Recently President Biden has come under attack by conservatives for speaking about Trump supporters, MAGA adherents, and even a solitary heckler at one of his speeches as a “threat to democracy.” But isn’t that a good thing?

Can you think of a person over the last 30 years you would consider a statesman? I would like to think I was one during my 12 years in the Tennessee Senate, but alas, something I read the other day made me realize I did not come close. See if you would agree with my assessment of what a statesman is.

The indictment of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada is painful to me because he has been a friend for two decades and was a legislative colleague. Were Glen not a public figure, I might say nothing, but he is not. For the following reasons, I see his indictment as a “severe mercy” that should be instructive for all with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Even before Liz Cheney’s drubbing this week, former president Donald Trump’s continuing influence in the Republican party was clear. I have given much thought to why Trump seems to be such a clear dividing line in politics generally and even among persons who would otherwise consider themselves all to be evangelicals. This is my thesis: Those who so enthusiastically embrace and hate Mr. Trump share the same fundamental belief as to how the world works. That belief, I believe, is the product of Enlightenment thinking and, if my thesis is correct, is an indictment of evangelicalism.

This week a prominent private school in Nashville for girls grades 5 through 12 announced a new gender policy: “Any student who identifies as a girl may apply to our school.” Given the prestige of the school, no one should treat lightly a decision like this by highly educated, economically advantaged persons in the school’s leadership. Christians must realize they cannot retreat far enough into their First Amendment religious liberty cloister to hide from what is coming. Here is some help for thinking this through. 

Political campaigns have always been marked by what I will call “sharp practices,” but over the last four years, the degree of maliciousness and amount of flat out lying by people I once respected seems to have reached a new level. In recent weeks I have alternated between anger, sadness, and discouragement. Today, though, I offer a different perspective that I hope helps you through your election season blues.

I believe one state legislative primary is a microcosm of the dilemma voters face during Republican primaries and provides insight into what is most needed among those we elect. The one I have in mind is that between Senator Jack Johnson and Gary Humble in Williamson County. See if you agree with my assessment. And, if either of them takes my words and uses any part of them against the other, that candidate needs to lose.

The next attorney general for our state will soon be selected by the justices on the Tennessee Supreme Court. I would submit that it is the most influential position in state government. And only one person whose name is being bandied about that I think might appreciate at this moment in our Nation’s history the gravity and import of one of the office’s most important powers.

Early voting for state legislative primaries (and county general elections) starts today.  There are some Republican primaries in which the incumbent faces a challenger. Having been the out-of-nowhere challenger to a 26-year incumbent Republican committee chair, I hope my thoughts on the political insider vis-a-vis the political outsider debate are helpful.

Conservatives applauded Justice Samuel Alito’s recent opinion in the Dobbs case holding that there was no “right to abortion” in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and reversing the holding in Roe v. Wade. The result was correct, but a constitutional law professor friend confirmed my assessment that “the majority cheated.” Here is why. And you can read the very short opinion that I would have written if the goal was to uphold the Constitution as written.