Editor & Publisher of the St. Croix Review.
The mission of the St. Croix Review is to end the destruction of America by re-establishing the family as the center of American life, restoring economic prosperity to an independent middle class, and reviving a culture of tradition.
Comments on the Midterm Elections
Barry MacDonald — Editorial
For those of us who uphold good government, the protection of the innocent, and civic virtues, the midterm elections were a disappointment. Instead of a red wave, we received a red trickle. Many good, articulate, conservative candidates — for example, Kari Lake in Arizona — lost to Democrats who chose to forgo or minimize debates. We have to face the fact that the opposition has an effective political machine geared toward getting out their base of support.
That John Fetterman won and Kari Lake lost is a disgrace. In the purple state of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman won a senatorial race against Mehmet Oz, despite Fetterman’s far-left radical history, and his stroke-induced, severe, mental incapacity. He was able to win because his radical positions weren’t exposed by the media, and he was able to put off a single debate until late in the campaign, by which time many Pennsylvanians had already voted.
Kari Lake lost her campaign for governor in Arizona against Katie Hobbs, who was able to get away with not debating at all. There was nothing exceptional about Katie Hobbs — she was a typical Democrat. That Kari Lake lost was perhaps the most disappointing event of the election. She was aggressive and articulate about the negligence of the Democrats’ open border policy. Arizona is a border state, so one would suppose that illegal immigration would have been a decisive issue for Republicans.
J. D. Vance’s election to the Senate from Ohio, Ron DeSantis’ overwhelming reelection as Governor of Florida, and the Republicans’ recapture of the leadership of the House were the high points of the midterms for Republicans. There is now an effective block on Democratic lawmaking in Congress, and we may be witnessing the rise to national prominence of Ron DeSantis as a youthful and politically savvy leader of the Republican party. Time will tell.
What are the hard lessons we should learn from the midterm elections?
If ever there were a season when the issues favored Republicans, this was the election. There were the “Defund the Police” movement, the rampant rise in violent crime in Democratically-run big cities, the no-cash bail policies of soft-on-crime city attorneys, critical race theory and gender ideology in public schools, the open southern border, and the consequent ruination of the rule of law, along with over 100,000 American deaths due to fentanyl overdoses in 2021. Obviously, the Mexican drug cartels control our southern border, and Democrats are lying when they claim the border is secure. According to polls, most Americans believe America is on the wrong track. Inflation and the high cost of energy are rampant, and the Democrats own responsibility. There is also the overhang of the overly aggressive and ineffective COVID-19 lockdown policies perpetrated by Democrats.
Why weren’t the Democrats held responsible across the nation?
Politics in America has become extremely polarized. Americans are divided in the news we choose to consume, and the opposing side is demonized and dismissed. We ingest narrative journalism, and our youth have no notion of the distinction between news reporting and editorial opinion. The ideal of free speech is not being honored any more, and it is acceptable to shout down, censor, and persecute those who don’t agree with the Black Lives Matter talking points.
The “woke” agenda is woven into all levels of government bureaucracy, including national law enforcement agencies like the FBI. There are now reports surfacing in conservative media about collusion between the management of Facebook and Twitter and the FBI to suppress the news and fallout from Hunter Biden’s laptop previous to 2020 elections — we may suppose the collusion between social media and the FBI, advancing the progressive agenda, has been continuing ever since.
The “woke” agenda is also operating within our national corporations and financial institutions. By stealth, our energy industry is being severely impacted by the withdrawal of necessary investment funds from lending banks, which have become pawns of the Democratic “Green Energy” agenda.
The main problem for conservatives is that it’s devilishly difficult to get our message out to mainstream American voters. We American conservatives think we are doing well enough with Fox News and The New York Post, talk radio, podcasts, and a few conservative publications. This election proved that the Democrats in the news media successfully limited the extent of our ability to inform Americans of Democratic Party corruption and negligence by Democrats. So many of our Republican talking points were dismissed as “conspiracy theories.”
We have to admit that the Democrats possess a well-oiled machine that leverages early voting, ballot harvesting, and voter outreach in the months preceding election day that puts the Republicans to shame. Republicans have some catching up to do.
Too many Americans have closed minds politically. The question is how may we free America from the grip of Democrat Party propaganda? There aren’t simple answers. We have to keep chipping away in the information wars. We have to keep a grip on the platforms of communication that we have, and we have to expand where we can. The purchase and restoration of free speech on Twitter by Elon Musk is a hopeful sign. We should imitate the success of governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia in confronting the ideologies of critical race theory and gender fluidity being foisted on grade school children — parents are good advocates for our side.
Conservatives are stuck within our own conservative bubble. This is not easy, as polling has become a tricky and unreliable indicator — this election some polls pointed to a “red wave” that didn’t arrive.
The riots of January 6 were a catastrophic blunder. As far as public opinion goes, the images of rioters despoiling the capitol were on a par with the “Defund the Police” movement of the Left. This is what the exit polls from the midterm elections showed. The January 6 riots were a propagandistic gift for the Democrats. There might have been a red wave, but for those dreadful images — which the Democrats used to full advantage.
The exit polls also showed that the continued focus on the 2020 presidential election is unpopular with the broad swath of public opinion — it’s a losing issue for us. Republicans need to address the problems of voting integrity at the local level, and also must adjust to the new demands of an election “season” — ballot harvesting, drop boxes, early voting, and the targeting of the lean-Republican voters. The Republican National Committee needs to foster a better ground game.
We need a way to more accurately gauge public opinion so that we can find and persuade those Americans whose minds are open enough to hear our messages. Is this a difficult task? Yes.
It does no good to recite the 2020 summer riots, the deaths, and the criminality perpetrated by Antifa and Black Lives Matter to people who have closed minds. The media is not telling the truth. Many Americans are profoundly ignorant of facts. We have to find a way to overcome the Leftist media advantage. It’s a real conundrum.
The Republicans in the House must use their newly-earned, subpoena-powered, investigative abilities to mount revealing hearings into big-tech censorship of conservative news and opinion, practiced by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and the legacy Media. Republicans must expose the extensive pay-for-play corruption and negligence of Joe Biden’s history with congressional hearings. The Biden family corruption, involving Hunter Biden, should be a focus, along with many other issues.
The St. Croix Review is not a news publication. We advance the principles of liberty and decency. Americans have to find and regain our balance. We conservatives have to keep chipping away at our messages — and to improve where we can. Political wars are distressing and depressing at times. We really have to place our faith in God. And we need to be as united as we can be as conservatives. *
The following is a summary of the 2022 December issue of The St. Croix Review:
Barry MacDonald, in “Comments on the Midterm Elections” assesses disappointments and successes, the present balance of power, and a conservative “bubble.”
Mark Hendrickson, in “The Destructiveness of ESG,” details the many evils of the “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG) scoring system, which is a strategy of the Green Energy agenda.
Allan C. Brownfeld, in “Across America, Freedom of Speech Is Under Increasing Attack,” he cites many examples.
Paul Kengor, in “Averting Nuclear Armageddon — in October 1962 and Today,” reveals in stark detail the horror of the eager willingness of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to instigate a worldwide nuclear war for the cause of Marxism — it was a miracle that countless millions of people were not killed.
Timothy S. Goeglein, in “A Happier Life Is a Connected Life,” reveals a increasing tendency of Americans to remain single and lonely, which he contrasts with the many benefits of married life.
Philip Vander Elst, in “Libertarianism — a Christian Critique,” lays out the merits and demerits of Libertarianism.
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 2),” covers a huge swath of history to the fall of the Roman republic with the ascension of Augustus Caesar.
Francis DeStefano, in “Holiday Film Favorites,” reviews five holiday classics; in “All About Bette,” he reviews the entire film career of Bette Davis, the great actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age, concluding: “Self-sacrifice created the Golden Age of Hollywood, as well as the Greatest Generation.”
Jigs Gardner, in “Letters from a Conservative Farmer: The Old Countryside,” reminds us that many of our Founders were farmers, and that they were disciplined by the daunting tasks of survival imposed by the “Old Countryside.”
Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives: 5 — Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936),” reviews the masterly and subtle depictions presented by the great British author.
The mission of the St. Croix Review is to end the destruction of America by reestablishing the family as the center of American life, restoring economic prosperity to an independent middle class, and reviving a culture of tradition.
The Lasting Impact of the 2020 Summer Riots
Barry MacDonald, Editorial
One wonders what would happen now if America suffered another terrorist assault similar to that of 9/11. In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans by and large did join together in shared patriotism, at least for a brief time. Six months later, we fell to bickering over who was responsible for our lapse of defense. By November 2002, when the congressional 9/11 Commission was underway, the blame game was in full swing again.
Twenty years is not a long time in the history of a nation, but within such a short span of time it seems that our political divisions have become dangerously exacerbated. If there were another diabolically effective attack, carried out by terrorists who infiltrated our porous southern border, it is easy to imagine that America would not unify, but would shatter — with some Americans shamelessly taking sides with the terrorists.
On September 1 this year, President Biden gave a vitriolic speech in Philadelphia, in which he castigated MAGA Republicans. He said:
“Equality and democracy are under assault . . .
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundation of our Republic. . . .
“They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. . . .
“MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live, not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies. . . .
“. . . there are public figures today, yesterday, and the day before, predicting, and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. . . .
“And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence. We are still an America that believes in honesty and decency and respect for others. Patriotism, liberty, justice for all, hope, possibilities — we are still at our core a democracy. . . .
“MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy.”
President Biden’s speech pivots upon the art of accusation, even as it espouses commonly held American beliefs and ideals.
It is sad and frustrating to see the words “honesty,” decency,” “respect,” “patriotism,” “liberty,” “justice,” and “hope” so misused and drained of meaning. Personal rights, the pursuit of justice, and the rule of law were referred to with the assertion that these are ideals that are cherished and upheld by the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party today.
President Biden says that America’s foundations, its equality and democracy, are threatened by MAGA extremism, and that Republicans promote “authoritarian leaders” who “fan the flames of political violence.”
Given the 500-plus riots that spread over America in the summer of 2020, the dozens of deaths, the billions of dollars of destruction — of property, and of livelihoods — the toppling of statues — including those of Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln — it’s impossible to take Biden’s words at face value. A federal court in Portland, Oregon, was assaulted nightly for over a hundred days by Antifa thugs, while Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler and Democratic Governor Kate Brown did not enforce the law and put down the riots. Hundreds of police officers have been murdered and injured, demonized and defunded, throughout America ever since the George Floyd incident — all while Democratic members of the “Squad” in the House have continued to call for the further defunding of the police.
An entire section of downtown Seattle, Washington, was held hostage for a month by a mob who terrorized residents and businesses owners. A police precinct was emptied of officers and abandoned by the city government, and the rule of law was given over to thugs who fancied themselves outside the jurisdiction of the United States. These thugs perpetrated a genuine insurrection. A young man was shot and died, as emergency personnel were prevented from rescuing him by the mob. Democrats were in charge of the Seattle City Council. The mayor of Seattle was Democratic Jenny Durkan, and the governor of Washington was Democratic Jay Inslee — they turned their backs on the rule of law.
Vice President Kamala Harris said of the death of George Floyd and the summer riots “. . . It’s no wonder people are taking to the streets, and I support them . . .” She said:
“They’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop. And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna let up and they should not.”
The George Floyd incident was a catalyst for an explosion of crime throughout America. The riots of 2020 were followed by the purposeful non-prosecution of criminals. The streets of New York City, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle are overcome with the dread of violence as criminals are released, due to the dubious “no-cash bail” innovations of progressive city and district attorneys and Democratic state legislatures. Every day in America the numbers of carjackings, assaults, and murders are rising. Innocent children are shot to death by the stray bullets of rampaging gangs.
Added to the neglect of law and order within our big cities is the purposeful surrender of our southern border to the Mexican drug cartels. The drug cartels control who enters our country, as every illegal immigrant pays the cartels a fee. The immigrants suffer immensely as children and women are raped, and people die along the way into America. Democratic governors and mayors have accommodated this illegal traffic of human beings by establishing sanctuary cities and states. Fentanyl, an extremely dangerous drug that enters America through the southern border, poisoned to death more than 100,000 Americans in 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Biden have the effrontery to say that the southern border is closed and secure.
Homelessness has been a problem in Democratically run major metropolitan areas for years now, but in the last two years these unfortunate and desperate people have become more violent and dangerous. In the suburbs of Portland, homeless encampments have begun to drive people out of their homes. Democratic mayors and city councils have no effective means of alleviating the misery of either the residents or the homeless — more importantly, they lack the will to act.
Much of the deterioration of the rule of law and safety can be laid at the doorstep of the Democratic Party and the Biden Administration. Instead of squarely acknowledging and addressing these problems, they choose to blame their political opponents.
President Biden gave an angry speech denouncing anger. He accused Republicans of being authoritarians while using the rhetoric of an authoritarian himself. He invoked the rule of law and justice while his party has busied itself undermining law and justice. He lauded “decency” in a most indecent way.
President Biden did himself and his party no favor, by offering such a bitter speech. His words are saturated with accusation and hatred, and his characterization of Republicans is outrageously at odds with the facts of law and order and justice as they are in America today under his and Democratic Party leadership.
President Biden is relying on the precarious assumption that a majority of the American people are enormously naïve and forgetful of our recent, and profound, national trauma. There is an air of berserk lunacy about President Biden’s speech. Does he really expect that most Americans believe that the 2020 riots were justified, and that the Democrats were innocent bystanders? *
The following is a summary of the October 2022 issue of the St. Croix Review:
Barry MacDonald, in “The Lasting Impact of the 2020 Summer Riots,” compares an angry speech by President Biden in Philadelphia with the results of the riots of 2020.
Timothy S. Goeglein, in “We Are Reliving the Lord of the Flies,” remarks on the devastating impact broken families have on children, especially on boys who lack the presence of a father in the home.
Paul Kengor, in “Remember the Cold War’s Witness,” tells the moving story of Whittaker Chambers, the once-Soviet spy who broke from Communism and who testified against another American who was a Soviet spy, Alger Hiss; and in “Mikhail Gorbachev Meets His Maker,” gives a summation of the last leader of the Soviet Union, where he addresses a most surprising question — was Gorbachev a “closet Christian?”
Mark Hendrickson in “Children Are Less a Cost Than a Blessing,” responds to a study that says “It Now Costs $300,000 to Raise a Child”; in “The Orwellian Inflation Reduction Act,” he exposes the many dishonesties and distortions to the economy in the latest tax-and-spend bill coming from Congress; in “Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Newest Version: ESG,” he comments on the foolish and harmful effects that result when CEOs allow outside political activists to bully corporations into assuming controversial political positions.
Allan C. Brownfeld in “The Growing Threat to American Democracy Will Not Be Reversed Until We Recognize Its Reality,” warns of the danger of government by brute force; in “Fears Grow of a Society Coming Apart; Some Even Predict the Possibility of Civil War,” he details the many ways Americans are at odds with each other; in “Ending Race-Based Affirmative Action Programs: A Chance to Move Toward a Genuinely Color Blind Society,” on the verge of a Supreme Court ruling on the race-based admissions policies of American universities, he examines the differences between color blind verses quota-based systems.
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 1 of a Series), launches a detailed account of two abiding republics for the purpose of determining how great republics fall to ruin.
Henry Alley, a recent graduate of Beechwood High School, in “Manipulation,” exposes the means by with clever narcissists perpetrate abuse and exert power over people — on an individual and societal basis.
Francis 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 DeStefano, in “The First Churchills,” reviews a British film about Winston Churchill’s ancestors, John Churchill and Sarah Jennings, who rose from the fringes of high society to be the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough; in “The Painted Veil,” he reviews both the film adaptation and the novel of the same title. The Painted Veil is a story about an English socialite wife who travels with her husband (whom she doesn’t love) to China, where she encounters the faithful and self-service of Catholic nuns in a convent orphanage.
Jigs Gardner, in “Letters from a Conservative Farmer — Greenism vs. Mankind,” compares the sensibility and practicality of environmentalism with the leftist ideology of “Greenism.”
Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives: 4, Scott Nearing,” examines the writings of one of the original Communists in America who posed as a smug Green apostle.
The mission of the St. Croix Review is to end the destruction of America by re-establishing the family as the center of American life, restoring economic prosperity to an independent middle class, and reviving a culture of tradition.
America’s Challenge
Barry MacDonald — Editorial
The Marxist Left, going by the name of the “Progressive” movement, has been on the march for over a century in America, and it now dominates many of our precious institutions. Our liberties are at risk. The St. Croix Review is sharpening its message. You will note that we have an evolved mission statement at the top of this page.
The Progressive movement includes politicians, public intellectuals, entertainers, artists, writers, academics, lawyers, news organizations, cartoonists, think tanks, bureaucrats, educators, churches and synagogues, corporations, and the tech barons of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Progressives behave as an exclusionary ruling class, and they manipulate the United States through the government and bureaucracy centered in Washington, D.C., using: The institutions of law; the education of children and adolescents; the selection and matriculation of future leaders through entrance into the nation’s so-called elite universities; the messages communicated in news and entertainment; the instructions imparted by some of our religious institutions; the presentation of content to be viewed in museums; the enticement, management, and sanctuary given to illegal immigrants; and the abandonment of rigorous scientific method that subjects findings to trials of disproof, in favor of agenda-based “science.”
The ruthless Progressives have adopted revolutionary means to manipulate mass consciousness, to grasp power for themselves, to maintain a system of control, and to undermine and overthrow liberty-enhancing traditional American values, using:
The ruling class is hostile to:
Religion and Society, and The St. Croix Review, oppose Progressives by means of:
Religion and Society, and The St. Croix Review, uphold:
The progressives have become so brazen as to suppose that they have the leverage to impose gender ideology and “drag queen” shows, on kindergarten students in public schools.
When the Florida Legislature and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis opposed them with a prohibitory law, these crazed Progressives believed they could win the battle by smearing the “Parental Rights in Education” bill with a vitriolic label: the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Unlike so many of the laws that issue from Washington, D.C. (for example, The Inflation Reduction Act and The Affordable Care Act), the wording of “The Parental Rights in Education” bill is a fair rendering of what’s in the law. The law prohibits the imposition of gender-identity propaganda on students from kindergarten through third grade in Florida schools. The bill protects “the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of the children.”
That such a law is necessary today is a measure of Progressive hutzpah and delusion and wickedness. It’s also a measure of how far the Progressives have gone in dominating our institutions.
We should be grateful. For many decades, the Marxist Left took such calculated and exquisite pains to disguise their lust for power with the subterfuge of fair-seeming rhetoric. But now the essential ugliness of their motives and programs is exposed for all to see. Progressives underestimate the intelligence and resolve of the good-hearted American people — that will be their undoing. *
The following is a summary of the August/September issue of the St. Croix Review:
Barry MacDonald, in the “America’s Challenge,” presents the mission of The St. Croix Review.
Derek Suszko, in “The Problem of Libertarianism,” compares and contrasts Libertarianism, Marxism, and Conservatism.
John A. Sparks, in “The Dobbs Case: Justice Alito Leads the Court Back to the Constitution,” summarizes the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and returned the public debate over abortion to its rightful place: state government.
Paul Kengor, in “What Reversing Roe Really Means,” looks at the consequences of the deeply flawed Roe, and he predicts the likely outcomes; in “1776 and Slavery,” he provides an accurate historical accounting of the Founder’s attitudes and written words about slavery, and the immense cost in blood of eradicating it in America; in “Ukraine’s Freedom Fighter,” on the occasion of the visit to America by the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, he remarks on the transcending importance of an American principle: “all men are created equal by a loving God who has blessed us with freedom.”
Mark Hendrickson, in “The Supreme Court’s Principled Decision in West Virginia v. EPA,” is grateful the Supreme Court prevented the EPA from making overarching decisions that only Congress has authority to make, and he wishes the court had gone further concerning the classification of CO2 as a pollutant; in “Washington’s Corn-based Ethanol Mandates Are Poorly Timed,” he castigates the President and the EPA for mandating that American refineries produce an increase of ethanol fuel at a time of high inflation, which will reduce the available supplies of corn needed for food in America and abroad; in “Congress Is Going After the Alleged Price Gougers — Again,” he explains what congressional Democrats refuse to contemplate — the law of supply and demand — and he points out that the Biden administration is purposely restricting the supply of available fuel.
Allan Brownfeld, in “The Decline of Civility Threatens American Democracy,” notes the increasingly violent political rhetoric in America and warns of dire consequences; in “Assaults on Thomas Jefferson Ignore His Complexity and His Contributions to American Freedom,” he presents Jefferson as a flawed but fierce advocate for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery; in “What Did the Framers of the Constitution Really Think About Church-State Relations?” he writes: [The Founders] broke new ground in providing religious freedom and ensuring religious neutrality, but did not intend to remove God, whom they viewed as the author of our liberty, from society.”
David Ayers, in “What Is Another Word for ‘Pride?’” offers a meditation on the meaning of the word.
Carl R. Trueman, in “Do I Teach at a Woke School?” defends the honor of Grove City College, and he highlights the ideological warfare taking place at American colleges, including at Christian colleges.
Joseph Laconte, in “100 Years Ago, ‘Following the Science’ Meant Supporting Eugenics,” recalls the dominance and high regard eugenics enjoyed by the respectable intellectuals of the day.
Philip Vander Elst, in “‘Social Liberalism’ Versus Liberty,” exposes the totalitarian aims that accompany the progressive movement’s insistence on ridding itself of traditional, Christian values in the name of “sexual liberation.” He asserts that a free society needs to be founded on “true values.”
Francis P. DeStefano, in “The Declaration of Independence,” elucidates the essence of the grievances of the Founding Fathers that moved them to rebel against the British government.
Francis P. DeStefano, in “Foreign Film Favorites,” reviews eight classic foreign films from Australia, China, Denmark, France, Japan, Italy, and Taiwan; in “Barcelona,” a 1994 American film, two Americans in Barcelona — both cousins, one a salesman, the other a naval officer — encounter anti-Americanism from the city people until a sudden turn of events.
Jigs Gardner, in “The Diogenes Club,” identifies the beginning of the loss of self-confidence and the brutalization of Democrats and the Progressive movement.
Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives: 3, J. F. Powers,” reviews the work of the American author of short stories and novels who won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1963.
Unhelpful Accusations Follow
The School Shooting in Uvalde
Barry MacDonald
Barry MacDonald is the editor of The St. Croix Review.
Our culture has turned toxic in many ways. The Left has been successful in fashioning news narratives into dynamic tools of propaganda. A tragic event happens, such as the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an emotionally charged attack is instantly composed.
Demons are specified and targeted: in this case it is the AR-15 “assault” rifle, the “gun lobby,” Republicans, the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association, and “toxic masculinity.” The accusations are cast with sickening predictability. All forms of media are saturated with hysterical harangues and tearful outrage against the usual scapegoats.
The news business has evolved into a daily assault of Saul Alinsky dirty tricks. Saul Alinsky was the clever community organizer of the 20th century who invented modern methods of seizing power through means of effective propaganda. His manual, Rules for Radicals, spells out the techniques: target the opposition, polarize the argument, demonize the opposition, rub emotions raw, and keep the pressure on with repeated assaults.
Alinsky’s methods are now an American institution for the political Left. All the facets of the intellectual, managerial, ruling class have memorized the playbook. It is really very simple: accuse, accuse, accuse, and the nation’s attention fixes on the scapegoat and ignores the ignoble motives of the accuser.
Let me declare the obvious: The Republican Party is not responsible for the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and gun control is not a workable solution to America’s epidemic of violence, because gun control doesn’t address the underlying psychological factors that prompt violence.
Narrative focus is a key element of control for the Leftist media and Democrats. Saturation coverage is lavished on mass shootings when Republicans are easy targets, and so President Biden will visit Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, where he may disparage “white supremacy” and gun makers.
But notice how scant the news coverage is when the perpetrators don’t fit the left-wing formula: When Darrell Brooks Jr. deliberately drives and smashes a suburban vehicle through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six, and injuring many more; or when Frank James shoots and gases 10 people on a subway in Brooklyn, New York. Both Darrell Brooks and Frank James are career criminals with a documented animus toward white people. The media coverage in both these incidents were brief and perfunctory.
President Biden didn’t visit Brooklyn or Waukesha because those killings don’t advance the Left’s agenda.
What is also ignored is the burgeoning gang violence in our major metropolitan areas. Every weekend dozens of people, including innocent bystanders and children, are shot, maimed, and killed in Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York. The continuing slaughter in America’s big cities far surpasses the numbers killed in school shootings, and the victims are often black, killed by black criminals — these tragic deaths and injuries are ignored by the media because the details don’t make for useful, hysterical, weaponized narratives.
The violence afflicting America is perpetrated by disturbed young men. What isn’t being attended to is the long-term effect of fatherlessness, and the absence of positive male role models in the lives of these young men. One can only imagine the depth of brokenness and prolonged isolation that warps the souls of the men who commit these heinous atrocities. The devaluation of American men is part of our modern American pathology. Fractured families and castaway children are at the root of America’s social malaise.
America is sick, but not beyond redemption. We must have faith in the continuing presence of good-hearted Americans who permeate our nation from shore to shore. The news media and the Leftist ruling class are capable of brainwashing a large portion of the American public. If you pay attention to the daily propaganda, you are bound to be discouraged and dispirited.
Nevertheless, we must put our faith in God and remember, that as mischievous and arrogant as Leftist agitators are, they are not almighty. We must have faith in the decency of the majority of the American people.
We must have faith that a good-hearted, stalwart, open-eyed majority of the American people are not hypnotized by Alinsky-style tricks.
Please put your faith in God’s justice, attend to your business, and don’t be fascinated by the news. *
The following is a summary of the June 2022 issue of The St. Croix Review:
Derek Suszko, in “Defining the Mission of The St. Croix Review,” stresses the importance of the American family (with a husband and a wife), of a prosperous and independent middle class, and of American traditions.
Barry MacDonald, in “Unhelpful Accusations Follow the School Shooting in Uvalde,” asks readers to “put your faith in God’s justice, attend to your business, and don’t be fascinated by the news.”
Allan C. Brownfeld, in “Commemorating a U.S. Victory in Italy, as Parts of Europe Are Again in Flames,” reviews U.S. and world history as a vantage point for considering the current war in Ukraine; in “With American History the Subject of Debate, It Is Good to Recognize Its Uniqueness,” he speaks to the heart of why America is an enduring beacon of liberty; in “Freedom Is in Retreat at Home and Abroad,” he cites examples in America and around the world.
Mark Hendrickson, in “Problems with Disney Taking Sides Politically,” writes about the baleful consequences of Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s ill-considered decision to take political sides on controversial issues; in “Florida Enacts Law to Highlight the Evils of Communism,” he provides a history lesson on why educating children on the tyranny of Communism is necessary; in “The Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act: Cynical and Revealing,” he explains the law of supply and demand and the irrational socialistic madness of Progressives; in “Mankind Versus Climate: The Humans Are Winning,” shows how the Progressives’ dreams of imposing socialism through climate alarmism are impossible ventures guaranteed to crush human lives and that, in fact, global deaths due to climate change have dramatically decreased in the last few decades.
Paul Kengor, in “The Abortion States of America,” previews the likely outcomes following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a ruling of the Supreme Court; in BLM Founder’s Mansion Marxism — Patrisse Cullors Is Yet Another Example of Marxist Greed,” he points out the monstrous, bloodthirsty hypocrisy that has always epitomized Marxism; in “The Allegations of Wartime Rapes Are Nothing New for the Russian Army — They Are a Commonly Sickening Feature of Russian Wartime,” he presents \historical and present-day details.
Leonard Friedman, in “Parallel Lives: The Final Speeches of Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams,” quotes Presidents Monroe and Adams in their last State of the Union addresses to Congress on the views of international relations, on the balance of powers between the various states and the nation, and on the pressing challenges and issues of the day.
Thomas Drake, in “Elections Matter,” imparts the many lessons he learned from volunteering to be a precinct captain for precincts in Illinois and Indiana.
Jerry Hopkins, in “Christian Abusers,” takes so called “Christians” to task when they don’t live up to the faith they espouse.
Mary Jane Skala in “From Kicking Tires to Embracing Philosophy, Tom Martin Taught the Essential Things,” writes about the life and retirement of Thomas Martin, a longtime writer for The St. Croix Review.
John Lyon, in “Life on the Mississippi,” reflects on the mighty river as Mark Twain knew it, and in the light of modern technology.
Francis DeStefano, in “The Golden Door,” reviews an Italian film that tells the story of the hardships of the poor uneducated Italian immigrants who made the passage to Ellis Island and America; in “Film Noir Favorites,” he harkens back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and reviews a series of film masterpieces involving classic actors, actresses, and directors.
Jigs Gardner, in “Letters from a Conservative Farmer — Significant Knowledge,” launches a forceful refutation against the ignorant and simplistic views of “green” environmentalism.
Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives, 2 — the Culture of Conservatives,” makes the case for fiction: “Man does not live by politics alone. The mind and heart are developed and enriched by fiction that accepts and enhances our common life.”
Our vision is to reawaken the genuine American spirit — of self-reliance and prosperity.
Our mission is to uphold American liberty, Constitutional law, and humble government.
Farewell, Jigs Gardner
Barry MacDonald — Editorial
The St. Croix Review, and its readers, have lost a prized writer. Jigs Gardner has died. He was a benevolent cranky person. His essays always appeared in the last pages of the Review — his placement never meant that he was the least among us; rather, it meant that we were saving the best for last.
Jigs first appeared in our journal in the August 2004 issue. Jigs was a passionate seeker of the truth long before he came to us. His was a life in search of weighty and lofty significance and satisfaction. He found his treasure in his marriage, in his family, in his love of excellent literature, and in the tenacity of farming — he had to discipline himself to absorb the hard lessons that nature meted out to him.
When I first read Jigs’ writing, I recognized the quality of a genuine American. His stubborn self-reliance was prominent from the beginning. He did not sugar his opinions. He told us exactly what he thought, and he did it with vigor and detail.
The readers of The St. Croix Review went on a journey with Jigs. We experienced his youthful dabbling with socialism, involving the ’60s myth-making of a return to “the country” for societal renewal. We watched his, and his wife, Jo Ann’s, disillusionment with leftist nostrums, as the Gardners were hard put to wrest a meager living through farming a small homestead in Vermont. Jigs and Jo Ann found that they had to learn skills that were unsuited to a faculty lounge. The Gardners cleared forests, plowed with horses, canned vegetables, made maple syrup, slaughtered livestock, managed cattle, and did a dozen other chores. They ennobled themselves by turning these chores into forms of art.
Along the way with Jigs, we encountered all sorts of people who thrived in the backlands of America. These were people who were unused to the vaporously wordy, commercialized, sophisticated, and cynical ways of city people. Jigs brought to life not the middle-class strata of fly-over country but the people who struggled with the rigors of the country. They were self-reliant because they have had to be. Nature demands respect and adaptation to her ways. Too many Americans nowadays behold the people that Jigs presented with contempt. Country people are uncouth in the eyes of sophisticates.
Jigs recognized in rural communities the genuine heritage of America. Country Americans embody the virtues of simplicity, practicality, endurance, intelligence, and resilience. These plain folk are the roots of America. As “globalizing” Americans turn their backs on our heritage, we lose touch with the qualities that have brought our prosperity.
Jigs Gardner also wrote 91 essays on literature under the title “Writers for Conservatives.” There is plenty of criticism in these essays — Jigs revealed shoddiness and human frailty — such as dishonesty, fraudulence, nastiness, and conceit. Jigs had an acute sense of what a “culture” is. He well described the strengths of people who live in out-of-the-way places. He chronicled the slow dissipation and disintegration of these communities due to the dispersal of generations as children are absorbed into the larger culture. There is a sorrow that runs through Jigs’ essays. Jigs wrote about what it means to be sincere, honest, well-intentioned, and hardworking — and he showed that these virtues are always endangered. Jigs demonstrated what it means to be conservative.
Jigs has passed away, but his writing deserves to live. Both of the titles that he wrote under, “Letters from a Conservative Farmer,” and “Writers for Conservatives,” are separate from the daily news cycle. Jigs epitomized enduring American themes. Jigs inspired and elevated. The majority of our readers haven’t read his early essays; and I guess those who have will appreciate a re-reading of them.
We will republish his essays from the beginning. After this issue his essays will return again to their accustomed place in the rear of the Review. The material is as fresh today as it was originally. The essays are timeless. Jigs reminds us of what it means to be American. *
The following is a summary of the April/May issue of the St. Croix Review:
Barry MacDonald, in “Farewell, Jigs Gardner,” memorializes a prized American.
Jo Ann Gardner, in “John Ingraham Gardner (Jigs), September 14, 1933 — February 24, 2022” writes a moving obituary for her husband.
Jigs Gardner, in “Letters From a Conservative Farmer — A New Series,” writes about his childhood attraction to the countryside.
Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives, 1 — Evelyn Waugh, 1903-66,” reviews the comic satire of the British novelist.
Derek Suszko, “Trump and DeSantis: A Comparison,” highlights the pivotal issues of our times and compares the strengths and foibles of our two foremost conservative leaders.
Allan Brownfeld, in “Throughout the Country, Progressive Politics Is in Retreat as Crime Grows and Schools Are Politicized,” uses the attempted murder of a BLM activist, and his subsequent release, and the successful recall elections of some of San Francisco’s school board, to make his points; in “Charging ‘Cultural Appropriation’: A Strange Assault on Diversity and Creativity,” he quotes many artists and authors who object to the latest assaults of cancel culture; in “Vladimir Putin’s Contempt for Democracy — and for Opposition of Any Kind — Has a Long History,” he provides plenty of evidence; in “Ukrainians Have Been Victimized by Russia Before: Remembering the Enforced Famine Imposed by Stalin — and How the World Looked Away,” he reminds us of world history, and the history of the malpractice of journalism at The New York Times.
Paul Kengor, in “Russians Know Death Unlike Any Other People,” tallies the categories and immensities of tragedy committed on the Russian people by the Communists and dictators.
Mark Hendrickson, in “Economic Ramifications of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” writes, in view of the interconnectedness of world markets, that world economies will suffer surging prices of wheat, oil, natural gas, neon (used to make semiconductor chips), fertilizer, nickel, and financial markets; in “Inflation: Who or What Is the Culprit?” he identifies, the Fed, Congress, and Presidents Trump and Biden, who resorted to panic-driving spending due to COVID-19; in “What Is the Proper Policy Response to Today’s Inflation?” he warns us that there is little to do other than to curtail deficit spending — and it’s a bad idea to raise taxes; in “The Biden Administration’s Cynical and Unconstitutional Proposed Tax on Wealth,” he writes: “The unfair, inefficient, unconstitutional proposal for a tax on phantom income is likely a harbinger of increasingly destructive proposals yet to come.”
Timothy S. Goeglein, in “God and Man at Yale Turns 70,” remarks on the foresight of William F. Buckley, who anticipated so much so long ago.
Gary Scott Smith, in “Strength for the Fight: The Faith of Jackie Robinson,” tells the full story of the Major League Baseball star.
Gary L. Welton, in “Yes, I Am My Brother’s Keeper — And So Much More,” sees a silver lining in the dreadful impact of these COVID-19 years.
Richard D. Kocur, in “To Stupidity and Beyond,” writes about the possible consequences of the Walt Disney Company’s decision to alter the portrayal of its television and film characters to advance “woke” LGBTQ+ agendas against the interests of the majority of American parents.
Francis DeStefano, in “Was Shakespeare ‘Shakespearian,’ ” presents probing theories on the identity of the author of the famous plays; in “American Film Renaissance,” he reviews more than six films and a dozen actors and actresses from Hollywood’s glory days.