Surviving Orlando
Some days when I go to my computer to see the news I feel a strong sense of dread and weariness. Today’s one of those days. The Orlando massacre has had the highly predictable result of exposing the fault lines … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Politics
Awakening from the Trump spell? Too little, too late
I noticed that a prominent Trump facilitator and a prominent Trump shill are rather unhappy with Trump’s recent comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel. The facilitator is Joe Scarborough: After months of amiable interviews and a report that their “friendship” was … Continue reading →
One of the reasons we’re in this predicament: talk shows
Talk shows seemed like a great idea at the beginning. And in many ways they still are. I’m not against them, or saying they should stop. They provide a gathering place and information for political junkies, a forum for a … Continue reading →
Zachary Taylor analogies
Politico has an article describing the effect the candidacy of Zachary Taylor had on the Whig Party in 1848. Hint: not good, not good at all. Many have called Donald Trump’s unexpected takeover of a major political party unprecedented; but … Continue reading →
GOP politicians: no good choices this time around
Until the Indiana primary revealed that the GOP nominee in 2016 would be Donald Trump, I fought that prospect tooth and nail. I did what I could to write about his flaws, and why I saw so many of the … Continue reading →
The menace of political ignorance
How can voters make informed decisions without knowing how our government works? The answer is—they can’t. How ignorant is the American public? This ignorant: An October Farleigh Dickinson survey found that only 34% of Americans can name the three branches … Continue reading →
Bill and Donald: with friends like these…
For years, the Clintons and Trump used to be friends—or what passes for friends these days among the rich, famous, narcissistic, and hypocritical. That’s one of the reasons why, early this primary season, a lot of people thought Trump was … Continue reading →
More…
…about a certain segment of the alt-right.
Continue reading →The ennui of political weariness
I’ve noticed that a lot of people on the right have had it with politics, at least for now. After many years of struggling to explain the details of the Iraq War and why it was waged rather than why … Continue reading →
Campaign funding hypocrisy: Obama and Trump
I clearly remember when I first became truly alarmed during Obama’s 2008 campaign. Originally I didn’t know much about Obama, and slowly but surely began to notice warning signs that he might be worse than the garden-variety liberal Democratic candidate … Continue reading →
Talking to Trump
Everyone’s conferring with Trump. Paul Ryan, for example. Makes sense. They want to see what he’ll promise, what they’re willing to give, whether it’s a good idea to support him, and probably much more. But I wonder if they understand … Continue reading →
Fighting “stupidity”
The always-fascinating Richard Fernandez offers some quotes from anti-Nazi Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I want to call attention to: “Against stupidity we are defenseless,” [Bonhoeffer] wrote, because imbeciles never feel a qualm. Against the stupid “neither protests nor the use of … Continue reading →