I blow hot and cold on old Fred Kaplan, who hangs his hat at Slate, most recently, cold, when Fred waxed hot, announcing that “America’s retreat from the world under Trump has shown why we’re still the indispensable nation”1, vaguely claiming that all the world is crying out for American “leadership” to solve all their…
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Trump, not as bad as he could be. That is to say, not as bad as he will be
Controversy swirls, have you noticed? It does, a lot, about the FBI, about immigration, about North Korea, about everything! The world goes round, and controversy goes around. Yeah, a whole lot of controversy these days. It would be nice if we could step back and get some perspective, a balanced view, as it were, one…
The Coming Republican Crack Up? Fumin’ Donors and Fumin’ Members!
There seems to be an amusing level of, you know, stress breaking out among both Republican money bags and Republican Congress folk as Republican “ideas” collide with, you know, reality. Over at Politico, Alex Isenstadt and Gabriel Debenedetti report that “Angry GOP donors close their wallets”, while the Washington Examiner’s David M. Drucker tells us…
Ross Douthat, Lee Drutman, and Karen Handel explain it all for you
Scatter much? The Democrats sure don’t, if you can read the fine print of this graph, appearing in a report, Political Divisions in 2016 and Beyond, prepared by the folks at “Voterstudygroup” and written by Lee Drutman, linked to by the not always to be ridiculed and scorned by me Ross Douthat. As Ross points…
Honest John Boehner, A “Good Republican”—that is to say, a coward and a fraud
John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015, engaged in one of the prerogatives of those who have relinquished power—speaking the truth. Among other things, Boehner claimed that all that Republican talk about repealing and replacing ObamaCare is just talk: “They’ll fix Obamacare, and I shouldn’t have called it repeal and…
Sarah Palin and David Ricardo, peas in a pod!
Some time ago, in one of my many railings against our president-elect, I noted that, once upon a time, even echt-dirty fingernail Republican Sarah Palin was a die-hard free-trader. Well, it looks like Sarah’s fingernails are still dirty, and her heart, and her free-trade principles, still true, for she’s risen up in rightuous wrath against…
Did Obama “Create” Trump? No. Did he make his election possible? Sort of.
President Obama did not create the candidacy of Donald Trump. “Responsible” Republicans like Ross Douthat have been pushing that banal meme since the Donald first reared his ugly head back in the primaries, a falsehood that received a proper beat down from Slate’s William Saletan at the time. As Bill put it, “Obama is an…
Dying Elephant, Struggling Donkey: Politics for the 21st Century
As of this writing, the odds favoring Hillary Clinton’s election stand at 92%, almost enough to allow me to breathe easily. I wish it were higher, but just think how I’d feel if it were only, say, 75%! Yes, Donald Trump’s big mouth, and his tiny, groping hands, have made life much easier for Nervous…
Harvard douchebaggery not exclusively a left-wing phenomenon, study reveals
Well, it did. I did the study, and I’m revealing it. In fact, I already revealed it last week, with my takedown of right-wing Harvard douchebag N. Gregory Mankiw for trying to make us feel sorry for trust-fund babies. Well, now I have a new study, and it seems that there’s a goddamn outbreak of…
Republicans say “Hurray for Hillary!” Democrats say “Hurrah for Trump!”
Yes, Republicans do. Suppose the Democrats had nominated a competent candidate—not necessarily a “dream” candidate à la Barack Obama—but one who, you know, hadn’t lied her 69-year-old ass off about pretty much everything under the sun while operating a multi-million-dollar shakedown racket cum non-profit cum political machine. Just suppose. Then the Democrats wouldn’t be beating…