Jonah Goldberg writes Mr. Piketty’s Big Book of Marxiness in the July issue of Commentary. Excerpt: “The consequences for the long-term dynamics of the wealth distribution are potentially terrifying,” Piketty writes. For instance, Piketty fears that whenever the return on capital really
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Jonah Goldberg writes Mr. Piketty’s Big Book of Marxiness in the July issue of Commentary. Excerpt: The most common and strongest complaint is that Piketty’s arrangement of the data paints a false picture of rising inequality in the United States. Harvard’s
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from Commentary Obama Learns the Value of Allies by Seth Mandel: Although President Obama’s first-term habit of serially offending U.S. allies appeared to be a procession of gaffes and errors, there actually was a strategy behind it. Picking fights with the
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John Agresto writes Was Promoting Democracy a Mistake in the 12/12 issue of Commentary. Excerpts: Sadly, trying to promote democracy in a nation that is strongly sectarian, intolerant of difference, and skeptical of the equality that gives dignity and freedom to all
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Obama’s speech at Ohio state is drawing a lot of comments, noted here is from Jonah Goldberg in The National Review, Obama: The Only Thing We Need to Fear Is Fear of Tyranny. Excerpt: I like America’s instinctual fear of
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The January 2013 issue of Commentary asked 53 writers and conservative leaders What is the Future of Conservatism? This is part of the response from Heather MacDonald: Optimists will argue that conservatives simply need to sell their small-government, personal-responsibility message more vigorously. Pessimists will respond that
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The January 2013 issue of Commentary asked 53 writers and conservative leaders What is the Future of Conservatism? This is part of the response from Matthew Continetti, addressing the appeal and the gaps in the Democrat’s Life of Julia: Julia’s relationship to government is tenuous. She
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John Agresto writes Was Promoting Democracy a Mistake in the 12/12 issue of Commentary. Excerpts: Democracy, we need to understand, is rule by the people. Democracy more than any other government takes on the character of its people. But if the people
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The January 2013 issue of Commentary asked 53 writers and conservative leaders What is the Future of Conservatism? This is part of the response from Linda Chavez, Movements cannot sustain themselves without appealing leaders and coherent, compelling ideas–and at the moment American conservatism is deficient in
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The January 2013 issue of Commentary asked 53 writers and conservative leaders What is the Future of Conservatism? This is part of the response from Jay Leftkowitz: Conservatives are in danger of falling out of touch not only with America. They are falling out of touch
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The January 2013 issue of Commentary asked 53 writers and conservative leaders What is the Future of Conservatism? This is part of the response from Bret Stephens, I know it’s a small thing in the scheme of the universe that Ashcroft should have been
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John Agresto writes Was Promoting Democracy a Mistake in the 12/12 issue of Commentary. Excerpts: So what led me to rethink the view that the coming of democracy to Iraq, and subsequently to the whole Middle East and beyond, would
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John Poderhetz writes in Commentary Magazine, The Way Forward, 12/12 excerpts You cannot beat something with nothing. Obama had a record that was less than nothing but a machine and an approach to victory that were more than enough to
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Artur Davis, a Representative from Alabama and a failed gubernatorial candidate has switched to the GOP and moved to Virginia. This is a significant move. I remember Davis as one who stood against the GOPers who were trying to
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The greatest periods of American economic growth came when taxes were very low—such as in the 19th century—or being lowered and simplified, as in the 1920s, 60s, and 80s. Inescapably, to tax wealth creation is to discourage it. But there
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It was a great stroke of luck for the future United States that the 13 colonies were founded by the English rather than those from another European nation. England, being an island power and thus much safer from invasion, had
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Three recent instances of anti- Israeli stances have come from administration officials in a very short period of time. First Hillary Clinton overreacted to an orthodox effort to separate the seating of men and women on Israeli buses. The effort
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The nation that demonstrated the inestimable strengths of capitalism was founded by self-starters who arrived from elsewhere, which leads us to the next factor vital for economic growth: immigration. Everyone living today in the United States either came himself or
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We are still very much a nation of capitalists. But we are a nation that is increasingly reining in our capitalist instincts with regulations that make it difficult to open a business and make a profit, and with taxation that
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Rick Richman writes in Commentary, What Happened Before Nothing Happened?- 10/2/ 11 He responds to a common refrain that the Palestinians are frustrated from a lack of progress: (1) In 2000, the Palestinians were offered a state by Israel, and
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Inequality is the Result of Meritocracy
Jonah Goldberg writes Mr. Piketty’s Big Book of Marxiness in the July issue of Commentary. Excerpt: “The consequences for the long-term dynamics of the wealth distribution are potentially terrifying,” Piketty writes. For instance, Piketty fears that whenever the return on capital really