Molly Beck reports that two of the three candidates for state superintendent discussed an arrangement – not illegal yet astonishingly cynical – about one of them dropping out in exchange for a state job: A candidate for state superintendent offered an opponent a taxpayer-funded $150,000 job if he dropped out of the race and sought the…
Politics
Authoritarianism, Politics, Trump
An Eminent Psychiatrist on Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College, who served as chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (D.S.M.-IV), on 2.14.17 sent a letter to the New York Times in which he addresses questions about Donald Trump’s mental state. (See, An Eminent Psychiatrist…
Politics, Trump
The ‘Balls & Strikes’ View
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an interesting exchange between conservative Trump-critic Evan McMullin and conservative Josh Hammer worth considering. The exchange shows the divide among conservatives about Trump. (There’s also a divide among conservatives about whether anti-Trump conservatives are, in fact, conservatives. To this libertarian, they all look sufficiently conservative; that intra-tribe debate is not one in which I’m engaged.) First…
Local Government, Politics
More on Local Problems Now Gone National
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted in November that Fake News Was a Local Problem Before It Was a National One. (That post described “local fake (or low-quality)” news, but strictly speaking fake news isn’t merely of low quality or error; fake news is deliberately manufactured to deceive. See, How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With…
America, Authoritarianism, Liberty, Politics, Trump
Paul Krugman Asks ‘How This Ends’
by JOHN ADAMS •
On Twitter, Paul Krugman (@PaulKrugman) has a nine-tweet chain on possibilities after Trump becomes president. The chain begins at 1:05 PM – 6 Jan 2017 and ends at 1:16 PM – 6 Jan 2017. Here are those tweets, in order: Some musings on the next few years: We are, I’d argue, in much deeper and more treacherous…
America, Authoritarianism, Libertarians, Liberty, Politics, Trump
Wes Benedict Has a Book to Sell
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last month, the Libertarian Party’s executive director (Wes Benedict) sent me a tone-deaf, form email. I posted Libertarianism is Enough: Goodbye to the LP in reply, in which I argued that the Libertarian Party was an unworthy vessel for a liberty-oriented politics: Imagine, then, after an election in which the LP did poorly, and in which…
Politics, Trump
Priebus and Conway as Inside & Outside Apologists
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, 12.22.16 – for Conway, it’s inside after all (Kellyanne Conway, ‘Trump Whisperer,’ Will Be Counselor to President). Jennifer Rubin accurately describes (in Trump’s own ‘truther’ act is frightening) the roles that Reince Priebus (house apologist) and Kellyanne Conway (field apologist) play for Trump: As they fanned out across the Sunday shows, President-elect Donald Trump’s…
America, Authoritarianism, Far-Right Populism, Labor, Liberty, Politics, Trump
In a Principled Opposition, the Basis for a Grand Coalition
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing at The Week, Jeff Spross nicely summarizes Why Trump’s Cabinet poses a unique threat to the working class. Spross both explains Trump perceptively & succinctly, and in the same post implicitly holds out the prospect of a grand coalition (principled liberals, conservatives, and libertarians) to oppose him. (For an explicit call for broad opposition, from…
City, Culture, Ethnicity, Liberty, Politics, Race
Philosophy or Identity?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Imagine a choice between living in a universally free society where one was of the racial or ethnic minority, or living as a member of the racial or ethnic majority in a universally oppressive society. Which society should one choose? A man or woman, committed first to liberty, would choose to live in a free…
City, Local Government, Politics
The Simplest Explanation for Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
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, Far-Right Populism, Politics, 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…