tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post3800335967573442232..comments2024-03-19T11:28:58.168-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: Back to PoliticsDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-26729251493480940102013-03-28T14:10:31.005-04:002013-03-28T14:10:31.005-04:00At what point does laissez-faire become anarchy? ...At what point does laissez-faire become anarchy? When will the tipping point between democracy and oligarchy be reached? Is individualism abhorrent even when it is enshrined by US religion (private interpretation of scripture), law (the US Constitution) and lore (mountain men, gunslingers and Horatio Alger)? Can one criticize Obama for compromise and Republicans for intractability without hypocrisy? If no one thing can be done to solve the problem, then is the correct course to do nothing (mass shootings and global warming)? Is a Republican in office necessary for social progress by elevating issues to national level (the southern strategy highlighted racial inequities; Reagan and Bush advanced Social Security and Medicare; DOMA and other Rove-like wedge social issues led to anti-discriminatory advances for LBGT citizens)? Does it not seem that Republicans would learn temperance from continual rejection by the electorate? Or, is their doubling down good for a government that moves slowly to reflect an ever more tolerant society?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11629116622092214120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-69423480484739277302013-03-25T13:43:10.268-04:002013-03-25T13:43:10.268-04:00Thanks for this acute analysis of our current para...Thanks for this acute analysis of our current paralysis!<br />That Farris's small group of right/libertarian extremists can have such a huge effect on our ratification of international treaties is shocking.<br />In the past few weeks, even C-Span Book-TV seems to have veered sharply right, with AEI and Cato Inst speakers re-writing financial history sine the 2008-09 collapse ("It's the government's fault"), bankers were helpless naifs (!). <br />If we do have another 'recession' and if severe enough (food riots, etc). the drone program will aid marshal law in keeping the peace. That and 24/7 GPS monitoring of everyone with a smart phone will also keep us sheep.tructor manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18214448074424409144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-42028151355816643942013-03-24T21:28:17.238-04:002013-03-24T21:28:17.238-04:00"can't" or won't?
You seem to h..."can't" or won't?<br /><br />You seem to have a blind spot about Obama and for whom he chooses to work, and how he functions in our politics to legitimize neoliberal pro-plutocrat policy and keep the sheep, sheep.<br /><br />Otherwise, as usual, a great post. I really look forward to reading your pieces every week. Many thanks for your well-articulated thoughtfulness.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-35344779696522427292013-03-24T12:28:35.570-04:002013-03-24T12:28:35.570-04:00Professor
Thanks for this post.
I have long ago...Professor<br /><br />Thanks for this post. <br /><br />I have long ago concluded that liberal globalist internationalism, including that of Roosevelt after 1930, became the secret twin, so to speak, of a tendency, thereafter more manifest from the neocon right, of an anti government individualism.<br /><br />If you believe in laissez faire enough, you don't hold truck with a reasonably strong nation state concept anywhere. <br /><br />The ' rational ' parliamentary nation state (a German rather than a British notion) would have been a bogey of<br />both old republicans and free trade Southern democrats, ironically enough.<br /><br />all the best,<br />GMAunt Katiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01266914664888937116noreply@blogger.com