One of the great ‘true but misleading’ statements of 20th century American politics is that ‘more Democrats than Republicans voted against the Civil Rights Act”; one of the greater oversimplifications in response is the claim that the parties ‘flipped’ somewhere between the 1940s and 1970s. The electoral record is indeed
Liberalism as an idea has long run up against established interests. Its great strength is that it has been able either to thwart or win them over with the promise of economic dynamism - that the power of freed markets would generate such wealth as to overcome any inconvenience caused
The Quasi-Judicial Immigration system presents a threat to all Americans’ rights In a nation of laws, the names of things and their precise definitions take on increasing importance and require increasing scrutiny. Theorists have long noted how words like ‘treason’ or ‘terrorism’ had a tendency to expand in definition so
Today, nobody would doubt the contribution of the Irish to American history, culture, or economics. But as Douglass was writing, the Irish would have appeared every bit the ‘culturally incompatible’ immigrants Vance is warning Germany about.
Perhaps ironically, given the devotion of this newsletter to Liberalism, I find myself thinking a great deal about tradition and what - at its best - it can offer, in times of crisis perhaps more than ever. And as I write, the most salient tradition is that of Ash Wednesday,
In the wake of an atrocity - or a series of them, as with those that followed the recent Hamas raid into Israel - it is easy to be swept up in a righteous fervor for ‘justice’ that turns out to be nothing more than vengeance. The famous “9/12”
With the beginning of a new administration, it is natural that the focus is on what changes should be expected - and President Trump's raft of executive orders, often directly overturning those of his predecessor, has certainly strengthened that focus. However, a hostility to trade is a longer-term
As President Trump takes office for the second time, all indications are that he will attempt to interpret the US constitution to deny citizenship to children born in the US on the basis of their parents' relationship to the Federal Government. While this is a substantial break with US
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel - and the brutal retaliation that has followed - prompted a wave of predictions from pundits about what would happen in the region. Most agreed that major changes were coming to Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and likely Lebanon. What almost no
For many businesses, this time of year is a sort of limbo, where weeks are short and interrupted by holidays, with employees traveling, watching over vacationing kids, or nursing the aftereffects of holiday cheer. For the judiciary and the White House, however, this is a busy season indeed - the
Democrats reeling from their narrow electoral loss in 2024 have turned to many explanations, and also point to some worrying trends. The rising Latino share of the nation's voting population has long been a beacon of hope for the future of the party, offering a future where a
Perhaps against better judgement, particularly given the poor performance of incumbents worldwide of late, many liberals went into the 2024 election cautiously optimistic, hoping that a mentally declining Trump and his fanbase of increasingly open racists would finally turn off the American population once and for all. The next day
It's unclear precisely why the Post and Times have taken this direction ...But their decisions feel like ‘neutrality’ not in the sense of reasoned independence but rather a cowardly refusal to make a stand.
More Progressive - but not more liberal - than expected President Joseph Biden entered the 2020 presidential field and was immediately, for better and worse, identified as the ‘establishment’, ‘centrist’ candidate of the major candidates with a real chance at winning. There description was not inaccurate, especially compared to the
international relations
The US is being asked to supply weapons to two states. It's important to choose which one will actually advance both American and liberal interests.
Military veterans have always been a major part of the American political landscape, since the first commander of the Continental Army was unanimously chosen as the first president of the unified republic. And in that time, the question of what level of deference to this class of veterans has been
politics
Denying the citizens of Gaza water or medicine on account of their actions taken by other Gazans cannot be justified on any liberal principle - and the same applies to any effort to reduce individuals to members of a group and assign them guilt on that account.
Economics
A publicly owned satellite communication company, purchased from its current owner at a fair price, is the best solution to the dilemmas presented by this advancing technology.
Economics
Tariffs appear simple because they are baked into prices, but behind the scenes is a complicated, regressive system ripe for corruption
feminism
We should not lose sight of the realities Wollstonecraft so forcefully asserted centuries ago: men and women, whatever their differences, have the same fundamental purpose in life - “the attainment of those talents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles the human character”.
The origin of this blog is, if we’re being perfectly honest, to put to ‘paper’ my stream of thoughts and analysis (the quality of which is up to you, dear reader, to judge) about the past, present, and future, from an unapologetically liberal lens, especially as we approach another
News
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