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** Daily Newsletter: February 9, 2026
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** In today’s newsletter:
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LIEL LEIBOVITZ: Madness in Minneapolis ([link removed])

JAMES BOWMAN: Gavin Newsom’s Vogue Politics ([link removed])

JOHANN KURTZ: Noble Rituals ([link removed])

MARK BAUERLEIN: Above Animal Instinct ([link removed])
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** Madness in Minneapolis ([link removed])
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** Liel Leibovitz
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From the March issue: What could have compelled people like Alex Pretti and Renée Good—seemingly responsible adults with careers and families—“to decide one fine morning that it is his or her duty to go and actively disrupt federal agents in the course of their duty, ignoring common sense, civic norms, and basic courtesy?” Nothing but a spiritual crisis can explain the lunacy that led to their deaths at the hands of ICE agents, writes Liel Leibovitz.

For further reading: Editor R. R. Reno drew a connection between the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis and the anti-integration protests in Little Rock and Boston during the Civil Rights era in “From Little Rock to Minneapolis ([link removed]) .”
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** Gavin Newsom’s Vogue Politics ([link removed])
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** James Bowman
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California governor Gavin Newsom’s spread in Vogue is clearly his latest positioning for the presidency. He channels Ronald Reagan with cowboy styling and movie star looks. But in Reagan’s day, movie stars aspired to be politicians. Now, politicians want to be movie stars writes James Bowman: “They think [fame is] the same thing as being honorable. Celebrity is the only kind of fame they know, or value.”

For further reading: James Nuechterlein wrote a retrospective on Reagan ([link removed]) for the December 1991 edition of the magazine. He noted that Reagan’s enemies were “frustrated by his shrewd intuitive hold on the American psyche.” If the Vogue spread shows anything, it’s that his hold continues, and Reagan’s enemies are done fighting it.
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** Noble Rituals ([link removed])
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** Johann Kurtz
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Bestselling Substacker Johann Kurtz makes his First Things debut with this essay about the importance of ritual. Drawing on the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, he writes that rituals are homes in time. Children who grow up in families that place emphasis on ritual are more resilient. One need only look to the past at the mindset and pursuits of the nobility to see how ritualizing endeavors like hunting and warfare helped them overcome hardship.

This essay was adapted from Kurtz’s book Leaving a Legacy: Inheritance, Charity, & Thousand Year Families ([link removed]) , available for purchase here ([link removed]) .
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** Above Animal Instinct (ft. Jonathan Leaf) ([link removed])
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** Mark Bauerlein
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Listen: Jonathan Leaf joins Conversations with Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book The Primate Myth: Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature ([link removed]) . The book challenges the popular belief that humans are primates, asking, “Could it be that conceiving of ourselves as primates isn’t helping us understand what it is to be human?”

Upcoming Events
* TOMORROW: The Protestant Mind newsletter launch by Dale Coulter | Subscribe here ([link removed]*%20%3E%3E) .

* February 12, 2026: The March issue release

* March 5, 2026: Annual D.C. Lecture: “Our Crisis is Metaphysical” ft. Mary Harrington | Washington, DC. Register here ([link removed]) .

Until next time,


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VIRGINIA AABRAM
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Newsletter Editor
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