Tuesday So now Donald Trump, after ramping up war talk with Iran, is magnanimously claiming to be a moderate by calling off his airstrike. Killing 150 Iranians, he tells us, would be a disproportionate response to the downing of an American drone. This time he’s right. Less excusable is that he got us into the […]
Spiritual Sunday This past week, I attended a special Bible study session on the Good Samaritan parable where Sewanee’s Rev. Amy Lamborn emphasized just how radical God’s second great commandment is. Jesus tells the story in such a way, she pointed out, that call out his audiences prejudices. At a time when we are turning […]
Thursday A recent reflection about Trump and Trumpism by Editorial Board’s John Stoehr has me thinking of the Marquis de Sade and Fyodor Dostoevsky. To understand the president and his devoted followers, Stoehr says, try sadism. Stoehr is initially puzzled that people like Trump don’t want power in order to enact policy. He comes to […]
Tuesday Last week I cited a passage from Jorge Luis Borges’s “Death and the Compass” when pondering whether we are overanalyzing Donald Trump. I turn to the same story today to address whether the Democrats are overcomplicating their response to the president’s behavior. While many commentators believe launching an impeachment inquiry is a no-brainer given […]
Wednesday As Donald Trump seeks to neuter Congress while at the same time welcoming autocrats to the White House, we find ourselves praying that Democrats, NeverTrumpers, and others who love our Constitution can successfully push back. It’s a battle we see dramatized in Gulliver’s account of the flying island. The executive power in this instance […]
Monday I won’t take credit for this but Washington Post’s Molly Roberts recently penned a very Better-Living-with Beowulf type column where she contrasted two Democratic presidential candidates by examining which version of the Odysseus/Ulysses story they prefer. Her piece gives me an excuse to apply other versions of the story to various 2020 contenders. Roberts […]
