uly of 1863 was a critically important month in the American Civil War. During the first three days of that month, two great armies clashed at Gettysburg, resulting in a decisive Confederate defeat. On July 4, Vicksburg, the last Confederate bastion on the Mississippi, surrendered to Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Both were great Union […]
uman society is a complex phenomenon. To view it through a single lens is the worst sort of reductionism and rarely provides a true picture. Karl Marx and his followers looked at human action through the lens of class. Marxist analysis consistently has proven to be flawed. The most recent lens for examining human action […]
resident Trump was roundly criticized for scheduling a rally in Tulsa on a day celebrated by many African-Americans as “Juneteenth,” which commemorates Union General Gordon Granger’s announcement on June 19, 1865 in Galveston that those held as slaves in Texas were now free. Of course, they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of January […]
t’s time to call what is going on in American cities by its proper name: insurrection. Its goal is the destruction of republican government. Let us be clear: the death of George Floyd was horrendous. The image of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck made me physically ill, and I have seen men […]
oday we mark the 152nd anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day, as established by General John A. Logan’s “General Order No. 11” of the Grand Army of the Republic dated May 5, 1868. The order reads, in part: “The 30th day of May 1868 is designated for […]
n his history of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that war is “a rough master that brings most men’s characters to a level with their fortunes.” The same can be said for the current coronavirus emergency. It has revealed both the best and worst in the character of Americans. On the one hand, it has […]
he COVID-19 emergency has led to calls from the usual suspects to punish Donald Trump for his alleged failure to foresee it and his alleged delayed action to curtail it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has called the administration’s response “almost sinful.” The New York Times has done its part in laying blame for the […]
pparently the Sanders revolution within the Democratic Party has petered out, at least for the time being. Sanders has not withdrawn but the most recent round of voting in the Democratic primaries appears to have doomed him and dashed the hopes of his many supporters. That is a godsend for the army of Republican NeverTrumpers […]
n May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the Senate chamber and proceeded to beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death with a cane. Brooks’ attack was prompted by Sumner’s earlier “Crime Against Kansas” speech in which he denounced the “slave power” and verbally attacked Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler […]
President Trump recently issued pardons to three U.S. servicemen accused of crimes during wartime: U.S. Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, convicted in August 2013 on two counts of second-degree murder for ordering soldiers in his platoon to open fire at three men on a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan in July 2012; U.S. Army Major Matthew […]
We hear a great deal these days about the “deep state,” especially as it applies to the Trump Administration. The president’s supporters use the term to describe the entrenched federal bureaucracy and what they believe to be its efforts to derail the president’s policies. Until recently, the president’s critics have dismissed the idea of a […]
Defenders of President Trump have long railed against the “deep state,” a name given to the entrenched bureaucracy working from within to bring down the Trump Administration. They point to the anonymous New York Times op-ed from September 2018, “I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” said to be written by a […]
From the time of Augustus Caesar until Constantine, the Roman emperor was protected by a corps of soldiers known as the Praetorian Guard. Over time, the Praetorians became the real power in Rome, appointing and deposing emperors at will. In our time, praetorianism has come to mean despotic military rule, something associated with countries in […]
Well, it’s settled. Everything we thought we knew about the American Founding is wrong. The real Founding is not the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or even the drafting of the Constitution in 1787. Instead, it is 1619 when the first slaves arrived in the settlement of Jamestown. Thus sayeth the 1619 Project of the […]
I was raised a Democrat. My parents, like most people of their generation (Depression and World War II), were Roosevelt Democrats. I, like most of their children, followed in their footsteps. The first election in which I could vote was 1968 (the voting age was still 21) and I voted for Hubert Humphrey. I couldn’t […]
For six decades after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Great Britain was able to underwrite a liberal world order based on freedom of navigation and free trade. The unification of Germany in the early 1870s threatened this system. Although Great Britain was willing to accommodate Germany, Germany did not wish to be accommodated. Instead, […]
[fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_ rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” ] [fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_ rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” ] An old joke goes like this: Q. What did socialists use before candles? A. Electricity. I’m sure the people of Venezuela aren’t laughing. But as the people of this once-prosperous country scrounge for food in trash bags and go […]
We have reached a pivotal moment on abortion. New York recently legalized late-term abortion up to the moment of delivery and repealed a law requiring doctors to care for babies who survive. The new law legalizes procedures for which the infamous abortionist, Kermit Gosnell, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. A similar Virginia […]
In a speech commemorating the centenary of World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron recently condemned nationalism as “the opposite of patriotism,” which most everyone took as a rebuke to Donald Trump, who was in attendance. President Trump may be wrong on many issues but he is right on nationalism, as properly understood. Nationalism is […]
People of a certain age will remember what I like to call a “Popeye moment.” Popeye, confronted by some injustice, exclaims “that’s all I can stands, ‘cause I can’t stands no more!” before downing a can of spinach and righting the wrong. The Greeks had a name for a Popeye moment: thumos, righteous indignation. This is […]