Although the convening of the Electoral College was marred by threats of violence from Trump supporters, none materialized, and the vote faithfully reflected the results… Read More »Blog No. 274. The Poisoning of American Democracy and the Silence of the Lambs
The results of the election brought a profound sense of relief and an urge to celebrate, but those thoughts were tinged with painful disappointment. The… Read More »Blog No. 271 The Election: Triumph and Disappointment
Blog No. 244, posted on December 31 of last year, was titled “The GOP: Can the Party of Lincoln Return?” After six months, it may… Read More »Blog No. 263b. The GOP and the Rise of the NeverTrump Insurgency
Occasionally we believe that a column or editorial in the media is so cogent and compelling that it deserves reprinting in full for the benefit of readers who may not have seen it. The column below by Robert Kagan from The Washington Post is such a writing.
Robert Kagan is a historian, author and foreign policy expert of broad experience who has served several administrations in varying capacities. Although Kagan is best known for neoconservative views of foreign policy, the column below does not deal with foreign policy. Rather it concerns the candidacy of Donald Trump and its implications for not only the Republican Party but the country. According to Wikipedia, Kagan was a Republican until this year and is now an Independent.
Read More »Blog No 100. Robert Kagan on Donald Trump and Fascism in America
The results of the Super Tuesday balloting may not have been all that surprising, but on the Republican side they were grimly depressing. The nightmare of Donald Trump continues to unfold as a major portion of the Republican base remains in a Trump-induced stupor, unreachable by fact or logic. The New York Times is no friend of the Republican Party, but in its Wednesday editorial we think they had it about right: “The Republicans seem to be reeling, unable or unwilling to comprehend that a shady, bombastic liar is hardening the image of their party as a symbol of intolerance and division.”
If Trump emerges as the Republican nominee, as now seems likely, the consequences are hard to imagine, but among them may well be the end of the Republican Party. When we founded RINOcracy.com three years ago, our motto was “RINOs, let us unite and put our hides on the line to save our party from itself!” At the time, we looked at saving the Republican Party as a daunting task to which we could make only a minor contribution at best. But it is now questionable whether saving the party remains a rational objective or whether it now belongs in a form of political hospice.Read More »Special Bulletin. Stupor Tuesday.
Supporters of a $15 minimum wage at a gathering in November in Manhattan. A group of liberal and conservative economists produced a plan on alleviating poverty. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
If you have been paying any attention to America’s paralyzed politics, you are not going to believe this.
Read More »Special Bulletin: Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty – The New York Times
On January 31, The New York Times published endorsements of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president and John Kasich for the Republican nomination. The Clinton endorsement was ringing and enthusiastic while that of Kasich was a bit grudging and in the “best of a bad lot” genre. Predictably, neither endorsement had any perceptible effect in Iowa, although Clinton’s “victory” over Bernie Sanders was so tiny that one cannot exclude the possibility that the endorsement could have tipped the balance. On the Republican side, Kasich finished well toward the bottom and, to the extent that Republican voters noticed the Times editorial at all, any endorsement from that source might well have counted more as a negative than a positive. (The last Republican endorsed by The New York Times in a general election was Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.)Read More »Special Bulletin. The New York Times Endorsements and the Iowa Caucuses
Michael Bloomberg recently put a toe in the political waters by letting it be known that he was considering a race for president in 2016 as an Independent. According to a story in The New York Times, Bloomberg is unhappy with a possible choice of candidates between Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee, and Bernie Sanders the Democratic opponent.Read More »Blog No. 92. The Bloomberg Toe and the Clinton and Sanders Pas De Deux