Uncategorized
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American Identity
Very often, you’ll hear historians say, we’ve seen this before and we’ve survived. But we saw it mostly in the 19th Century–which was an absolutely horrible time in U.S. history. And we only emerged from its horrors because of the Progressive Movement, which was at first more a Republican thing (TR) and then more of
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Failed State
After the crisis in 2008… Both parties were slow to grasp how much credibility they’d lost. The coming politics was populist. Its harbinger wasn’t Barack Obama but Sarah Palin, the absurdly unready vice-presidential candidate who scorned expertise and reveled in celebrity. She was Donald Trump’s John the Baptist. Trump came to power as the repudiation
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For Better or Worse…
One characteristic of the current crisis has been a marked lack of U.S. leadership. The United States has not rallied the world in a collective effort to confront either the virus or its economic effects. Nor has the United States rallied the world to follow its lead in addressing the problem at home. Other countries
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Capitalism at Its Worst
If you want to understand why socialism is likely to make a comeback, read the NYT story this morning about how Covidien, a large medical equipment supplier, bought up Newport Medical Instruments, a smaller medical equipment manufacturer, that had a contract with the US govt.beginning in 2010 to build inexpensive ventilators. Newport was making good
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Edsall on the Republicans
Quoting longtime Republican Strategist Stuart Stevens's book, It Was All a Lie: “As much as I’d love to go to bed at night reassuring myself that Donald Trump was some freak product of the system — a ‘black swan,’” Stevens writes, “I can’t do it”: I can’t keep lying to myself to ward off the
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The Republican Plague
It seems that anytime we have serious domestic disasters, we have the government-hating Republicans running the government, and so we have 9/11, Katrina, the 2008 financial meltdown, and now the Corona pandemic. The severity of this pandemic in the U.S. remains to be seen. But if you're worried, you have good reason to be. This
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State of the Race 5
So this is what I feared after South Carolina: all the Nervous Nellies in the Democratic party have given Biden the boost he needs to make this race a contentious one until the convention. Even if Biden comes out of Super Tuesday with a delegate lead–still unknown at this writing as we wait for California
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State of the Race 4
Well, Biden better than Bloomberg if there is to be a Bernie alternative. But at best he is a short-term solution if he beats Trump. I get it–he's a sentimental favorite among older Blacks in S.C., but why is S.C. relevant at all? Democrats are not going to win S.C. in November. Neither are they
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Bolton as a Witness?
I don't really care if the Republicans refuse to allow Bolton's testimony. It will make what is already obviously a charade more obviously one. It will give Democrats more to run on in November, and makes Trump's being voted out and a Democrat Senate majority more likely after the election. They already know Trump is
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Law and Order and the Jacksonian Right
Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom? –Pascal It has often struck me how little regard the mainstream Republican has for the rule of law–Nixon and Watergate; Reagan and Iran Contra; Trump and . . . where to begin? Has there been anything on the Democratic side since WWII