Yesterday I took my daughter with me to vote. She held my hand as we colored the circle by Hillary Clinton’s name together. As bedtime approached, I promised to wake her up so she could watch if Clinton won. This morning I got out of bed at 5:30 and wondered what on earth I would say to her when she woke … Continue reading What I told my daughter the morning after election night
I thought I was prepared the other night, when I talked to my first-grade daughter about this year’s presidential election. I was ready for her questions about Donald Trump—“the mean one,” as she describes him. At just six years old, she’s already discerned what has somehow eluded 40-45 percent of the American electorate: Donald Trump is a bully. … Continue reading What I learned about male privilege the night I talked to my daughter about the election
You did this. If you’ve spent these last eight years relentlessly demonizing the current occupant of the White House—questioning his religion (as if it should matter), doubting his citizenship, making thinly veiled racist jokes—you did this. And no, this isn’t about being a partisan shill. I disagree with President Obama on a great many things. If you … Continue reading You did this.
Donald J. Trump the leading choice for president among evangelical voters right now. This isn’t going down well with some of the gatekeepers—and for good reason. Russell Moore, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, summed up nicely the problem with Trump: He’s an unrepentant serial adulterer who has abandoned two wives for other … Continue reading Why do evangelicals like Trump? Because he’s one of us.
We’re a nation that uses fear as justification for torture. Despite the fact that, according to scripture, “perfect love casts out fear.” We’re a nation worried more about whether torture was effective than whether it was moral, as if the objects of torture are somehow less than human. Despite the fact that all humanity bears the … Continue reading If this is what a Christian nation looks like, then I don’t want to be a Christian.
This week, two events got me thinking about America’s two-party system. One was Eric Cantor, one of the most prominent—and most conservative—members of the House, losing his primary to candidate and a movement who felt he wasn’t conservative enough. The other was a report from the Pew Research Center, showing just how polarized we’ve become … Continue reading The case for a four-party system
Today, the Pew Research Center shared the findings of their new study on political polarization in America. Their survey of 10,000 adults confirmed that it’s not just your imagination. Polarization is getting worse. Think about that. We’re more polarized today than we were two decades ago. When Bill Clinton was in office. When the Democrats … Continue reading It’s not just your imagination. We are becoming more polarized.
Eight years ago, John Kerry ran for president against then-incumbent George W. Bush. The campaign was seen by many as a referendum on President Bush’s foreign policy, particularly the misguided war in Iraq. There was just one problem, and it wound up costing Kerry the election. Kerry, like most Senate Democrats, voted in 2002 to … Continue reading Doing the right thing when it counts
By the time I arrived at the church building, I could already feel it. That slow, inexorable, churning agitation. The anticipation and the uncertainty of it all. Who’s going to win? Will we even find out before we all stagger into our beds at 2 a.m.? What if the other guy takes it? Just how … Continue reading My election night
Fifteen years ago, I landed my dream job. Well, OK… my dream internship, anyway. I was working for a conservative Christian lobbying group in DC. We were located just eight blocks from the White House, and we were on the front lines of the culture war. When I arrived in May of that year, I … Continue reading Putting down the hatchet
Ben Irwin 