Conservatism
WASHINGTON D.C. — The debate I atteneded on whether the U.S. should either reform or just withdraw from the UN was disappointing. Jeff Gayner of “Americans for Sovereignty” made the usual (and compelling) arguments for full US withdrawal — the UN is corrupt, the UN tries to impose rules that go beyond what our government…
WASHINGTON D.C. — 4. The Vice-President was unapologetic about the NSA warrantless surveillance program. And he was very clear on one factual point. Only calls where one end was outside of the United States were monitored. This, I believe, is the substantive fact that will make this a non-issue. The fourth amendment bars “unreasonable searches…
WASHINGTON D.C. — 3. The good news is that energy policy occupied a prominent place in the Vice-President’s remarks. The bad news is that the supposition from earlier in the week seemed to be borne out; solar and wind were not presented as significant alternatives. The components of energy policy mentioned by Vice-President Cheney were…
D. W. MacKenzie wrote in the October 2002 issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, the monthly publication of the Foundation for Economic Education, about the coercive role of government: I am government… Coercion is both my vocation and my avocation; it is in my very nature to compel others to do that which they…
Thinking aloud over at The Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru asks, “What do conservatives gain if Chafee wins?” But first he makes a case for conservative retribution against Sen. Chafee: The more I think about it, the more important it seems to me that Steve Laffey beat him in the Rhode Island Senate primary. None of the…
Walter Williams, once again, cuts through all the political posturing about the rationale for lobbying reforms in his latest editorial: …Whatever actions Congress might take in the matter of lobbying are going to be just as disappointing in ending influence-peddling as their Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the McCain-Feingold bill. Before we…
Here’s a little more on why I think Jeffrey Hart’s use of the term “Wilsonian” to describe George W. Bush’s foreign policy obfuscates, rather than clarifies, the debate over the nature of a conservative foreign policy. Hart states that…George W. Bush has firmly situated himself in [the Wilsonian] tradition, as in his 2003 pronouncement, “The…
To build on Justin’s latest post, I’d point you to John Hinderaker’s post in which he boils down what has happened to the Republicans over the last year and asks why they appear so weak-kneed: So what has happened in the past twelve months to terrify so many of our Republican office-holders? Two hurricanes struck,…
Upon the withdrawal of Harriet Meirs nomination to the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said: “The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination. Apparently, Ms. Miers did not satisfy those who want to pack the Supreme Court with rigid ideologues.” Well, once again, Senator Reid doesn’t know…
By now, most have heard that Harriet Miers has withdrawn herself from consideration for the Supreme Court (go here or here for more). While conservatives are relieved and are patting themselves on the back, there are many Republican party loyalists who are accusing them of being “extreme” conservatives and of ultimately undermining the President. Despite…
