From Intelligence Report, a special issue on militias and the larger antigovernment "Patriot" movement. John Eldredge's Wild At Heart, a Christian book touting manly aggression, inspires a violent fundamentalist meth trafficking cult. How one wing of the Tea Party movement is contributing to a new development in the religious right’s myth-making: the idea that racism is a legacy of slavery, not a cause. Our Founding Confusion: What the Boston Tea Party tells us about today’s Tea Partiers. Liberals vs. Glenn Beck University: With the Fox News host offering online lectures on faith, hope, and charity, the jokes practically write themselves. Mama Bear: Malcolm Gay on how Sarah Palin has inspired an army of Republican women to run for office. Deep roots, strong tree: In the morass of partisan politics, Lamar Alexander forges his own path. From Hoover Digest, Kenneth Starr as peacemaker? The former special prosecutor offers a bracing defense of political civility; and Harvey Mansfield says “beyond politics”, the latest mantra in Washington, is at best astoundingly naive. A Reasonable Man: In a world of loud voices and extreme positions, David Brooks manages to be both irrelevant and absolutely essential. An excerpt from Red Families vs. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone. David Bromwich reviews Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight by Karl Rove. A review of books on neocons and the conservative movement. "You just don't get it": John Dickerson on the most popular put-down of the 2010 campaign so far. A review of Robert Kuttner's A Presidency in Peril. From NYRB, William Pfaff on what Obama should have said to BP; and David Cole on the Roberts Court’s free speech problem. A review of books on Eliot Spitzer.
