#Republicans

Jay Cost: Who Speaks for the Party? – The Weekly Standard

What happens in an election where one side is led by a nominee who cannot make an argument on behalf of his party? The answer is: Nobody really knows. Until now, the major parties have nominated candidates who could communicate

Posted in Noted & Quoted, Politics Tagged with: ,

The Theory of O

For present purposes, it may well be that nothing as ideologically coherent as an authentically left program or for that matter as Tea Party “federalism” (or Romney-Ryan free market devolution) can be implemented in the United States of America. The Theory’s very adequacy to the political moment may therefore be identical with its inadequacy to greater challenges that the American political system, maybe the American nation-state itself as presently constituted, cannot even recognize, much less successfully confront. From this point of view, the apocalypse would be not what was avoided via the Showdown, but what the showdown showed us through a crack in the blinds, something that cannot forever be voted in or out or up or down, hidden under a “tarp,” or put off until another year or two for further putting off for another year or two…

Posted in Books, Politics Tagged with: , , ,

Rick Is Dead, Long Live Rick

Jonathan Bernstein thinks the debate was so bad that Perry’s world-historical Rick didn’t make him the worst debater of the night. Bernstein gives the award instead to “Prince Herman,” and unloads like a Malacca-class superfreighter:

Posted in Politics Tagged with: , , ,

Conservative Politics as Warfare

The most dangerous group of political extremists today is not the grass roots supporters of the Tea Party. It is the major sector of the Republican financial and ideological elite who have embraced the philosophy of “politics as warfare.”

Posted in Miscellany Tagged with: , ,

Long day’s blogging into evening – pre-game festivities

Am about to disappear into Lakerdom – either a further descent into tedious misery, a temporary revival on the way to even deeper misery, or the Turning Point we’ve been waiting for and falsely identifying this whole desperately non-compelling season

Posted in Economics, Philosophy, Religion, Sports, War Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,