The Editors
Articles by The Editors
On Dreher’s Benedict Option, the Christians and Localists Who Can Live It, and the Ones Who Can’t
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn from…
After Trump #2: Getting Populism Right
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Coming to grips with what the 2016 election means many things, especially for those of us who are hoping to find in Trump's victory a…
After Trump #1: Getting Urbanists and Localists Together
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] So at the beginning of the month, when I finally got my election reflections out of my system, I concluded by re-iterating what I said…
The Elector Defector
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY -- As rumors of rogue electors spike the December air, I offer this piece from 2001, which is included in my Poetry Night at the Ballpark and…
Elections Reflections, 2016 (Part 2)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Yes, I know the election was a month ago. What can I say; I needed time to recover from getting everything entirely wrong, didn't I?…
Trump: America’s First Black Friday President
Like many Americans I’ve struggled to put the election of 2016 in proper perspective the last few weeks, only to arrive at an unexpected conclusion: Trump may be America’s first…
So Long, Leonard Cohen
One of the pleasures of living near the Canadian border is Canuck radio, which due to local content regulations (the good protectionism) plays a steady diet (varying greatly in nutritional…
Dear Millennials: We Hear You, But Can We See You?
Columbus, OH I woke up on Wednesday morning with an Election Day hangover: groggy, head pounding, despondent, a little nauseous. I stumbled out of bed and refreshed the news app…
Professor-in-Chief
After the second, town hall-styled presidential debate pundits raved, and perhaps rightly so, about Hilary Clinton’s ability to handle the format. The former first lady received high rankings from observers…
Election Reflections, 2016 (Part 1)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] With the exception of one big think piece on our almost-certainly-soon-to-be-POTUS, Hillary Clinton, I've been quiet this presidential election. I think that's because, in the…
Back There Where the Past Was
From The American Conservative, memories of the Crooked Lake Review gang.
Dy-No-Mite!
Minnesota's second literary Nobelist is the subject of The Political World of Bob Dylan: Freedom and Justice, Power and Sin, a perceptive book by our porchite colleague Jeff Taylor. Herewith…
Hillary’s Communitarian Moment, and Ours
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Thirteen months ago, I wrote a blog post that provided a retrospective on a body of ideas on the 20th anniversary of the greatest level…
Twenty Years Now, Where’d They Go?
The Future of Freedom Foundation has reprinted "The Empire versus Little America," my speech from what was, in a parallel universe, the epochal 2010 conference that begat the peace group…
Going Down to Vanity Fair
Over a long and colorful career, the phrase “Vanity Fair” has called up wildly divergent associations, while often seeming to mean nothing at all. Is it a place? A quality?…
Giving Thanks for Russell Kirk’s Long Shadow
And what there is to conquer By strength and submission, has already been discovered Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope To emulate —but there…
Ralph Nader to Host Hometown Book Festival
The tireless consumer advocate and presidential candidate will be hosting the "Booming Winsted" book festival on July 30-31 in his hometown of Winsted, Connecticut. From the press release: “This is…
At Least His Priorities Are in the Right Place
From The Telegraph: Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, attended a meeting of his local allotment association on Sunday despite the resignation of most of his shadow cabinet. With the mounting…
Agrarian Fireworks
If you’re like me, holidays leave you feeling unusually contemplative, I suppose because the everyone-is-doing-it mentality awakens in us the long-slumbering cultural anthropologist. Holidays cause me to wonder why, exactly, we do what we do…
Who Are Public Monuments For?
History is a lie. Or, rather, a complex galaxy of truths, half-truths, exaggerations, and downplayings that together form a narrative. We don’t write histories because we want to record what…
Gene, Everlasting (1932–2016)
For some time, I saw Gene Logsdon as a wiry bearded fellow in slouch hat and knee boots, striding purposefully across a field he was sowing by hand. That was…
Ten Theses on Our Populist Moment
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Tomorrow, with the California Democratic primary, the populist developments that so many have observed in this electoral cycle will definitively change. Either Sanders will prevail…
Regional Cities and the Curse of “Glocality”
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] One of the essential themes in my continuing study of and reflection upon the character and dilemmas of mid-sized cities is their "regional" character, and…