John Adams’s test of character, the Pritzker story J.B. tells, and the history the polished biographies leave out

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams, October 11, 1798 _[1]

John Adams was not advocating a religious test for office. He was arguing that in self-government, our constitution—our laws—cannot replace character. In the same letter, Adams warned that avarice, ambition, revenge, and other passions, if unrestrained by morality and religion, could break even the strongest constitutional restraints.… Continue Reading

Something is happening out there. It looks for all the world like a punch-drunk fighter rising to his feet, shaking off the cobwebs and decking his opponent.

Republicans in Virginia swept all statewide offices and flipped the U.S. House last Tuesday. The folks at CNN and MSNBC were on the verge of hysteria. They channeled enfant terrible climate activist Greta Thunberg shouting, “How dare you!”

In New Jersey, a political neophyte truck driver apparently defeated the state Senate president.… Continue Reading