While America Sleeps
In 1938, Winston Churchill published a book, While England Slept, which exposed the United Kingdom’s failure to address or prepare for the growth of Germany’s… Read More »While America Sleeps
Democrats
Guest Blog by John Broesamle: Is America on the Threshold of a Transforming Era of Reform? (Part II – Q&A)
Doug Parker has posed several excellent questions concerning my earlier remarks about reform movements. I will attempt to respond to them briefly and provide some… Read More »Guest Blog by John Broesamle: Is America on the Threshold of a Transforming Era of Reform? (Part II – Q&A)
Blog No. 201 Wring out the Old, Ring in the New
Wring Out the Old Many, perhaps most, readers may prefer to think of 2018 as eminently forgettable and have little wish to revisit its high… Read More »Blog No. 201 Wring out the Old, Ring in the New
Blog No. 189. A Few Words For Democrats in 2018 and 2020
Blog No. 188 observed that RINOs and other disaffected Republicans should wish for, and give their support to, a Democratic victory in the House of… Read More »Blog No. 189. A Few Words For Democrats in 2018 and 2020
Blog No. 155. Trump and the Democrats (and a brief au revoir)
The deal that Trump suddenly struck with Democratic leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi is at once promising and perilous. It is promising… Read More »Blog No. 155. Trump and the Democrats (and a brief au revoir)
Blog No. 80. The Democratic “Debate” and Questions Not Asked
There is a broad consensus that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic “Debate.” We put the term in quotes because the event resembled not so much a debate as a joint press conference. With that qualification, we would not quarrel with the assessment that Ms. Clinton performed well and no doubt solidified her status as a front-runner. It is not that the other participants did poorly: they all seemed knowledgeable and well prepared, there were no egregious misstatements, and the event was happily free of personal sniping. Yet none of the others had the kind of breakout moment that each must have hoped for. All in all, the range of the conversation was, with few exceptions, from center left to far left and the interrogators asked few probing questions to get below the surface.
Given the cornucopia of commentary, we thought the most interesting exercise might be to note some questions that we hope might be asked in the next round. (The questions involve issues that Republican candidates will also have to address sooner or later.)Read More »Blog No. 80. The Democratic “Debate” and Questions Not Asked
Blog No 69. Surprise: Republicans May Know How to Govern After All
It is still early days, but there are some encouraging signs that Republican leaders in the Senate and House have found the ability to get things done—actually legislate—despite Democratic opposition and the Oozlums of the right gnawing at their ankles.
The first major milestone came two months ago when Republicans abandoned the quixotic attempt to block the President’s executive actions with respect to immigration. While we had disapproved of those actions, the response of holding up funding for Homeland Security seemed to us to make as much sense as treating a toothache by hitting yourself on the head with a hammer.Read More »Blog No 69. Surprise: Republicans May Know How to Govern After All
Blog No. 50. The 2014 Election and the 114th Congress
The 2014 elections produced an outpouring of commentary and analyses from the Cacophony of Pundits (Cf. Pride of Lions, Murder of Crows). The products of the Cacophony began with explanations to why the elections came out as they did and proceeded to consider the prospects for cooperation between President and Congress going forward. Given the volume of the punditry, it may be difficult to provide observations that readers will not have already come across somewhere else. Nevertheless, we will attempt to provide, as briefly as possible, our own perspectives.Read More »Blog No. 50. The 2014 Election and the 114th Congress
Blog No. 38. Climate Change: Will the GOP Ever Warm Up To It?
On a recurring basis a rather troubling vision comes to mind. It is a reprise of that night on August 11, 2011 when Bret Baier said to the assembled candidates:
“I’m going to ask a question to everyone here on the stage. Say you had a deal, a real spending cuts deal, 10-to-1, as Byron [York] said, spending cuts to tax increases…. Who on this stage would walk away from that deal? Can you raise your hand if you feel so strongly about not raising taxes, you’d walk away on the 10-to-1 deal?”
All eight candidates dutifully raised their hand. It was then, if not before, that the image of Mitt Romney as human pretzel began to form.
Read More »Blog No. 38. Climate Change: Will the GOP Ever Warm Up To It?
Blog No. 18 A Good Day for the Republican Party – and its Coming War with the Tea Party
Tuesday was a good day for the Republican Party because it brought the resounding victory of Governor Chris Christie. Christie demonstrated convincingly that, even in a decidedly “blue” state, a Republican can win with an appeal that crosses economic and ethnic boundaries. As the Wall Street Journal argued, Christie is a “conservative” and not a “moderate:”
The Governor has by and large governed as a conservative reformer. He vetoed a tax increase on millionaires and capped property taxes. He pushed tenure reforms that will make it easier to fire bad teachers, and he extracted far more pension reform out of a Democratic legislature than did Democratic Governors Jerry Brown in California or Andrew Cuomo in New York.
Read More »Blog No. 18 A Good Day for the Republican Party – and its Coming War with the Tea Party