April 2010
8 posts
Sedition and the Tea Parties
From my piece in today’s Christian Science Monitor:
Sedition. The word is all the rage as the nation commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing this week amid tumultuous times: a historic recession, massive deficits, nationwide “tea party” protests. As memories of the domestic terror attack resurface, critics of those tea party protests have shifted the debate from...
Populism and Wall Street
POPULISM, 1890s
“The West and South feed the country while Wall Street milks it,” c. 1890 (source)
POPULISM, today
East Village Tea Party protest, April 22, 2010 (source)
A number of stories have come out commenting on the lack of Tea Party antagonism toward Wall Street reforms. But anti-reform sentiment has popped up in conservative media of late. The above protesters could...
The Battle of the Bulge
Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic today looked at a statement from a group of ex-generals (pdf) who worry that young Americans are too rotund for the Armed Forces. In particular, these generals warned that stuffing kids with crappy food makes for substandard troops. Ambinder suggested that such the argument—linking obesity to weaker national security—may help advocates of improved...
Goldwater's All-Purpose Tonic: The Non-Taxic,...
A Balm for Boils, Burns, Bruises, Bigots, Birchers & Buckleys (source: CONELRAD)
I’m lecturing on Goldwater and the emergence of modern conservatism tomorrow, which seems appropriate given the regenerated debate about extremism on the right and responsible vs. irresponsible conservatism. Oh, how William F. Buckley, Jr. roiled over being lumped with the John Birch Society (now making...
Rush Limbaugh: Nostalgia and Hypocrisy
Rush Limbaugh is nostalgic for the 1990s.
In the 1990s, his was the only show in town. His name was synonymous with talk radio. There was no Sean Hannity, no Glenn Beck, no Laura Ingraham, at least not on the radio dial. There was a conservative insurgency, a government shut-down, impeachment hearings, and Limbaugh was pretty much the only game in town. He considered himself the voice of the...
Taxing Problems
Everyone’s talking taxes, thanks to the T.E.A. parties (taxed enough already, despite paying lower taxes that many of them consider fair) and massive deficits that need addressing. I’m working on a piece that will either become an op-ed or a post, but in the meantime, this presentation by the Miller Center on presidents and tax policy is a great resource to hear how presidents have...
Equal Rights, One Step at a Time
At a rally protesting the passage of Proposition 8, a friend of mine carried a sign reading, “We Already Decided: Equal Rights for All.”
The country is one step closer to that ideal with yesterday’s announcement that hospitals accepting federal funds can no longer discriminate against patients’ visitors.
It can be frustrating to watch Americans have to battle, time and...
History, Memory, and the Problem of Balance
It’s fitting that as Past Punditry launches, one of the week’s big stories is Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s reinstatement of Confederate History Month, absent any mention of slavery.
Why is that fitting? Because the ensuing debates and news coverage get at the heart of what this site is about.
First, history matters. We fight passionately over what happened in the past and...
