Neoliberalism
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Deneen on Polanyi
Deneen is one of a handful of cultural conservatives that understands that "liberalism" is first and foremost about how culture adapts to the market economy: Hobby Lobby—like every chain store of its kind—participates in an economy that is no longer “religious” or even “moral.” That is, it participates in an economy that arose based on
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Mike Konczal on the History of the Welfare State
My argument in my overly long piece posted over the weekend is similar to the one Konczal is making here in this important, informative essay in The Atlantic. His point is that the development of the welfare state during the Progressive and New Deal eras was organic–that it was not the work of social engineers, but
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Burke v. Paine = Right v. Left?
In a review of Yuval Levn's book The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Left and Right, Burke biographer Jesse Norman writes: But one might wonder if these categories can really be mapped onto the left and right of American politics today. After all, it was Ronald Reagan, icon of American
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Quote of the Day: Noah Millman
But there is no Left and no Right. Those are abstractions according to which we choose to divide individuals. Here’s how I would describe things: – Economic elites really care about preserving their privileges.– Elected officials really care about reducing the risk of losing office.– The culture war – for both nominal Left and Right, is an extremely effective
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Race to the Top
This is the Obama Administration's name for its program to reform American education. Really. The Democrats' program suggests a Social Darwinian competition in which there will be winners and losers, and you better be a winner. At least the Republican program, entitled No Child Left Behind, suggested ithat we need to stretch out a hand to
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Neoliberalism and Public Education 3
This chart lays it out pretty well:
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Neoliberalism and Public Education 2
It's interesting to me that whenever I do a post on public education, the pageviews go down. My guess is that it seems like such a niche issue, and when people read me squawking about Charter Schools or the Common Core, they think that's my problem, but not theirs. But if anything I've been saying
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Neoliberalism and Public Education 1
I recently posted that the Democrats will be useless in supporting economic justice issues until being called a Neoliberal has the same stigma as being called a homophobe. Neoliberal ideology is just repackaged late 19th Century Social Darwinism, which is an ideological justification for social stratification that rewards winners and punishes losers, where the winners
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Tom Frank and Adolph Reed
Fascinating conversation transcribed here. There are many places to excerpt that reinforce themes I've been writing about, but I'll pick this one for today: [Frank is in boldface, Reed in normal] The labor movement. You said to reverse all this, it requires a “vibrant labor movement.” How on earth is that going to happen? Actually I’ve made
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Adolph Reed on the Moyers Show
This runs about twenty minutes, and I think it's worth watching, but I'll excerpt two segments that are key: BILL MOYERS: You say "the left." Liberals, especially, are tied to the narrow strategy of electing at whatever cost, whatever Democrat is running. But, you know, Democrats won four of the last six presidential elections. Something's