have written the first mirror for princes, the Via Regia in 813. As desceribed by Michael Edward Moore in A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300-850 , Smaragdus aimed to reshape institutions “in accordance . . . . Continue Reading »
According to the Economist ‘s review of Paul Collier’s Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World , we can’t answer the question about whether migration is good or bad without asking for whom it is good or bad. Most of the discussion concentrates on the countries receiving . . . . Continue Reading »
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