Spoiled children stink at birthday parties. Tantrums follow such egregious offenses as having to wait in line (as opposed to waiting one’s turn) or not getting the red popsicle (be happy you got one at all). Spoiled children cannot handle that the world does not bend to their desires. And while they are not the…
Category: National politics
Joe Biden, Tara Reade, & Morality “Rightly” Understood
Sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden will undoubtedly be exploited by the Republicans as a way to reduce progressive voter turnout. Interestingly, their own candidate’s far worse sins will not dampen right wing exploitation of this allegation against Biden, which will succeed in helping convince some progressives to stay home or to cast a “protest…
Politics is the Treatment not the Disease
“Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.” President Dwight Eisenhower We are living through a real time, real world, global collective action problem. If you think the way…
From the Archives: “Warren Won’t Endorse Sanders”
I wrote the following on February 22, 2016 and I expect the reasoning to hold up as Warren makes a very similar calculation in the wake of ending her presidential bid: Speculation about when or if Senator Elizabeth Warren would endorse one of the candidates battling for her party’s nomination has been hot and heavy. …
The American Electoral System
Have you ever thought about how insane the way we elect our President is? Consider the following: it has been 2 and a half years since the first democratic hopeful—John Delaney—officially announced his candidacy. Since then we have had 18 candidates announce and drop out all before a single vote was cast. We will now…
Will “Big Data” Revive the Divisive Primary Hypothesis?
Julia Azari is one of my favorite political scientists. I’m a big fan of both her work and her very entertaining Facebook posts. Nonetheless, I am not nearly as confident as she is that the crowded Democratic primary field shouldn’t worry Democrats. In her recent FiveThirtyEight.com piece Azari writes, quite correctly, that “there’s no consensus…
Senator Warren’s Linguistic Stand Deserves Thoughtful Attention
Is it dishonest to refuse to tell a murderer where his next intended victim is hiding and instead to explain how we can reduce murder rates? If someone did reveal such information to a murderer, would Senator Warren’s critics applaud them for “at least being honest about their plan?” The effort to discredit Elizabeth Warren’s…
Be Grateful: In Massachusetts politics we can still have nice things
I’m on all the mailing lists, electronic and otherwise. The communications from the MassGOP have never been particularly impressive, but under its current leadership the MassGOP has become a laughingstock. The MassGOP, perennially ineffectual, has understandably employed snark and disingenuousness as a regular feature of its rhetorical portfolio for a long time, but the strategic…
President Trump’s Attack on the Legal Immigration System
“I believe [immigrants are one] of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past,…
Mass Politics After the 2018 Elections: Still “Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics”
Last spring I wrote a piece called “MASSPOLI#: Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics” that began as follows: “American politics in 2018 is a hot mess. The Age of Trump will almost certainly be understood as a chaotic and terribly destructive time in American politics when our institutions were strained to the limit…