Political Thought

Rebuilding the RI GOP Part I: Forming a Political Philosophy

By Marc Comtois | November 10, 2006 |

I think an important distinction needs to be made in this discussion about re-invigorating the Rhode Island Republican Party by “defining conservatism.’ The attempt to excise the social aspects from the holistic definition of conservatism–essentially smaller government and traditional morality–indicates that it’s not conservatism that is being defined so much as Rhode Island Republicanism. The…

Requiring a Moral Excuse for Due Diligence

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2006 | Comments Off on Requiring a Moral Excuse for Due Diligence

The comments to my most recent post on same-sex marriage rapidly branched off into discussion of a Westerly Republican politician who is, apparently, homosexual. Having not researched the man for myself, I won’t presume to offer analysis; I’ll merely explain that the initial question posed by a commenter, Bryan, was: “How can a man who…

Theocrats, Moral Relativism & the Myth of Religious Tolerance, Part IV: Moral Recovery via Rediscovering the Meaning of Words

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 24, 2006 |

The comments sections of Part I: The Difference Between Religious Freedom and Religious Tolerance Part II: Are We Hostile Toward or Encouraging Religious Belief? Part III: Consequences of Excluding Religion from the Public Square of this Theocrats, Moral Relativism & the Myth of Religious Tolerance series, plus Justin’s Favoring the Non-Participatory posting, offer up many…

Theocrats, Moral Relativism & the Myth of Religious Tolerance, Part III: Consequences of Excluding Religion From the Public Square

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 14, 2006 |

Part I in this series discussed how there is an important distinction between “tolerance” and “freedom.” Justin, in a subsequent email to me, described it this way: Tolerance asserts authority; freedom implies autonomy, perhaps even precedence. Part II in this series noted how both the role of religion in the public square of our society…

Theocrats, Moral Relativism & the Myth of Religious Tolerance, Part II: Are We Hostile Toward or Encouraging Religious Belief?

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 10, 2006 |

In a comment to the Part I posting, Joe Mahn writes: …From my simple perspective and I think in the context of the actual events of the time religious freedom meant that no State in the Union under the Constitution could force, by law, any citizen to participate in, confess, or otherwise practice any particular…

Theocrats, Moral Relativism & the Myth of Religious Tolerance, Part I: The Difference Between Religious Freedom & Religious Tolerance

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 9, 2006 |

Do we believe in reason and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong? Do we believe in and teach the uniqueness of our Western Civilization tradition? Or, has the relativism of multiculturalism dumbed it all down to where there are no standards of excellence or truth discoverable by some combination of reason or faith?…

Ideological Amplification

By Marc Comtois | September 1, 2006 |

The New Republic’s Open University is a new blog with the goal of providing a place for “the magazine’s contributors and friends in the professoriate comment on current events, bring their expertise to bear on Topic A, and discuss the academic issues of the day.” As one with a bit of “policy wonkishness”, my interest…

Economic Thoughts, Part VII: The Role of Government in a Free Society

By | May 25, 2006 |

This posting is Part VII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from Chapter 2 of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic book, Capitalism & Freedom in which he discusses the role of government in a free society: …To the [nineteenth-century] liberal, the appropriate means are free discussion and voluntary…

Economic Thoughts, Part V: The Relationship Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom

By | May 23, 2006 |

This posting is Part V in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from the Introduction of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic book, Capitalism & Freedom in which he begins a discussion about the relationship between economic freedom and political freedom: …The free man will ask neither what his country…

The Declaration Of Independence & What It Means To Be An American Citizen

By | May 3, 2006 |

To lessen the lack of clarity in the immigration debate about what it means to be an American citizen, let’s go back to the first principles of the American Founding. The Claremont Institute has developed a web-based overview of the Declaration of Independence which includes these sub-sections: A Guide to the Declaration of Independence Issues…