No one will ever mistake Donald Trump for a student of James Madison. The real-estate mogul has demonstrated about as much familiarity with the U.S. Constitution as with the Bible, which is to say, none. Trump has captivated a share of the tea party with a style of politics utterly alien to the Constitution. In […]
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Acceptance of Christ’s gift needed now
Not for a long time has the world seemed so removed from the angelic proclamation of 2,000 years ago: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Millions have died in countless wars over the past 100 years. People continue to die today as the result of […]
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Legislators should heed voters’ will
The voters have spoken. Maine’s lawmakers must listen. In recent years, there has been increasing debate about Maine’s landmark Clean Elections system, which allows candidates the opportunity to step up, run for office and serve their constituents without relying on donations from big-money special interests. In 2011, the Supreme Court severely weakened it. Lawmakers have […]
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Don’t let terrorists rob us of our humanity
WASHINGTON — Friday was not be the last Christmas wherein the world mocks the day’s promise, and religion finds itself a source of violence, hatred and, among many not inclined toward either, a dangerous mutual incomprehension. Killing in the name of God is not a new thing in history, and nothing does more to discredit […]
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War on poverty faces difficulties
WASHINGTON — Should we fight the “war on poverty” all over again? Well, yes. That’s the recommendation of a group of liberal and conservative poverty scholars, who spent months discussing and arguing to see if they could find common ground. They did. Their new report — “Opportunity, Responsibility and Security” — lays out a plausible […]
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Republicans fail to stand tall on budget
Since nearly everyone else seems to be employing “Star Wars” metaphors these days, permit me to use some of my own. To conservatives, the Republican congressional majority was supposed to be the good side of “The Force,” as opposed to what they regard as the Democratic “dark side.” And yet, unlike the film, “dark side” […]
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Democrats have better answer for now
WASHINGTON — Which political party loves America? Not the United States that once existed, but the flesh-and-blood nation that we all live in now. The debates we have witnessed have provided an incontestable answer to that question. The Democrats embrace the United States of Now in all of its raucous diversity. Democrats are not free […]
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Irving writes of historic Christmas
“In the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral sources.” — Washington Irving Back before there was cable TV, Washington Irving won the war on Christmas. The great early American writer had an outsized role in giving […]
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Let’s have a little respect for Bernie Sanders
Hardly a week goes by without some demand for an apology populating my inbox. I have never apologized for two reasons: The usual one is that I’m not sorry. The other is that calls for an apology have become an irritating tactic in American political discourse, a kind of bullying. That doesn’t mean I haven’t […]
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President’s Middle East policy holds little risk
By his own estimation, Barack Obama may have finally earned his Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking to a small gathering of journalists recently, the president said that by not sending ground forces to the Middle East during the past few years he had saved 100 lives per month and many billions of dollars. The math is […]