Conservative Conversation and Community
From The New York Times, a devastating critique of where the President’s re-election chances stand now that the Democrats are more emboldened in Congress:
MoreAt midterm, the once-dazzling political momentum… has stalled. In the year ahead, the President faces what his allies and advisers see as the most critical tests of his Presidency both at home and abroad.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see some liberals embracing the conclusion that the executive branch – and the presidency in particular – has accumulated far more power than our founders intended. They just wonder whether lefties will still have these concerns once one of their own […]
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I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County. (It is not the biggest daily newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest.) My review normally appears Wednesdays. When it appears, I post the review here on the following Sunday. More
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The electors kept the faith:
MoreElectoral College members across the nation voted to affirm President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Monday, as liberal attempts to sway Republican electors to abandon Trump fizzled.
Victor Davis Hanson provides cultural and historical context for Donald Trump’s presidential victory and speculates on what the early days of the new administration may yield.
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One need not look further than Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the top of the GOP candidate heap to know that Americans have become disillusioned with the political establishment. James Piereson takes a look at previous political ‘revolutions’ that have already taken place in this country. Piereson tells us that another is on its way. His latest book, Shattered Consensus, is a masterwork of historical and political analysis and should not be missed. On a positive note, Piereson is not another crying out from the wilderness that America will fall. On the contrary, he believes that any current political turmoil is a precursor to another period of growth for the nation.
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Donald Trump doesn’t care about selecting conservative nominees to the Supreme Court. That’s right the one argument that gets posited in favor of Donald Trump for conservatives is false. Ben Shapiro, the editor of the Daily Wire typed up a very comprehensive and accurate article of why Donald Trump will not select conservative nominees for the […]
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If Hillary wins, what do we call Bill? “First Spouse” is ugly and banal, and we can’t call him “First Gentleman” because he is in no way a gentleman. First Rake, perhaps? First Gigolo? First Predator? More
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First of all, congratulations are in order. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have all but clinched the nominations of their respective parties and have done so abiding by the rules.
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Given a Clinton vs Trump contest, would it be better for the U.S. for conservatives to hold our noses and vote for billionaire and former NY mayor Michael Bloomberg? Granted his pro-choice, pro-ssm, anti-second amendment, and nanny-state policies would be a turnoff, but couldn’t a Republican congress thwart him with those issues? Although his Supreme […]
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To Whom It May Concern: Although it seems like Mr. Barack Obama has worked as my president for much longer than seven years, I am thrilled to hear that he is pursuing a new position. You will be very lucky if you can get him to work for you. More
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Partisans are likely to focus on these stats in Paul Krugman’s latest column: Since 1947, “the economy grew, on average, 4.35 percent per year [under Democrats]; under Republicans, only 2.54 percent.”
To his credit, Krugman does not make strong claims about the superiority of Democratic economic management (though he does mock current GOP policy proposals). Neither does the 2014 study, from where those numbers come, “Presidents and the U.S. Economy: An Econometric Exploration.” The study’s authors, Alan Blinder and Mark Watson, sort of give it the old ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:
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We’ve come to think of compromise as splitting the baby. Comprehensive immigration reform, for example, is a particularly good example of this sort of bad compromise: Republicans agree to an amnesty now, Democrats pretend they’ll do a better job of enforcing immigration laws in the future, and we pretend to believe them. I agree that’s awful, and we can’t do that sort of thing anymore.
What I propose is more like a trade: we get something we want, they get something they want, both at the same time.
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What’s the one fact about the political situation in America that we do not emphasize enough — think through enough — try hard enough to confront? I’m sure you have your own views on that, likely better than mine, and I encourage you to publish them. My own view is that there is not one politician playing Churchill.
Do you know the phrase, America will do the right thing once it’s tried everything else? Well, America is trying lots of things and must come to the right thing, but who will do it? Who is the politician who will lead public opinion and possibly the government when necessity will be upon you?
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As a kid from a rural agricultural community, I entered UC Berkeley slightly to the right of Barry Goldwater. But I was to leave in 1970 just to the left of Eldridge Cleaver.
Those were the days.
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Conservatives are feeling pretty good as the drip-drip-drip of Hillary Clinton’s missing emails takes over the news cycle. For six years we’ve wanted one of this administration’s scandals to catch the eye of the mainstream press and tarnish Obama’s reputation along with it. Those with more miles on the odometer have waited since the early ’90s for HRC to get her just desserts.
This latest Clinton mess is still in its early days and disturbing insights are popping up on the hour. In a Friday night truth-dump, Spokeswoman/Tri-Delt Rush Chair Marie Harf reversed her pose that the State Department was seeking Hillary’s emails out of their deep love for transparency. Harf now reluctantly admits that the Benghazi committee was a big reason for the panicked search all along.
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As President Obama has aptly demonstrated, a President has considerable powers (some even authorized) in addition to powers which require the cooperation of legislators. Most of these powers are known before one enters office. So why doesn’t every candidate plan these well in advance? Publicizing one’s full list during the campaign might scare away voters […]
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What qualifies me as the most-principled, least-electable conservative in the Republican field? More
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Republicans opposed to President Obama’s immigration order are floating the idea of Congress voting to “censure” the President. Liberals are suggesting censure is unconstitutional because the Constitution nowhere authorizes Congress to censure anybody.
People who think a censure bill clearly is unconstitutional take censure too seriously and the Constitution not seriously enough.
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