Staff reporter Bradley Devlin has hunted down the inside story of the Republican battle over the House speakership last month. Of course, you know the outline: twenty ideological terrorists holding the country and poor innocent Kevin McCarthy hostage. But there was a lot more going on behind the scenes, and five or six never-Kevins wheeling and dealing.

Contributing editor Ted Galen Carpenter has the cover story of this issue, looking closely at the material conditions constraining possible outcomes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Carpenter comes to a curious historical analogy that makes obvious sense in concrete denotative terms and is sure to scandalize when given ideological connotations. The Ukrainians, barring escalation into general war in Europe, find themselves in a similar position to the American Confederacy, simply unable to outlast an industrial giant with more men and more material.

And in his weekly column yesterday, assistant editor John Hirschauer looked at the rhetoric around the terrible Michigan State University shooting. Progressives want stricter gun laws. Progressives also don’t like enforcing the laws already on the books, including gun laws. The shooting would not have happened had the alleged perpetrator not been allowed to plead a felony gun charge down to a misdemeanor in the past. Of course it’s a fool’s errand to expect progressives to be consistent, but it’s important to acknowledge and point out that they have no intention of fairly and consistently applying the gun control laws they call for.

Best,

Micah Meadowcroft
Web Editor

Is In-N-Out Conservative?

Carmel Richardson