The host is looking for ways to fix what ails the nation in the current wave of “political violence.”  The essential question is how do we produce people like the shooter and how do we stop it?  In his latest Fox column he talks about reading “old” books –  that is doubled down upon in his interview with Aaron MacLean on yesterday’s show, while MacLean notes that can be difficult as a matter of policy. (behind the paywall)  In his interview with James Lileks tenure for public school teachers is rejected as the heart of the issue.  The discussion centered on how the internet allows one to be completely steeped in nonsense and how education itself is now as much nonsense as education.  Both avenues of discussion hit the target but failed to land blows fatal to the issue at hand, they are necessary but far from sufficient.  More is needed.

Yesterday saw James Comey (again) and a close advisor to Anthony Fauci indicted.  It also saw some reporting about Gavin Newsom’s former chief-of-staff trying to reach a plea deal on an indictment against her.  She is described as Newsom’s “political assassin.”  The Comey indictment is weak and therein lies the rub.  In the political realm, bad acting tends to go unpunished.  Comey is unlikely to see conviction, even though he was veery clearly a bad actor.  The other two will reach plea deals that are clearly insufficient to the crimes committed and all three will, or do, have books deals that will make them more money than they would have seen in public service.  Neither of the advisor cases will touch the principals, but clearly imply the principals were engaged, remotely, in skullduggery.

Jim Geraghty devoted his Monday Jolt to the narrative battle about the shooting Saturday.  He says:

Right now, in our discourse, we are witnessing and participating in a battle that will determine how this attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is remembered.

Our politicians have learned that it is less about what happens and more about how it is remembered that matters.  And so they work assiduously to control the narrative and in doing so, bad acting becomes good.  This is why good defense attorneys often try criminal cases in the media long before the courtroom.

I once argued with a former presidential candidate about just how much influence an elected official could have on culture generally.  He was deeply concerned and sought office very much to address general cultural decline.  I argued that I thought he could do more in service to his church than in office.  Yet here I am writing extensively about how our political activity is a deep determent to our culture.  When our political class seems to get away with anything – why should the “normies” think they can’t?  Was I wrong in my discussion with that candidate?

Here is the problem.  Improving education is necessary, but insufficient to deal with the problem.  And so it is with our politics.  Both reflect culture as much, probably more, than they lead it.  The same could be said about the slow death of the nuclear family and the internet.  To truly deal with the problem all of these things and more need to be addressed.  What is powerful enough to do all of that, to change all of that?

Well, it used to be the church.  Not everyone believed, but church attendance at Christmas and Easter was pretty much a social necessity.  Schools did not demand that students be Christian, but they did teach The Golden Rule and covered the Bible as literature.  Our politicians prayed publicly and invoked the Almighty routinely – even if they did so hypocritically.  Our culture operated on a Christian ethos even if we were not strictly speaking “a Christian nation.”  The church once held massive cultural sway.  And that sway was then reflected in education, politics, media and so much more.

That sway is what we are missing these days.  The church served a foundational role in establishing the credibility of all our other institutions.  And when the foundation institution crumbles, so do all the others.  We cannot begin to rebuild those other institutions in anything resembling a reasonable manner until we have restored the foundation.

The only functional Christian institution we have left is the Roman Catholic church.  The Protestant denominations are functionally extinct even if they have too much money to ever actually die.  The independent churches that have arisen in their stead simply lack sufficient mass.  We do not want a one church foundation; Europe has demonstrated that path is no better than our current one.  I am not sure what the answer to the dilemma will be institutionally.

What I do know is we need a revival of sorts.  We don’t need everyone to become a Christian, but we do need everyone that is Christian to be proudly and steadfastly so – to stand in public for what they believe – to refuse to be cowed by the insults hurled their way – to once again assert Christian cultural sway.

A long time ago, the host wrote a book called, “The Embarrassed Believer.”  The Amazon blurb says, “Due to increased hostility toward Christianity, believers have become too timid about their faith and alternative religions have stepped in to fill the void. Hewitt offers an intelligent, thought-provoking defense for Christians wanting to defend their faith.”  I think it might be a prescription for everyone.