Following almost every close presidential election, alarms sound to abolish the Electoral College, and the national salivations come forth on schedule. Dusty arguments are hauled out of storage, refitted, and gravely re-intoned by television newsreaders anxious to be seen on the side of trendy reform. The argument hasn’t changed much since Andrew Jackson’s partisans falsely … Read more
As you read this, you will know something I do not as I write: the results of the November elections. Whatever the outcome, we may rely on two things: (1) Political statisticians and savants of every stripe will exhaust half the world’s supply of newsprint explaining it all to us, and (2) Despite their best … Read more
In Stenberg v. Carhart, a 5 to 4 Supreme Court majority brought us to the brink of infanticide. It is unfashionable to describe the Court’s action in those terms, but the genteel circumlocution with which such matters are these days discussed cannot disguise the likely consequence of its logic. Lest there be any doubt on … Read more
Senator Joseph Lieberman’s reaffirmation of religious faith and its importance in public life is a fine and wonderful thing; he should be roundly applauded for it. When he quoted John Adams and George Washington on the relation between religion and morality, he was truer to “the American ideal” than the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which invoked … Read more
William F. Buckley, meditating on the politics of abortion, suggested before the GOP convention that George W. Bush would do well to address the subject in a fireside chat. Although Buckley’s piece was prompted by the now moot controversy concerning the vice-presidential feasibility of Governor Tom Ridge, a “pro-choice” Catholic, its directives survive the immediate … Read more
No close observer of the Supreme Court was completely surprised by the decision overturning Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion prohibition (Stenberg v. Carhart). Nevertheless, the defense of so barbarous an act was a stunning demonstration of raw judicial power. By a vote of 5 to 4, the justices applied the test they had contrived in 1992—that the … Read more
Margaret Sanger, birth mother and patron saint of Planned Parenthood, enjoys an unusually sanitized reputation. The standard biographical references hail her as a courageous champion of women’s rights who overcame the dark forces of religious repression. But the hagiographers conveniently ignore or gloss the dark chapters of the story, especially her reflexive racism, and notorious … Read more
There was a time when being a college or university president actually entailed some understanding of and devotion to the life of the mind. A few years ago, the Yale Alumni Magazine published a typical daily schedule of President A. Whitney Griswold, who served during the 1950s. With rare exceptions, the business part of his … Read more
After a storm-tossed primary season, the SS Bush and the SS Gore have sailed into their respective home ports to repair damage and replenish supplies. Both candidates are lying low, in part because the public needs relief from the ardors of the long season and in part because the candidates themselves need to adjust their … Read more
A few impressions on the morning after Super Tuesday, if you please. First, although something unforeseen may intrude before you read this, John McCain’s alternatives are now essentially three: (1) He can concede defeat, bury the hatchet somewhere else than in Governor’s Bush’s head, and rally ’round the Republican flag. (2) He can sulk in … Read more
For a while, it seemed as if the full gravity of the abortion controversy might be brought to the center of a presidential campaign. Candidates, both in person and in numerous statements by their staffs, fought to establish their credentials with their natural constituencies—pro-life with Republicans, pro-abortion with Democrats. But as the field narrows, and … Read more
Suffering through any of the teleÂvision millennial coverage was enough to make one long for a return to the Dark Ages. Each of the networks outÂdid the other in pretentiousness, as if hyping their own self-importance as chroniclers of the event added moÂmentousness to the event itself. All feaÂtured the usual gaggle of talking heads, … Read more
No constitutional doctrine has been more badly mangled by the Supreme Court than that governing church-state relations. For most of our nation’s history, the language of the First Amendment was understood to forbid government preference for one faith over another. Only in that way could citizens be guaranteed the right to “free exercise” of religion. … Read more
The time of year approaches when the nation, for its sins, must suffer the annual Ordeal-by-Manger. Allowing for minor local variation, the ritual has by now acquired a familiarity so practiced in execution, so inevitable in outcome, that even schoolchildren can predict the denouement. Act One opens when the town fathers of Smithville undertake to … Read more
Catholic Bashing has been around for about as long as anyone can remember, so long that many Catholics are either inured or indifferent to it. Some were lulled into complacency by the election of John Kennedy, thinking that the “Catholic question” had been settled. In their enthusiasm for JFK’s victory, however, they conveniently forgot that … Read more
Concerning false invocations of political piety, Samuel Johnson famously remarked, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” While generally agreeing with that sentiment, the estimable political scientist James Q. Wilson observed that the great man had over-looked the possibilities presented by the word “reform.” Nowhere is Wilson’s amendment more apt than in current efforts … Read more
Abortion advocates have for years dined out on Harry Blackmun’s disingenuous dicta in Roe v. Wade that we do not know “when life begins.” The only proper response to that little bit of manufactured ignorance is: “Like hell we don’t.” Just ask any medical biologist who plies his trade in Petri dishes at a fertility … Read more
Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer has for many years contemplated the mysteries of the human condition from his perch at Australia’s Monash University. His studied conclusion, articulated in numerous articles and books, is that traditional morality is so much delusional hogwash. If you look closely at what most men do, as opposed to what they claim … Read more
Jack Kevorkian, America’s most notorious (and notoriously successful) serial killer finally came to justice in late March when a Michigan jury convicted him of killing Thomas Youk. In three prior cases, juries pulled out their hankies and gave Kevorkian the benefit of the doubt for a practice they didn’t like but couldn’t bring themselves to … Read more
Bill Clinton, perhaps the greatest political escape artist of the century, may have run out of tricks, this time in the Balkans, where the fate of far tougher men than he has been sealed by age-old ethnic and religious rivalries. The NATO bombing campaign will inflict considerable damage on Serbian military forces and Yugoslavian infrastructure … Read more