One of the recurring themes of this blog is that populist democracy is an affront to the republicanism of the Framers.  Yeah, I know it’s not as sexy as ranting about the dangers of Calvinism, but it’s something. The problem with political theory, at least compared to the hard sciences, is that we generally lack [...]

Michael Zak does what all too many on the left fail to do:  crack open some history books and take a real look at the history of the Ku Klux Klan.  Zak correctly notes that when the Klan was at its zenith during the 1920s, it was a terrorist wing of the Democratic party, and [...]

The development of the State of the Union

January 28, 2010 | Comments Off

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; That’s from the US Constitution – Article II, Section 3, and the “he” (damned sexist Framers!) refers to the President of the United States.  [...]

Not quite

January 26, 2010 | 3 Comments

David Brooks is back, writing about his favorite topic.  He actually makes some fair points, especially this: It’s easy to see why politicians would be drawn to the populist pose. First, it makes everything so simple. The economic crisis was caused by a complex web of factors, including global imbalances caused by the rise of [...]