Michael Sean Winters

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Advice on defending democracy; popular progressive policies; "moderate" Democrats' bad ideas; the failure of the nuclear family.

Distinctly Catholic: No deep shift in public opinion has been more oppositional to Catholic social teaching in my lifetime than the diminishment of the idea that there are public goods that the public should seek to meet.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: The problems with Bloomberg; Sanders' vote-turnout myth; Querida Amazonia through the lens of Vatican II; homosexuality and genetics.

Distinctly Catholic: Michael Bloomberg's very approach to the election embodies so much of what Sanders' and Warren's supporters find objectionable about the role of money in politics.

Political news and commentary roundup: Republican leaders behavior; analysis of Latino Catholic experience; inside baseball of cheating; 2020 presidential race

Distinctly Catholic: Francis wants us to move away from a monarchical model and engage the whole church in major decisions. You can't achieve synodality if you continually look to the pope to make the tough calls.

Distinctly Catholic: The exit polls in New Hampshire also confirmed that religion played almost no role in last night's results. That will not be the case in Nevada or even more in South Carolina.

Political news and commentary roundup: Academy Awards; New Hampshire primary; the primacy of swing states; Conway's analysis of the impeachment trial; religious liberty

Distinctly Catholic: Tomorrow, the voters of New Hampshire head to the polls, and the rest of the country is hoping they will bring some clarity to the presidential race.

Distinctly Catholic: Politics is always a combustible mixture of principles and interests. But, at this moment, the stakes are such that souls are being laid bare, all wrapped in moments best deemed surreal.

A roundup of political and religious commentary: Missouri unions attract 46,000 new members; Looking ahead to New Hampshire; Carville tells it like it is; former judge to investigate Crookston bishop

Distinctly Catholic: This year, the Iowa caucus came on the eve of the State of the Union address and two nights before the final impeachment vote. The results will not dominate the news cycle as they did in 2008.

A roundup of political and religious commentary: Catering to Catholics in Iowa; pro-life Democrats still getting the cold shoulder from candidates; no witnesses in Senate impeachment trial expected but still infuriating; Catholic schools are good for neighborhoods; papal legacies

Distinctly Catholic: Austin Ivereigh paints the picture of a pontiff whose woundedness, not only in the sex abuse crisis but especially there, has brought new energy to his efforts, and a conviction that his own conversion is also the kind of conversion the church needs.

Distinctly Catholic: The president's attorneys, unlike the House managers, were often playing a shell game, answering a different question from the one asked.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Data in the Democratic primary; the evangelical "faith and work" movement; no merit to the "public charge" rule; an inspiring Italian flash mob.

Distinctly Catholic: One of the most dangerous attributes of our culture is our penchant for selective memory, and that selectivity has been on full display in recent days.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Why polarization is a bigger problems for Dems than Republicans; Salon looks at convergence of climate change and third world debt

Distinctly Catholic: I hope the new archbishop of Philadelphia will be a champion of Francis and help communicate the Holy Father's vision to reconceive what power means.

Distinctly Catholic: One of the most remarkable oddities of our time is that the political party led by someone whose career is one continuous form of self-promotion has been embraced by many people who claim to believe that he who said "blessed are the meek" is the savior of the world.