"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
A Commonweal essay by Mark Stricherz describes how the Dems in the early 70s set out to lose the Catholic vote. The piece draws thoughtful commentary from Ross Douthat at the American Scene.
The sense here is that if the Dems ran more candidates like Virginia Gov.-elect Tim Kaine, who touted his service with the Jesuits in Honduras, the party would win a lot more elections.
The Kaine victory is really a rebuke to the Howard Dean model of running campaigns. It shows that a Democrat can triumph in a southern state by running a centrist campaign that blurs cultural differences…But the neatest trick of the race was the way in which Kaine leveraged his Catholicism so effectively in such a Protestant state. Unlike John Kerry, he sounded authentic when invoking his faith to oppose the death penalty. That's because he also opposes abortion, and, therefore, doesn't sound like a cafeteria Catholic. And he could effectively and credibly explain his activism as flowing from his belief in the social gospel and missionary work. As I have argued before, Republicans have had a field day borrowing rhetoric from Catholicism. Democrats should do the same. And I say that as a Jew.
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Bob Casey Jr's Senate race in Pennsylvania is spotlighted in the latest New Yorker, though the article isn't online. Slate notes in its magazine roundup:
The New Yorker, Nov. 14 An article looks at the Democrats' softening line on abortion in the lead-up to midterm elections, focusing on the decision to tap Robert Casey Jr., a pro-life Pennsylvania Democrat, to run against Sen. Rick Santorum. Ironic, as the Democrats distanced themselves from Casey's father, Robert Casey Sr. (as in Planned Parenthood v. Casey) over abortion in 1992. As Sen. Charles Schumer explains: "Democrats have to be a bigger-tent Party. And the day should be over when a potential candidate has to check twenty-seven boxes before we support him."
A New Yorkerpress release has a synopsis of the piece, if you scroll down.
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At Worldwide Standard, Daniel McKivergan marked the 45th anniversary of JFK's election by noting today's Dems are more Ted than Jack:
On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President. He ran as a national security hawk and accused the Eisenhower-Nixon administration of conducting a reactive foreign policy in the face of Soviet adventurism. John F. Kennedy pledged to "assure the survival and the success of liberty" while John F. Kerry speaks of withdrawal timetables "that must be real and strict." Kennedy believed America was "fulfilling a noble and historic role as the defender of freedom" in the world while today's Democratic party embraces Michael Moore -- a movie maker who mocks the United States all over the world.
In the early 1970s, Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington was a founder of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, a group of hawkish Democrats who opposed the take over of the party by the McGovern folks. While today's "Scoop" Jackson Democrats could fit on the deck of J.F.K's PT-109, there are a few like Sen. Joe Lieberman who haven't succumbed to the siren song of the Moveon.org/Daily Kos crowd -- and that's a bit of good news for the few Truman-Kennedy Democrats left in the party.
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