I used to think single-issue voters were totally off-base. I mean, everything’s connected. Political issues never stand alone. The solution to whatever problem motivates the single-issue voter will always affect other problems and other citizens. A good example is an…
Running an operation
It’s not a political campaign the Republican Party is running; it’s an operation, a plan to put their candidate into office regardless of the vote. At least that’s what it looks like to me. The clues are many. As one…
Ghost actions
Much has been made of President Joe Biden’s stepping aside in favor of Vice President Harris as the Democratic Party candidate for president. It’s a clear example of how powerful not doing something can be. Tons of ink and hours…
Dissent and resistance
In my last column, I held up as a worthy example for us all, a textile worker in a small North Carolina town — the one in the floral shirt and white scarf, who chose to follow the urging of…
Be No. 2
I’m no movie buff, but there is this list of films in my head that I return to from time to time. One of them is African Queen (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, 1951). I saw it at Fair Park…
Authentic patriotism
Recently, my wife and I were glued to the TV, watching the return of the three U.S. citizens who had been falsely imprisoned in Russia. The hour was late, but we couldn’t pull ourselves away. It was a truly rare…
Our most basic freedom — deciding one’s own religion
My most recent column was on Christian nationalism and the threat that movement poses to religious freedom. Some would say that is our most basic freedom — to make our own way through the thicket of religions that clamor for…
‘You can’t forget history you never knew’
On July 2, I was on a Zoom gathering for a discussion of the new book by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood: Baptizing America, How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism. During the discussion, one of the authors observed that…
What if everyone forgets?
Remember Tiananmen Square? I was reminded of those halcyon and tragic days last week when I ran across an article in the New York Review of Books from May 20, 2014. It marked the 25th anniversary of that fervent outbreak…