Political Thought
It seems as if something has significantly changed in electoral politics — or else, that something that has been changing crossed into a visible field of light. The most striking example may have been in Alaska, where Senator Lisa Murkowski rejected the decision of the Republican Party’s primary voters and ran as a write-in candidate,…
The talk was of political theory and second chances for Michael Vick when I spoke with guest host Tony Cornetta on the Matt Allen Show last night. Stream by clicking here, or download it. I didn’t go into the sales pitch, but please email or call (401-835-7156) me to pledge financial support — as subscriptions,…
Over on the WPRI site, Ted Nesi is running a series of “Dear Mr. Chafee” essays by “five of the state’s smartest citizens.” I’ll admit that I’m a bit suspicious of his claim — inasmuch as I’m on the list — but Tom Sgouros, who penned the first in the series is surely among the…
Roger Simon’s Thanksgiving musings struck me as particularly poignant: My real beef with Barack Obama is that he does not want to acknowledge that [America represents human aspiration to the world] or he doesn’t believe it. I don’t know which. But in any case he rejects it. I saw that most clearly on what was…
One can sense a desire, in the broadly defined Tea Party movement, to repeal something among the many decisions, amendments, and statutes that have diluted the Founders’ experiment of divided government powers. Todd Zywicki marks the introduction of the Seventeenth Amendment to the list of candidates for rethinking: Election of senators by state legislatures was…
Being unemployed for long periods is a terrible experience for those who lack the resources to survive an extended financial drain. Especially when a family is on the line, the hopelessness and fear of joblessness is one of modern life’s greatest anxieties. Still, at a certain point, unemployment benefits begin to become a weapon of…
Robert Whitcomb ruminates over the “psychological” conservatism of New England: New Englanders are in fact more psychologically conservative than most of the rest of the country, whatever the social and economic liberalism ascribed to them by the press. That their rates of divorce, illegitimacy, alcohol and other drug abuse, personal bankruptcy and other signs of…
Catching up on my reading, I highlighted the following, from First Thing editor Joseph Bottum’s thoughts on the Ground Zero mosque controversy: Real democracy is messy. It’s got protestors and agitators and banners and manners and morals and financial pressures and gossip and policemen on horses keeping an eye out to make sure it doesn’t…
Theodore Gatchel suggests that one way to improve the function of Congress is to narrow the focus of each legislative item: If the Democrats had broken health-care legislation into smaller, “clean” bills, each of which dealt with a single aspect of health care, President Obama might well have gained more of what he wanted, and…
I’ll be relieved when today has passed, for community engagement reasons, and I’ll be relieved when Tuesday has passed, for political involvement reasons, and I’ll be relaxed when November has passed, for professional reasons. Which all serves obliquely to explain why I’m just now, of a Saturday morning, catching up on Mark Steyn’s week of…