Tag Archives | racism

Conservatives Lose Their Word

Commentary by , July 30, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Death of the Tea Party The Tea Party movement of ten years ago is now comprehensively dead. How do we know that? Because Republicans and Democrats in Congress just got together on a budget deal that approves deficits in excess of $1 trillion forever—at a time […]

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Declaring Independence from Independence

Commentary by , July 21, 2019

The big question about the impact of Donald Trump on the Republican Party is: will he be an aberration, a temporary departure from the normal rhetorical style and ideological composite of late-20th-Century conservatism—or will he usher in a “new normal,” a new baseline for what the party stands for and what it will tolerate? We’re […]

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Political Chaos Theory

Commentary by , July 18, 2019

“Chaos theory,” at least in the popular version, is the study of unstable systems that can rapidly reach a tipping point where massive and radical change occurs—the point at which a seemingly stable equilibrium careens toward dangerous extremes. Both major political parties experienced a chaos theory moment over the weekend, in which the balance we […]

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“We” Are All Socialists Now

Commentary by , April 2, 2019

It’s a little disconcerting how quickly the “libertarian moment” of the Tea Party era gave way to today’s socialist moment. The dissipation of that supposed “libertarian populism,” which has turned out to be more “populist” than “libertarian,” is certainly disappointing, but at least this history provides some hope that the socialist moment will prove just […]

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“I Didn’t Need to Do This”

Commentary by , February 19, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The National Emergency Emergency I declare a national emergency of presidents declaring national emergencies. Before President Trump declared ordinary conditions on the border to be a “national emergency,” there were already 28 active “national emergencies” giving the president special powers, and most have been in effect for […]

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The Wars of the Tribes

Feature Article by , January 24, 2019

The third annual Women’s March was held last weekend, and you may be forgiven if you didn’t notice. The event that emerged after the 2016 election as a central focus for the left’s “Resistance” against President Trump is collapsing. Estimates for this year’s crowd size vary but look to be 10% to 20% of the […]

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Trumpism Is Now Bipartisan

Feature Article by , January 15, 2019

Those of us who write about politics are faced with a dilemma over how to cover Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old who unexpectedly defeated a 10-term incumbent in the Democratic primary for New York’s 14th congressional district and went on to win the general election virtually unopposed in a heavily Democratic district. On the one hand, […]

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Workingmen and Reformers

Feature Article by , December 18, 2018

Top Stories of the Year: #4 Yesterday, I concluded that genuine political reforms have to be pursued almost in secret, outside of normal partisan lines. Actual activity certainly does not correlate with the degree of press coverage. The biggest non-story of the year, in that regard, was gun control. Shooting incidents are rare and—contrary to […]

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Be Careful What You Wish For

Commentary by , October 31, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Be Careful What You Wish For I vividly remember about two decades ago a lot of fevered talk about the “digital divide.” The idea was that only the well-off could afford computers, so only their children would be prepared for the new digital economy, while the poor […]

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Finally, There’s Just One Side in Charlottesville

Feature Article by , August 12, 2018

So the mainstream pundits are finally right. They said that there was only one side behind the violence in Charlottesville last year, despite extensive reports of black-clad, far-left “Antifa” eagerly brawling with the white nationalists. This has since been cemented as an article of dogma among mainstream “liberals,” who seem determined to run interference for […]

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