The following is a summary of the February 2023 issue of The St. Croix Review:

Barry MacDonald in “The Issue Is Not the Issue,” reveals the genuine dynamic of our political theater.

Mark Hendrickson, in “Democrats’ Cynical Politics and Pernicious Energy Politics,” exposes the self-dealing corruption and the tsunami waves of damage that “green” energy policies perpetuate; in “Why the Red Wave Never Came Ashore,” he cites three factors: The Trump Factor, Abortion Politics, and the Democratic Machine; in “ESG Is Evil,” he shows how the “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scoring system that leftists use for determining who is worthy of receiving investment capital imperils the global supply of food and energy.

Allan Brownfeld, in “Many Who Identify as “Conservatives” Don’t Know What They Want to Conserve,” offers extended quotes from the Founding Fathers to remind readers of the well-earned suspicions they had of the powers of government and pitfalls of human nature; in “Removing the Confederate Memorial from Arlington Cemetery: What Would Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Think?” he tells the story of the great efforts that Americans took to reconcile the hard feelings left over from the Civil War — history discounted by those who tear down monuments; in “A Book Guiding Children to Be the Guardians Our Society Needs,” he cites a crisis of hardship and demoralization among our public servants on whom every American depends — including police officers, nurses and others.

Paul Kengor, in “Women for Abortion, March!” reveals the zeal for Marxism and Lenin driving the activists who organize the annual marches; in “More Democratic Socialists in Congress,” he writes of the Democratic Socialists of America who are infiltrating the Democratic Party in Congress and throughout American politics; in “Raising Turkeys,” he writes on the facts of life, and on the benefits of self-reliance for the upbringing of children.

Timothy Goeglein, in “Dividing America Through Trashing Our Past,” cites George Orwell and the 1619 Project to demonstrate how a radical takeover of American History by progressive “educators” aims to disparage the highest ideals of America’s Founding and erase the essence of what America is.

Derek Suszko, in “The Fall of the Roman Republic: A Narrative and Analytical Comparison with the Contemporary Conditions of the United States of America — (Part 3 of a Series),” ventures into an examination of the legislative “pollution” of the republican process — of addressing grievances and providing reforms — and, concerning the American republic, he exposes the slow and natural decay of legislative power over time, along with the growing power of the administrative state, as well as the problem of the internal divisions of the Republican Party, wherein the motives of the elected representatives, and their major donors, vastly differ from rank-and-file voters.

Francis P. DeStefano, in “Income Inequality: 1950-2022,” uses William Buckley Jr.’s God and Man at Yale to expose the dominance of socialist ideals among economists at Yale at the time — a dominance of thought that still exists among “democratic socialists” today.

Francis P. DeStefano, in “Jane Austen on Film,” reviews the actors and actresses who appear in the film versions of the famous English author’s novels; in “Short Reviews of American Film-noir Classics,” he covers a lot of ground with films, plots, characters, actresses, and actors.

Jigs Gardner, in “Waiting for the ’60s,” relates the dreary experience of a Men’s Monthly Reading Club wherein the gathered readers remain mired in stale ’60s counterculture pieties oblivious that the world has moved on.

Jigs Gardner, in “The Culture of Conservatives,” urges conservatives to broaden their interests beyond the transient political issues of the day, into the depths of human thought and emotion where the meaning of our experience resonates.

Robert DeStefano, in “Dandelion,” offers a charming and insightful poem, followed by an informed essay on the commonly disliked weed.