Anthony Weiner’s Corruption
The relationship between representative and represented is sacred, and by trading political admiration for sexual gratification, Anthony Weiner corrupted that relationship.
Post Tagged with: "Political Theorizing"
On the Broccoli Objection
Those who believe the health insurance mandate is unconstitutional have relied frequently on slippery-slope arguments. Many have been convinced by what Andrew Koppelman calls the Broccoli Objection—the idea that, if Congress can penalize individuals for failing to purchase health insurance, it must have the power to penalize them for failing to eat their broccoli. (Talk about a Nanny State!) There [...]
Thin Skin at Reason Magazine
Christopher Beam has a long feature in New York magazine on “The Trouble with Liberty,” that is, with libertarianism. I liked the piece, but then, I guess I’m disposed to like such pieces. Radley Balko, a senior editor at the libertarian Reason magazine, is not. He’s upset that Beam wasn’t fair and balanced. Balko says Beam could have “provided sound [...]
Peter Orszag, Co-Optation, and Progressivism
Check out Will Wilkinson’s post on Peter Orszag’s disappointing decision to cash in at Citigroup. First Wilkinson suggests that this sort of co-optation of government officials by market forces is a fatal flaw in progressivism. “[M]arket institutions find ways to use the government’s regulatory and insurer-of-last-resort functions as countervailing forces against their competitors and, in the end, against the very [...]
Weighing In: Class-Based Affirmative Action Good, But Arguments Against Race-Based Affirmative Action Still Bad
Peter Bozzo has posted a very thorough reply to my reply to his column which argued that we should replace race-based affirmative action with class-based affirmative action. (Got that?) Peter cites three studies, but only one of them seems to have analyzed the socioeconomic backgrounds of African-American college students, as opposed to the socioeconomic backgrounds of college students of all [...]
Re: Class-Based Affirmative Action Again
Peter Bozzo writes in today’s Crimson in favor of switching from race-based to class-based affirmative action. He makes a very strong case, but I think he ultimately goes wrong. First, his interpretation of Brown v. Board as a decision rooted in the principle of color-blindness is implausible to me. The heart of the ruling was this passage: “To separate [black [...]
An Admissions Lottery?
In today’s Crimson, Dylan Matthews has a provocative column arguing that Harvard ought to randomize its admissions process. Dylan claims that Harvard’s current admissions system entrenches existing inequalities—including inequalities of talent. Talent, Dylan thinks, is pretty much beyond our control. Channeling John Rawls, Dylan assumes that success in life shouldn’t be “contingent” on “arbitrary factors” like genetic gifts, parental vigilance, [...]
Our Moment
I’d like to believe that there’s a place in our politics between caricature and indifference — between judgement (ie, praise, censure, etc), on the one hand, and dismissal, flat out rejection, on the other. As an editor of this magazine and as a student, I cherish the writing that avoids these fates: the writers that write about politics without playing politics; the [...]
Moderate Republicans: The Hidden Contingent
The phrase “Moderate Republican” just sounds silly. Republicans aren’t supposed to be moderate. If they were, they wouldn’t be Republicans at all. To Republicans, moderateness is not just an embarrassing admission of weakness, it’s a sign of petty treason. If any of your GOP friends start leaning towards the center, intervene immediately; they are a few short steps away from [...]
Good Ross and Bad Ross Square Off In New York Times
I’m starting to think that Ross Douthat may have a split personality disorder. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Douthat has “a wonderful way of casually saying things that you don’t hear many conservatives say.” Today’s column is no different: he begins by explaining that the usual conservative arguments against gay marriage have “lost because they’re wrong.” He continues: [...]
ACE Forum: Class-Based Affirmative Action
The Harvard Political Review has joined with other college political publications to form the Alliance of Collegiate Editors (ACE), hoping to generate cross-campus dialogue on political issues. The first topic we will discuss is class-based affirmative action. Class-based affirmative action is an issue on which unorthodox liberals and unorthodox conservatives seem to have found common ground. (For summaries of what’s [...]
A better case for affirmative action
Liberals often try to defend affirmative action as fair compensation for historical injustice. To put their argument crudely and briefly, they say that whites got ahead unfairly for centuries, and now it’s time to help blacks get ahead. Regardless of its philosophical merits or demerits, this argument is incredibly controversial. On its face, it allows an analogy to be drawn [...]
Taking Stock of the Spill
Apparently, Obama’s BP Oil Spill performance has been a total disaster. Just check the news. He’s weak, aloof, unemotive, Maureen Down explains. “Mr. President, take command,” David Gergen urges on CNN. James Carville exhorts: “This president needs to tell BP, “I’m your daddy.” And Peggy Noonan, writes, simply, for WSJ: “I don’t see how you politically survive this.” Count me among [...]
The New Miranda Decision and Souter’s Harvard Speech
With the predictable 5-4 lineup, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that, in order to exclude from evidence incriminating statements to the police, criminal suspects must have unambiguously invoked their right to remain silent. The case essentially asked, what constitutes a waiver of one’s Miranda rights? Does sitting silent, unresponsive, for nearly three hours, as did the suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, [...]
Couple More Thoughts on Rand Paul
First, I think Adam Serwer has really crystallized the basic problem with how conservatives (and a fair number of over-polite liberals) talk about race. It seems really weird to give Goldwater all this credit for not being personally racist while championing a cause supported by racists, and say this is the same thing as Kennedy and Johnson being racist but [...]
