Category: Political Matters

Proposition or Place?

I have heard America described several times recently as “the first nation built on an idea,” or words to that effect. It made me uncomfortable, somehow coming across as sinister blather. But I didn’t stop to figure out why.

Yet there are few questions – perhaps none at all – more important to our common life than just what it is we do “have in common.” In that form, the question has been roiling me for more than a decade. Now my thinking has been jump-started  Continue reading “Proposition or Place?” →

Just politics

My tidbits for the day were getting too numerous, so I took political stuff over here. It was a very political day, it seems.

  1. Gloves off!
  2. Iron fist.
  3. The Fleshpots of Reagan.
  4. Paean to Palin
  5. Ron Paul is winning.
  6. Perry’s Crony Capitalism.

1

Whoa! Susan B. Anthony List takes the gloves off! It’s going to be a long 13-1/2 months.

This style ad is not my cup of tea, but although hyperbolic, it’s essentially true.

2

I commented yesterday on President Obama losing the Catholic vote and the Jewish vote (though he was working like crazy at the U.N. today to regain the latter).

Catholic Archbishop Dolan, speaking on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference, today asked the administration to “’push the reset button’ on their multipronged efforts to undermine marriage and treat Catholics who believe in marriage as bigots.”

“…it is particularly upsetting, Mr. President, when your Administration, through the various court documents, pronouncements and policies identified in the attached analysis, attributes to those who support DOMA a motivation rooted in prejudice and bias.  It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination, as your Administration insists on doing.”

Just so.  No hyperbole, but there’s an iron fist in that velvet glove. No wonder Obama’s in trouble with conservative religious folks. “They only call it culture wars when we fight back.”

The Archbishop’s full letter is here.

3

But opposition to the current administration’s positions on social issues does not mean I’m “Pining for the Fleshpots of Reagan,” as Jason Peters reminds us of a few derelictions of the Grand Old Partiers.

4

I should have commented on it at the time, but I didn’t quite believe my eyes: the New York Times publishing some friendly words toward Sarah Palin, because she (briefly? Time will tell) broke with GOP talking points and committed Truth. (HT Patrick Deneen)

5

Dana Milbank at the Washington Post explains how Ron Paul is winning exactly what he intended to win: control of the terms of debate. Disregard the snarky adjectives and it’s worth a read.

6

Mark Thiesen and Jennifer Rubin spar at the Washington Post about whether Texans for Public Justice cronyism charges against Rick Perry are meritorious. Thiesen says no, essentially because they’ve been making the same charge against every Texas Republican who rises to national prominence.

I’m with Rubin, who thinks Perry needs to address the issue. It seems to me that as widepread as crony capitalism is (even Sarah Palin has noticed), Texans for Public Justice might be repeating the charge because it’s repeatedly true.

I’m fond of Texas, having lived there on assignment many years ago, but it’s a whole ‘Nuther Country. Not “deep South” but barely (or is it “quintessentially”?) American.

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Bon appetit!