April 24, 2019

Should Natural Born Citizenship Be a Requirement for All Federal Elected Offices?

On February 27, 2019 at a speaking engagement held at a Washington D.C.  bookstore, newly elected Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar stated, with apparent reference to both American Jews and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (...

April 1, 2012

Conservative Ennui in an Election Year

Contrary to the oft-repeated narrative about the virtue of compromise, it seems politicians are vilified precisely because so few possess an ironclad, unshakeable commitment to principle.  Congress's approval rating, regardless of which party is...

November 5, 2011

A Gen-X Perspective on Our Nation's Decline

After growing up in a decade of gas lines, recession, Watergate, withdrawal from Vietnam, and the Iranian hostage crisis, our eyes came into full focus in the second decade of our youth, the 1980s. Life looked good.  We were presented an optimis...

August 14, 2011

Palestinian Statehood: Conquest disguised as Liberation

First they invaded; five Arab armies, from Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq all descended.  Israel was a state newly formed of a small core of native Sabras from the first five Aliyas along with the battered survivors of the...

July 24, 2011

An American First, Always, and Last: a Response to Critics

My last essay, "Identity Politics: the denial of American Exceptionalism," drew quite a lot of fire for its specific condemnation of white nationalism, a point that was, in fact, not the primary focus of the article.  The article rather broadly ...

July 10, 2011

Identity politics: The Denial of American Exceptionalism

In 1630 John Winthrop established the basis of American exceptionalism with these words: "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." Since that time, America has stood for the promise of escape f...

June 15, 2011

A Marine Returns to Duty

What was I thinking? I arrived at the airport an hour and a half early.  Then the flight was delayed, and then canceled, and I was re-booked to a different flight.  It was a long day.  As the plane began its descent into Jacksonville a...

June 9, 2011

Sole Loyalty: The Identity Politics of Immigration Reform

The American motto "E Pluribus Unum" reflects the national aspiration that out of many diverse origins, we may become one people, with one culture, and one sole loyalty.  Fidelity to the American social compact -- informed by the traditions and ...

May 23, 2011

The Dead-End Street of Identity Politics

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, it was suggested that his election stood for a repudiation of race and ethnicity as qualifying factors for political success in American society.  However, two years into the Obama presidency, it ...