David Ignatius reports that Charles Peters, long-time editor of the Washington Monthly and, not incidentally, one-time mentor/editor to David, has the solution to the Democrats’ electoral woes, presented in his new book We Do Our Part. In writing the book, Charlie gets in line behind paleolibs Thomas “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Frank and Michael…
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Yo, Frank Rich! Want to beat Trump! REPEAL RENT CONTROL!
New York’s Frank Rich has an always hilarious and frequently accurate takedown of what Manhattanite Frank deems “Hillbilly Chic”, the new fashion for feeling the pain of the OxyContin-poppin’ white trash who supposedly put Donald Trump in the White House. As Frank shrewdly points out, if Hillary hadn’t pocketed over $21 million in speaking fees…
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Donald Trump
On November 9, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte engineered a coup that made him First Consul and ended republican government in France. By the date of the Republican calendar then in effect in France, the date was 18 Brumaire in the year VIII.1 In 1852, Karl Marx wrote The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, commemorating in contempt…
Globalism lays an egg. Why?
As unprecedentedly awful as America’s politics are right now, in one way, we’re perfectly normal, because we’re just like everyone else. The monumental disarray of our Republican and Democratic parties is perfectly mirrored in the UK by the Conservatives and Laborites. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson could be twins. The specter haunting Europe these days…
Brexit, Part 2: What is to be done?
The impact of Brexit continues to roil and rumble. Paul Krugman say’s it’s not that big a deal—well, not unless you live in the UK itself, where “it looks all too likely that the vote will both empower the worst elements in British political life and lead to the breakup of the UK itself.” So,…
Please God, let Bernie be crushed
I know that’s not much of a prayer, but that’s how I feel. But, even if my wish comes true, and Hillary Clinton can earn a majority of delegates prior to the convention this summer, Bernieismo has already taken its toll on the Democratic Party, pushing a donkey that was not terribly “progressive” in the…
Neoliberalism and its discontents
Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote a contemptuous take down of Thomas Piketty’s then notorious book, Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century. If anyone has been citing Piketty’s arguments in the current presidential primary season, I’ve yet to hear it, but that hardly matters, because global capitalism is taking a pounding from all quarters, a…
42 Democrats in search of a policy
I don’t know if the recent vote in the Senate by 42 Democratic senators that temporarily derailed President Obama’s Pacific trade package was purely for show, but I suspect that much of it was. Politics is a two-way street, after all, and a smart politician always works both sides when he can. But there’s no…
Marx + Foucault = Piketty
With the possible exception of Chelsea Clinton’s baby bump, no one is getting more press these days than Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which has lefties like Paul Krugman all in a lather. “Inequality is the new black!” they exclaim. “We’re going to win this mother!” Piketty’s basic pitch, delivered through…
The Wall Street Journal sends up a flair
In the course of an article about political protest in North Carolina, Wall Street Journal editorial board member and senior economics writer Stephen Moore takes on Rev. William Barber II, “a loquacious, likable and politically shrewd preacher and leader of the North Carolina NAACP.” Moore describes Barber’s reaction to proposed changes to North Carolina’s election…