What you can count on conservatives to do, from the low to the lofty, is view every issue through the prism of ideology. Disinterested, to them, means disinclined to be interested, uninterested, only. Actually detaching their interests in one issue from their consideration of another is a constitutional corruption. Thus, whether Rush Limbaugh or George […]
The Conventional National Convention II
A convention is not the conventional. A convention is a rule, a standard, a procedure and its meaning. The conventional is the loss of meaning. It is a practice stripped of its purpose, a rule worn by time and unconsciousness of its originating intent. The origin of the conventional, like that of the convention from […]
The Future of American Conservatism
As American conservatism careens into know-nothing-populist, reactionary and subversive collision with modernity, the question still remains whether any forces can divert its course before decades of damage are done. It can be that bad. It was for liberalism post Vietnam. And the Right is as full of conviction now as the Left was then. As […]
Republicans: the Party of Stop
They are against the social safety net: social security, unemployment insurance, any form of government guaranteed health insurance or care that doesn’t already exist, and they long to go after what does. They fought gay rights, they fight gay marriage, they oppose the repeal of DADT. If they had their way there would be no […]
The Republicans and the National Debt
The chart making the rounds in recent days is Chuck Finney’s graph of the increase or decrease of the national debt since 1949 over both Democratic and Republican administrations. It’s striking, it’s powerful, visuals always help, but it is also nothing that was not already known. Economic growth reduces deficits and debt, recession, as Ezra […]