R. R. Reno

Our liberal establishment is fragile, far more so than it’s members realize. It’s a conclusion I came to last month when I accompanied my wife to her 25th college reunion at Yale. My wife’s gathered classmates provided a fairly representative slice of America’s elite establishment. The reunion featured some panel discussions with notable high-achievers … Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

The current issue of The Atlantic has an interesting article by Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and most recently director of policy planning at the State Department. Her title, ” Why Women Still Can’t Have It All ” pretty much says it . . . . Continue Reading »

Dear Readers, First Things is a non-profit. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now the electronic age presents new challenges. I’ve written to our subscribers, who have responded with generosity. Now I’m writing to you directly on . . . . Continue Reading »

In the May issue I discussed the dangers of the Selma analogy , the approach to gay rights that seeks to adopt the strong and often coercive measures that were developed to fight against racial discrimination. Well, it seems that the Canadians are well ahead of us . The province of Quebec has . . . . Continue Reading »

Sometimes the editors at the New York Times get it right, even when they’re wrong. In a May 26 editorial they opined that Democratic attacks on Mitt Romney’s career as head of Bain Capital are fair game: “Private equity, rarely by design, has created many jobs. But the practice of leveraged buyouts, in which Bain was a big player, has also contributed significantly to the growth of the income gap, moving wealth from the middle class to the top end.” … Continue Reading »

Dear Reader, I am pleased to welcome you as one of our early Kindle readers. You may not know that First Things is a non-profit publication. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now I’m inserting this letter because I want to reach out to . . . . Continue Reading »

It wasn’t a conclusion he thought he’d come to. When he was a young graduate student, Jonathan Haidt presumed that “liberal” was pretty much a synonym for “reasonable,” if not for “obvious.” Now, as he writes in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and . . . . Continue Reading »

Yes, it’s true. I love New York, and for all sorts of reasons, among which is Mayor Bloomberg. Matthew Cantirino’s posting draws attention to the ironies of Bloomberg’s neo-puritanism. When it comes to abortion we’re not to invade anybody’s private choices: . . . . Continue Reading »

Notre Dame has decided to stand up and be counted in the struggle to preserve a robust tradition of religious liberty in America. Notre Dame President, Fr John Jenkins, announced: “Today the University of Notre Dame filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana . . . . Continue Reading »