Dear Friends,
It should be old news, but Stephen Wolfe is getting more attention and scrutiny, this time from the folks over at Reason magazine. In his review of Wolfe’s The Case For Christian Nationalism, Paul Matzko ruthlessly excavates a subtle and slippery subtext of the book. It is a subtext I clearly recognized (and hinted at), but joyfully lacking the requisite expertise in the literature of modern white supremacy, I just stuck with critiquing Wolfe’s facile attempt to ground his political theory in Reformed theology.
In sum: Matzko makes plain what many of us felt or suspected. Stephen Wolfe is a white supremacist—or at least thoroughly marinated in its literature and thought—and his book is a Trojan Horse designed to make such views palatable to evangelical audiences, or at least to shift the Overton Window in that direction. In addition to his review, Matzko wrote a summary at his Substack that is worth the read.
Wolfe’s version of “Christian Nationalism” is not only incompetent and sophomoric theologically, unattainable politically and practically, but also repugnant morally.
Uri Berliner, the NPR Senior Editor who wrote a scathing critique of his organization at The Free Press, was suspended for five days without pay.
What was I just saying about institutional protection rackets? The beatings will continue until morale improves.
[Update: Berliner resigned this morning.]
Is it just me or is there a sharp decline in mental acuity among our media elites? Well, okay: it isn’t fair to call the hosts of The View “elites.” But, my word. Sunny Hostin suggested that the total solar eclipse last week is evidence of climate change. Whoopi Goldberg said that abortion isn’t in the Ten Commandments, so it’s okay. I guess she missed number six.
I’m led to believe that there are people who watch that show. I don’t believe it.
Speaking of abortion, it sure seems like the Republican party is no longer truly a pro-life party. They haven’t had a party platform since 2016, and the organizing principle of “conservatism” now is “Whatever the big guy says” regardless if it has any intellectual or principled coherence. So the Great Orange Oz has spoken from his podium at Mar-a-Lago. His opposition to Federal abortion legislation now has sycophant clones like Kari Lake (Arizona) running ads that sound exactly like the good ‘ol Democratic tried-and-true approach I have heard my entire life: “I am personally against abortion, but women should have the right to choose.” GOP voters will go along with this en masse. Of that, I have no doubt.
I was party-less before, and doubly so now.
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