In New York there is a traditional name for the kind of anonymous cash now cascading into the American electoral process. It’s called sewer money.
Political observers in the Empire State know that sewer money is generally nonpartisan, but in the national midterm contest, the largest amount by far is going toward the election of Read More
What do the Tea Party ideologues mean when they speak of liberty and freedom and the Constitution that they supposedly revere? Sometimes they are described as libertarians, but the behavior of their leading candidates betrays an authoritarian streak just beneath all the sonorous rhetoric.
The latest example is Joe Miller, the Republican Senate candidate from Read More
When American politicians talk about the legacy we are leaving to the next generation, their usual theme is financial deficits, as if there were no other kind. Figured on a per-capita basis, the real and imputed debt that today’s children will assume some day as taxpayers can seem daunting. But what our political leaders rarely Read More
Let nobody accuse the Tea Party enthusiasts of lacking intellectual sophistication, no matter what their favorite candidates might say about evolution, civil rights, masturbation or alcohol prohibition.
According to The Times, the movement’s reading list includes works of political economy by such right-wing thinkers as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek and Frederic Bastiat. (And Read More
For Americans still suffering from persistent unemployment, falling incomes and rising inequality, politicians of either party probably generate little enthusiasm. Yet although political ennui is understandable, the disaffection and demoralization of Democrats has created a dangerous political vacuum that is being filled with misleading data, urban legends and outright lies. Indeed, the entire Tea Party Read More
The Republicans have announced the forthcoming release of the “Contract from America” — a set of legislative proposals presumably intended to replicate the “Contract with America” used by their leaders in the historic 1994 midterm when they won control of both houses of Congress. The question immediately raised by this news is why John Boehner Read More
With their loud voices and antic style, the “tea party” activists may lead voters to expect something new and different if the Republican Party returns to power. But observing the man who would wield that power if his party wins a midterm majority should swiftly dispel that illusion.
There is nothing fresh or surprising about Read More
Among the very puzzling aspects of the midterm election–and the Democratic debacle that appears to be looming in November–is why voters would return the opposition to power only two years after the multiple disasters of the Bush administration. They know that the years of Republican dominance in Washington led to an extremely expensive war that Read More
Despite the kaleidoscopic proliferation of political media over the past decade, most of what Americans hear and read about the workings of our democracy can be politely termed superficial. Only very rarely does journalism fully penetrate the glittering illusions created by partisans on every side to reveal the grittier realities. When a reporter Read More
Nothing tests a president like standing up against a wave of fear and prejudice, even at potentially great cost to his own party and prospects. That is what Lyndon Baines Johnson did when he signed the civil rights acts he knew would forfeit the South to the Republicans for a generation or more.
And Read More
