In my last post, I mentioned Noah Rothman’s perceptive post on the failings – and they are many – of a non-ideological politics, a politics without principle. Whitewater’s politics, unlike that which Rothman describes, certainly isn’t a politics of radical populism; there’s no radicalism in Whitewater whatever. (Those who see radicalism here likely see unicorns…
Politics
Libertarians, Politics, Trump
Jennifer Rubin on ‘Four ideas for surviving in the Trump era’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jennifer Rubin’s a principled conservative, and her writing is both insightful and clear. Rubin’s blog and Twitter feed have been must reading for years (including her posts when she was blogging at Commentary; she’s now at the Washington Post). In a time when it would be easy to speak lies to power, she’s remained honest.…
Culture, Politics
Anecdotes About Politics in a Small Town
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted last week about how it’s mistaken to think that most leaders in a small town are direct, forthright (see Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders). Here are two stories about how politics sometimes works in a small town. At a candidates’ forum last year, I had the pleasure of seeing a…
Berlusconi, Politics, Right-wing Populism, Trump
Berlusconi’s Political Career as a Partial Analog for Trump’s
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads much these days about how similar Trump and Silvio Berlusconi supposedly are. There’s something tempting about comparing Trump’s political situation to Silvio Berlusconi’s: both are businessmen, held no earlier office before winning a national election, are admirers of Putin, crude, anti-intellectual, and lecherous. There’s reason to look at parallels between the two; one…
Local Government, Politics
Stakeholder’s Just Another Word for Special Interest
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a small town like Whitewater, there’s much emphasis on finding and listening to stakeholders. In fact, local policymaking is mostly stakeholder policymaking. As stakeholders aren’t merely and exclusively residents, but are more often influential residents and local special interests (business groups, business people, etc.) there’s a double-counting of connected residents, as though one gets…
Mendacity, Politics, Reasoning, Twitter
The Post-Truth Crowd
by JOHN ADAMS •
Scottie Nell Hughes, a CNN political commentator and the political editor of Right Alerts, blithely declares that we’re in a post-truth era, where facts don’t exist apart from opinion: “It is an idea of an opinion. On one hand I hear half the media saying that these are lies but on the other half there are…
Liberty, Politics, Trump
Saletan’s Faint Hope of Manipulating an Autocrat
by JOHN ADAMS •
Somewhere, there’s sure to be someone insisting that a hooligan who beat someone unconscious only did so from insecurity, envy, or bad toilet training. That explanation should be of no comfort to a victim (should the victim even recover). The one thing of which one can be sure is that someone attacked another, causing severe injury. In…
America, Liberty, Politics
Evan McMullin’s Ten Points for Principled Opposition to Authoritarianism
by JOHN ADAMS •
On Twitter, conservative @Evan_McMullin lists ten principles for political opposition under a Trump Administration. Libertarians would do well to embrace, and live each day, all ten. McMullin’s ten tweets began on December 4th at 12:08 PM and concluded at 12:12 PM. (Points Six and Seven are especially important: it’s a grand coalition that we’ll need,…
Politics
Does someone feel…left out?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Affordable Care Act, Laws/Regulations, Politics
Lindsey Graham and Jennifer Rubin are Right About Healthcare
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a difference between disliking – strongly – a federal intrusion into the marketplace like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the policy & politics of a replacement (if any). Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham outlines the policy problem with changes to the ACA: “Once you say that everybody should be covered, can’t be…
Politics, Romney, Trump
Dinner and a Little Romance in Manhattan
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Culture, Economics, Politics, School District, University
Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a quaint – but false – notion that people in small towns are uncommonly plain-spoken, even blunt. One sometimes sees examples of this in films or books, where residents are depicted as folksy straight-talkers (“shucks, I don’t cotton to no one abusing nobody,” etc.). I’ve never heard anyone in Whitewater speak so colorfully, and I’ve…
Local Government, Newspapers, Politics, Press
Fake News Was a Local Problem Before It Was a National One
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s post-election consternation about the amount of bogus news sites on social media. This concern pairs with the worry that fact-checking from major news organizations doesn’t work well when candidates simply lie and refuse either correction or apology. This may be a recent national development – at least on this scale – but local news for…
Alt-Right, Libertarians, Liberty, Politics
Libertarianism is Enough: Goodbye to the LP
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a saying that some libertarians are born and others are made (as a result, tragically, of experiencing misconduct at the hands of the state). Libertarianism of both origins, especially those of us from movement (old) libertarian families, has been around long before the Libertarian Party – the LP – was formed in late 1971. Needless to…