Book Review | Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump

In Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, John Fea, professor of history at Messiah College, has written a fine and all too necessary book that helps explain how we have reached this moment when Christianity Today calls for the impeachment and removal of a sitting president while the broader evangelical church embraces the same leader. A thoughtful, gentle guide for the perplexed, Fea is writing directly (though not exclusively) to fellow “white evangelicals” who share his befuddlement at the overwhelming, fervid, and ongoing support their religious compatriots offer to Donald Trump.

Erosion and Renewal in Democratic Life

Most of us feel that our democratic lives have eroded. We are less civil to one another than at any other time in our history, perhaps short of the Civil War—certainly any period in my lifetime. At the 2020 Democratic National Convention, former President Barack Obama described the nation’s current situation in this way: “Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.” Speakers at both parties’ conventions claimed that the 2020 election is a struggle for the soul of the United States.

Book Review | George Will’s Conservatism and Democracy in Crisis

Americans typically view the United States as a democracy and are rightly proud of that. Of course, as those of a more precise nature, along with smug college students enrolled in introductory American government classes, are quick to point out, the United States is technically a republic. This is a bit too clever by half since James Madison, in The Federalist Papers, defined a republic the way most people think of a democracy—a system of representative government with elections: “[The]… difference between a Democracy and a Republic are, first the delegation of the Government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest.” What the framers thought of as democracy is today referred to as direct democracy, the belief that citizens should have more direct control over governing. The Athenian assembly was what the framers, Madison in particular, saw as the paragon of direct democracy—and as quite dangerous. While direct democracy has its champions, most Americans equate democracy with electing officials to do the business of government.

Paws to the Polls: The Making of a Campus Voter Initiative

The ravages of social and environmental injustice, pandemics, and racial strife (to name but a few global issues) would lead many of the earth’s inhabitants to agree that change needs to happen. The world will soon pass from the hands of the baby boomers to the millennials and Gen Z, and from the hands of the educators to those we are educating. The protests against the Vietnam War brought us a lowered voting age, from 21 to 18. With help from the slogan “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote,” the 26th Amendment was passed in 1971.