Michael Sean Winters

Distinctly Catholic: The fables of rugged individualism that condition so much of the culture's core beliefs, combined with the dominance of neoliberal economic ideas and globalization have brought us to where we are.

Distinctly Catholic: Law and order are related to justice; Joe Biden recognizes that keeping America safe requires more than bemoaning a storefront that has been vandalized while ignoring the justified anger that led to it.

Round up of political news and commentary: Including minorities in vaccine trials; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Catholic social teaching and laissez-faire economics incompatibility; political family dynasties; fascism alert

Distinctly Catholic: Voting and Faithfulness is a helpful contribution to discussions Catholics should be having about what it means to form our consciences and what it means to be a faithful citizen.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Virtual Labor Day Mass; Arroyo interviews the RNC sister; get Biden to Kenosha; the pitfalls of lay influence; racial politics in the U.S. and the U.K.

Distinctly Catholic: Instead of articulating a consistent theme during the Republican National Convention, the party introduced more hero worship of Donald Trump than most Americans are comfortable with. The endless focus on Trump himself strikes me as a strategic blunder of the highest order. 

Distinctly Catholic: Thursday, the Republican National Convention went with "Land of Heroes," a theme I anticipated would bring sap and a shift from policy to personality — adulation of the president. I was not disappointed, but I was surprised at how imprecise the message was.

Distinctly Catholic: Praise for the president's handling of the economy was the central focus of Tuesday's theme at the Republican National Convention: "Land of Opportunity," but the schedulers could not stay on message: They mixed in videos and speeches that had nothing to do with the central economic theme.

Distinctly Catholic: The Republican National Convention's first night was a story of mixed messages, and it began with New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan offering a prayer. 

Twice-weekly roundup of political news and commentary: Crisis reloaded; former party of Lincoln may yet change again; predicting Luzerne County's votes; hear from a former letter carrier on the USPS; schools during pandemic, then and now

Distinctly Catholic: In trying to figure out what to expect from this week's Republican National Convention, remember that the entire thing will be dictated by Donald Trump. In that sense, all bets are off.

Distinctly Catholic: At a time when the incompetence of the White House is obvious, the Democrats at least showed they could mount an entirely different kind of convention and make it work.

Distinctly Catholic: Giffords, Clinton, Pelosi, Warren, Harris — on Wednesday's DNC program, women demonstrated their expertise on gun rights and immigration, on health care and foreign policy.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Creating something better; Napa's early draft of RNC; what it means to be pro-life; ad targets Trump's mishandling of pandemic; congrats to St. Louis.

Distinctly Catholic: In speech after speech, the Democrats' three core totems this week have been racial justice, beating the pandemic and rebuilding the economy. Left out: any focus on abortion.

Distinctly Catholic: On the first night of the first virtual national party convention, there was no drama, but there were a lot of cameos from regular people, as well as speeches from headliners representing various wings — Sen. Bernie Sanders, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican.

Twice-weekly roundup of political news and commentary: Taking down Trump and Bezos — and cancel culture; Catholic tradition rich with anti-racism resources; UAE and Israel; climate change, Greenland's ice and Barack Obama; Harris on religion

Distinctly Catholic: Biden and his campaign team need to decide if they are simply aiming to get to 270 electoral votes, or if they're going for a big win — a mandate to really "heal the soul of the nation."

Distinctly Catholic: I make no apologies for Biden's untenable position on abortion, but the reduction of the Catholic faith to this one issue has been a pastoral as well as a political dead-end, a distortion of Catholic moral teaching that must stop.

A twice-weekly roundup of political news and commentary: Deep dive into swing states' power; Dr. Peter Marks of the FDA has a big job now; Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on looters; Melissa Rogers has firsthand knowledge of Joe Biden's faith