Americanitas: Rise and Fall

The West has always beckoned us to come,And so we moved, intent to make our way,At first across a gray Atlantic swellThat we might scrabble hard to stay alive.The land was rich but hard, so we grew hard,And like the land grew rich and prosperous,So that we might grow soft again in leisure.A different West …

The Binariest of Choices

Introduction: Last Friday when I left the office to head home, I was greeted out on the sidewalk by a liberal lady (who would self-identify as an evangelical, if that helps, which it shouldn’t) who was masked up, carrying a poster that chided Christ Church for having held a joint service last Sunday. Our problem …

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Preparing for a Transgressive Fourth

Just a quick word of encouragement to those of you who don’t like living in our current secular monkey house, and who dislike even more the idea that this demented arrangement was somehow foisted upon us by the Founders. It wasn’t. So as you set off your fireworks this week, make sure you tell the …

In Praise of America

Introduction: If you can’t say something positive, then don’t say anything at all. That’s what I always say. I mean to say, the world is so full of criticism and carping . . . why can’t we just accentuate the positive? Focus on what is good. Try to emphasize the delightful. As Paul once put …

A Primer on the Fourth of July

What is celebrated on the Fourth of July? Two things. The formal reason for our celebration is the establishment of our nation in the Declaration of Independence, coupled with the successful completion of the war, coupled in turn with the adoption of our Constitution, which secured that independence. The second reason has to do with …

An American Drubbing

I have been addressing, from time to time, the tomfool notion of American exceptionalism. The central point I have made thus far is that the genuine exceptionalism displayed by the Founders consisted of the fact that they knew that Americans were not exceptional, which was exceptional. They built a form of government that sought to …