October 2021
Good Character and the Constitution
Until the former presidency of Donald Trump, we made a number of assumptions about the American system: its protections, its norms of political behavior, and its historic evolution to more and more inclusions. We generally trusted in our legal system, particularly the Supreme Court, to protect our Democracy.
We did not pay much attention to how much damage could be done by an individual with a bad character who could corrupt a cadre of fellow bad characters to support him. more...
History and Science Dim Bulbs
A minority of Americans engage in malpractice against the rest of us, who with even high school education understand something of how science operates and history enriches and informs us.
The loud-mouthed bullies shouting at school board meetings proclaim that nobody has the right to tell them to wear masks or get vaccinated. They howl about freedom, their freedom to do as they like with their own bodies. Apparently, they understand nothing about public health, laws design more...
One Hand Clapping?
We have had few times in our history that one party was so dominant that it governed almost unimpeded. The Republicans after the end of the Civil War had an almost unchallenged role until Woodrow Wilson in 1914. And the Democrats during the Depression and throughout World War II dominated, even granting a president four reelections.
However, we have never had a time in which there was refusal of the minority party to engage in bipartisan legislation. The current Republican party, more...
However, we have never had a time in which there was refusal of the minority party to engage in bipartisan legislation. The current Republican party, more...
The Fate of Tyrants
Our news media have a short attention span. Otherwise savvy commentators talk about Trump?s future run for president in 2024. A lot can happen in the next three years that they didn?t see coming.
Former president Trump today wears a perpetual scowl, bitterly denying that he lost the 2020 election. His life-long practice of blaming his own failures on the cheating of his adversaries isn?t working, despite lying about "thousands of fake ballots." But his gullible cult worshippers c more...
Former president Trump today wears a perpetual scowl, bitterly denying that he lost the 2020 election. His life-long practice of blaming his own failures on the cheating of his adversaries isn?t working, despite lying about "thousands of fake ballots." But his gullible cult worshippers c more...
Panic in Party?s Demise
We have a model of a party?s death throes in history, when during the 1850s, the Whig Party floundered to find its footing. Whatever issues had been important to the Whigs from its inception: limited government, fiscal responsibility, and aristocratic values (John Quincy Adams was the last of such), by 1850, slavery divided the party and the desperation was visible.
One of the worst decisions made by the Whig-dominated Supreme Court was to sustain the Fugitive Slave act: that any more...
One of the worst decisions made by the Whig-dominated Supreme Court was to sustain the Fugitive Slave act: that any more...