Politics
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The Constitutionalist Bloc
Robert Parry today on the Democrats’ indifference to the erosion of the American Republic: Though many issues on the DCCC’s priority list surely have merit, what’s missing is any commitment to the larger purpose of the American Republic. The Democratic leaders have yet to grasp that the transcendent principles of democracy were a major factor
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American Republic, Version 4.0?
The ancients thought that Democracy was the second worst form of government. Tyranny was the worst. Democracy was second worst because democracies always evolved into tyrannies. In their observations, the demos–the people–were easily manipulated by demagogues who used them as the means to an end, which was the acquisition of tyrannical power. Has the American
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The Republican Standard
While it does not address directly how Libertarianism is the new Social Darwinism, Bill Moyers indirectly argues the point in this post over at TomPaine. He’s trying to explain how we let things get so out of control since Reagan–how the ordinary people in the middle let the wealthy and their interests drive policy: What
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True Conservatism
In our political culture conservatism and being a rightist have been conflated. They are quite different things, and I think we would all benefit from clarity that would come by making the distinction. The true conservative is an honorable person deserving our respect; the rightist is a thuggish goon worthy only of our contempt. I've
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Bush, Kagan, & Kristol: Losers in Denial
Sidney Blumenthal’s analysis in Salon of Bush’s mindset is pretty close to my take on it, which is that his attitude toward the war in Iraq is no longer about what’s in America’s best interest, if it ever was, but what is in George Bush’s self-interest, namely, to avoid confronting his failure: The mere suggestion
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Drowning in the Desert II
Last week I put up a post entitled "Drowning in the Desert", which laid out my basic rationale for rejecting staying the course or surge strategies. Lang and McGovern describe more concretely what this drowning will look like if Bush/McCain/Graham/Lieberman, et al. get their way, as it looks like they will: Whether Robert Gates realizes
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Drowning in the Desert
In November 2005 I wrote about Jack Murtha’s call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq: A couple of months ago I was deeply moved by the tragic story of two fathers and their ninth-grade daughters who were hiking in the Cascade mountains near Seattle. One of the girls while swimming in a river
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Obama Getting Gored
Have you seen this? It’s Jeff Greenfield reporting on the Blitzer show: . . . But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does? Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who,
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Hitler Isn’t George Bush
If you haven’t seen it, be sure to read this piece on Billy Wilder’s film "Stallag 17" by Chris Kelly at Huffpost. Please read the whole thing, but for the impatient among you, here’s the nub: The prisoners get mail from home. They get visits from the Red Cross. They aren’t even kept in cages.
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Getting it Right; Getting it Wrong
One of the big questions for me over the last six years has been how could so many smart, talented people get things so wrong. And one of my basic answers has been that reason is not reasonable; reason serves irrational purposes. People, sometimes for the better or more often for the worse, are driven