US Politics
A Brief Disquisition on Ideology and Interest
Unemployment insurance is expiring, and the Republicans in Congress seem quite happy to let that disaster happen. One reason frequently cited for the Republican stance is their belief that unemployment insurance reduces incentives to work; in the conservative worldview, the ...
Read MoreFalse Balance, Again
Once again the New York Times’s “Invitation to a Dialogue” feature has gotten me riled up. Yesterday’s “Invitation” author has come up with the idea that both political parties need to shed their extreme wings, which will somehow enable the ...
Read MoreWhere Are We Now (Politically, that is)
I intended, when I first started this blog, to open with a broad overview of where US politics has been going in recent decades and where it might be headed. I didn’t get to do that because other more immediate ...
Read MoreC’mon, are the Republicans really crazy?
I’ve gotten some friendly pushback, outside of this website, from readers who question the appropriateness of my “crazy” characterization of the Republican Party. After all, can a whole political party really be crazy? Besides, in calling people crazy, aren’t I ...
Read MoreCenter-Right or Center-Left?
MSNBC host Ed Schultze, surveying Tuesday’s election and referendum results, pronounced the United States a “center-left country.” Only an unvarnished partisan could draw that conclusion from the mixed results of an odd/off-year election, but Schultze was undoubtedly pushing back against ...
Read MoreA couple of notes on our political lexicon: “national security” and “entitlements”
The reprieve that ended the government shutdown and forestalled default mandated that Congress come to agreement on a federal budget plan. As Democrats and Republicans grope toward an elusive Grand compromise, two categories of spending are certain to come under ...
Read MoreSo, how did the Republicans get so crazy? (II)
In an earlier post (Oct. 7) I asked the question: how did the Republican Party get so crazy? and answered it in part by tracing the gradual triumph of the radical right over the moderate establishment in internal Republican politics. ...
Read MoreThe Times and the Republican Civil War
Yesterday’s New York Times had a lengthy article on an intensifying battle for control of the Republican Party. On one side is the party establishment, which prefers to eschew the kind of extremist tactics that culminated in the party’s embarrassing ...
Read MoreBusiness and the “Conservatives”
Just a quick post today, since I can’t help noting that a front-page article in todays New York Times recalls points that I made earlier this week. The article relates how various business organizations in the US—including such traditionally right-wing ...
Read MoreWhat’s moderate?
Yesterday’s New York Times had a sympathetic front-page feature article on Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, focusing on Dent’s role as one of the small band of Republicans who have indicated a willingness to vote for a “clean” (i.e., no ...
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