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politics

cultural commentarypoliticspop culture

Quid Est Potentia?

“There are two elements of the constitution, wrote Walter Bagehot in 1867, the efficient and the dignified. … The efficient has the power to make and execute policy, and is answerable to the electorate. … The dignified gives significance and legitimacy to the efficient, and…
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December 17, 2016
cultural commentarypolitics

Speak What We Feel

I’m grieving. Not because I have policy disagreements with the winner. Not because the lady didn’t win. Those things matter, but it’s so much bigger than that. I’m grieving because a person who rode to power on a calculated surge of hatred and bigotry, who…
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November 12, 2016
cultural commentarypolitics

Too Late

Last Friday, when the Trump video hit the news like a meteorite, my spouse spent the day watching the reaction in the news media and Twitterverse and reporting back to me every hour. By evening, we were floating on waves of Schadenfreude, wickedly enjoying the…
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October 14, 2016
politics

Counting Our Blessings, Electoral Style

I did not want to write about politics today, but I’m feeling chock full of gratitude and I need to rejoice! Yes! Bloggers and journalists and broadcasters—not to mention all your friends and coworkers—are preoccupied these days with working up jeremiads about the U.S. presidential…
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March 4, 2016
politicstheology

We’re Watching You

I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the primary results in Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, in which Tea Party upstart Dave Brat beat Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. You may even have heard that Brat is a Hope College alum. However, in case you…
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June 14, 2014
cultural commentarypolitics

Doomed To Be a Taker

I really must apologize to the whole of society, since evidently I am a “taker.” I am a leech, a parasite, a moocher. This was certainly not my intention, but I missed some sort of memo and now I find myself in a category of…
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January 26, 2013
politics

Woo Me With Facts

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the cause of good rhetoric: two national conventions with a wearying parade of over-fluffed speeches, the ensuing frenzy of talking-head analysis and petty push-back between the parties on every little point, and the ongoing plague of super-PAC-sponsored…
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September 8, 2012
politicssilly

Let’s Give in and Make It Fun

I’m despairing enough about the state of public rhetoric and irresponsible Washington gridlock to agree with this. But if we’re going to change the system, let’s do it right. Debates, however slickly produced, are a bore. Here are some better ideas.
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January 28, 2012