Posted on November 20th, 2009 by Oskar Chomicki
The American political class is perennially obsessed with which party will come to power and what agenda it will implement, but, in some respects, this is a shortsighted view. Ultimately, victories for partisan legislation may pale in significance to constitutional changes. (Here, I use “constitutional” in the sense of the broader political system, the balance [...]
Filed under: Congress, Conservatism, Courts, Election, History, Politics, Uncategorized
Posted on November 18th, 2009 by Clark Stooksbury
Glenn Reynolds is near obsessed with comparing Barack Obama to history’s greatest monster, Jimmy Carter. He opines that a “Carter-era rerun is a best-case scenario at this point.”
But Reynolds may be somewhat sheltered. His internet stomping appears to be confined to sites within the right-wing bubble, including Pajamas Media, Ann Althouse and Gateway Pundit.
But normal [...]
Filed under: Conservatism
Posted on November 18th, 2009 by Oskar Chomicki
We may not be sure of Sarah Palin’s ability to assume a political office of national scope, but we can be certain she is polarizing. Obviously there is a gap between left and right, but, interestingly, the conservative commentariat itself is deeply divided. Even within the Weekly Standard crowd, Palin inspires vastly diverging reactions. Matthew [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Politics
Posted on November 16th, 2009 by Oskar Chomicki
Last Thursday’s event at the New America Foundation on the “rural brain drain” billed itself as examining a “major policy problem that has largely escaped media and political attention.” Indeed, you may get glimpses of this issue from time to time–as we did when media attention was focused on the rural “meth problem” earlier [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Culture, Economics
Posted on November 15th, 2009 by Clark Stooksbury
In the midst of a debate with Conor Friedersdorf, John Hawkins of Right Wing News produces this gem of thought:
. . . the reason so many conservatives are hacked off at moderates is because they are the ones who supported many of the dumb positions that decimated the GOP over the last eight years. It [...]
Filed under: Conservatism
Posted on November 5th, 2009 by Oskar Chomicki
Whenever someone uses the term “mainstream media,” you can almost be certain it will be meant derisively. For folks on the right, “MSM” is convenient shorthand for talking about a nefarious elite bent on imposing radical leftism, both of the economic and cultural variety, on America. Indeed, despite the journalism profession’s protestations of objectivity, the [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Politics, media
Posted on October 22nd, 2009 by Daniel McCarthy
A new issue The American Conservative went to press today — our Fall books issue. Highlights include:
– A symposium on the best books you probably haven’t read, featuring contributions from Alexander Waugh, Florence King, Sam Tanenhaus, Peregrine Worsthorne, David Bromwich, Justin Raimondo,
Alfred Regnery, George Scialabba, Michael Lind, and many more
– Daniel Hannan, British Conservative Party [...]
Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Magazines
Posted on October 16th, 2009 by Clark Stooksbury
here’s a couple of differing views on the Limbaugh/NFL business. Jay Nordlinger had a little tantrum about it:
Frankly, I’m so angry about this, I’m not sure I should write about it. I’m even a little shaken, and perhaps you are, too. Let me be blunt: The effort to keep Rush Limbaugh from participating in a [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, media
Posted on October 15th, 2009 by Sean Scallon
I promised when I returned from my blogging vacation (a little longer than I had anticipated) to address Richard Spencer’s critique of my TAC article “Breaking the Bank”, back in August, specifically his question “What then?”:
“A more fundamental problem with Scallon’s essay is that he never informs us what he wants to take the place [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Politics
Posted on October 12th, 2009 by Clark Stooksbury
On Friday, Matt Welch linked to a Columbia Journalism Review article imploring journalists to “Own its Liberalism.” The most interesting part comes at the end:
Although it is the subject for another essay, the fact is that there are very few good conservative reporters. There are many intellectually impressive conservative advocates and opinion leaders, but the [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, media