Jesse B. Russell
Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters recently gave an interview with The Spectator in which he detailed his blueprint vision for a new post-Trumpian America. In Masters’ populist vision, America is under assault from exterior threats by China as well as immigration. Moreover, Masters very wisely notes that the Left now has near complete, full-spectrum dominance … Read more
The Catholic blogosphere and Catholic Twitter are abuzz with the clicking and tapping of comments on Father James Martin, S.J.,’s August 20 benediction at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. Some have complained that Father Martin’s inclusion on the last night of the DNC is a hypocritical and inconsistent contrast to the treatment of Priests … Read more
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) is among many largely forgotten Renaissance artists. While Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael are household names (if mostly thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Botticelli remains largely forgotten, his works bombarded quickly snapped teenage selfies by largely oblivious teenagers visiting Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. Nonetheless, Botticelli’s paintings are among the most exquisite … Read more
On January 27, 2020, the United States Supreme Court voted to grant the Trump administration the ability to limit benefits to immigrants to the United States. The nation’s highest court granted the current presidential administration the ability to select those immigrants who would be able to “pay their own way” into the United States and … Read more
Few activist groups have been more powerful or influential than the Southern Poverty Law Center. Established in 1971, the SPLC was founded with the noble desire—at least on the surface—to combat the violence being perpetrated by groups that were resisting the federally mandated forced integration of blacks and whites in the American South. As many … Read more
In one of the most infamous “Nixon tapes,” recorded by one of the most unjustly hated presidents in U.S. history, Nixon is captured conversing with Evangelical leader and “America’s Pastor,” the Reverend Billy Graham, immediately after the National Prayer breakfast on February 1, 1972. Noting the changing of the guard in the American power structure, … Read more
“The noble person concerns himself with the root; when the root is established, the Way is born.” ∼ Confucius, Analects 1.2 Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option has run the critical gauntlet for the past two years, earning praise, critique, and cautious assessment from both the Christian and secular press. While there is much that is … Read more
The Internet is haunted by readily memeable misquotes and misattributions of quotes. Among the ever-growing detritus of fabricated and seemingly sagacious sayings is a quote wrongly attributed to the eighteenth-century radical French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, which reads something like this: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right … Read more
Last week, in the pages of Crisis, Jerry Salyer diagnosed the pagan roots of the growing movement known as the “Alternative” or “Alt-Right” in the writings of French political theorist Alain de Benoist. Salyer’s implication that Catholics should avoid the Alt-Right because of its paganism and innate hostility to Christianity is correct. Moreover, his call … Read more
My friend and former colleague Dr. Jared Staudt recently penned an article “How to Save the Soul of Our Catholic Schools” for Crisis Magazine. Dr. Staudt (as I’ll call him here) made a number of sober and valid points about the need to return to a truly Catholic education. Affirming his belief that “[t]he Catholic … Read more