“In fact, one of the central economic insights of modern conservatism is that technocratic interventions—typically undertaken by the brightest of people with the best of intentions—often don’t work and are frequently counterproductive. ”
Read MoreIdentity Politics is just a politically correct form of racism. We should not be surprised to hear more accusations of racism in response to greater reliance on identity politics as a political strategy. The more that racism is used as a political weapon the less moral authority it retains.
Read MoreMadison was correct that a dispersal of special interests over a large land mass could protect a republic from tyranny, but he failed to foresee that special interests are no longer restrained by mere distance and geography. They now exist in the cloud.
Read MoreThe meritocracy of China is a challenge to the popular democracy of the United States. For too many of us the restraints on democracy and the accountability of capitalism have become irrelevant philosophical constructs. Our democracy has descended into self-interested voters voting for both lower taxes and more spending, and our political fools are aware that reality is a useless campaign tool.
Read MoreProgressivism sought to accomplish many of the populist goals of its day. In doing so it created a political class that was removed from the whims of the voters. It preached more democracy while it created less democratic accountability. The political class practiced diversity of every sort except intellectual diversity, and became increasingly isolated. Populists need demons and their demon today is the elites, created in the laboratories of Progressive ideology.
Read Morefrom my article in American Thinker a few weeks ago, The fatal attraction of single-payer Reform is seductive. It is like the curvy woman with the soft voice you met at the bar. The next thing you know, you have a boiled…
Read MoreKevin Williamson makes an interesting distinction between the welfare state and socialism. from National Review, Camino de Servidumbre There are two ways of thinking about economics: Many progressives (and many right-wing populists) believe that economics is less of a science…
Read MoreFrom a book review of Conserving America? by Patrick Deneen- review by Micah Medowcroft- Trump Didn’t Kill Conservatism in The Wall Street Journal: In our republic, argues Mr. Deneen, a conception of men “not as parts of wholes, but as wholes apart” has…
Read Morefrom Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek (highly recommended) , a quote from Robert Higgs: Nothing has done more to render modern economic theory a sterile and irrelevant exercise in autoeroticism than its practitioners’ obsession with mathematical, general-equilibrium models. Not only…
Read MoreFrom a book review of Conserving America? by Patrick Deneen- review by Micah Medowcroft- Trump Didn’t Kill Conservatism in The Wall Street Journal: The two dominant alternatives to this fixation on the present are progressivism’s focus on the future and what…
Read More“William Jennings Bryan, whose electrifying oration on silver at the national convention had convinced the uncertain Democrats to nominate a man of thirty-six, came out of the beleaguered communities of Nebraska. He understood the powerful pull of village values because…
Read MoreFrom The Weekly Standard, The Roots of Campus Leftism by Warren Treadgold “Progressivism,” the term campus leftists seem to like best, is not very helpful for defining the ideology’s intellectual content. Just about all of us favor what we consider…
Read MoreFrom William Voegeli in The National Review, Hillary’s Empty Moralism Is a Reflection of the Greater Progressive Movement It has now been more than a century since progressivism reconfigured American liberalism by discarding the Founding’s commitment to constitutional structures and limits,…
Read MoreOver the last 200 years the world population has increased 7x while the wealth per capita increased 10x- for a 70x increase in wealth consumed. This is dwarfed by the better performers like Britain, Japan, Sweden and of course the…
Read Morefrom Hillary’s ‘Progressive’ Demise in The American Spectator by Ross Kaminsky excerpt: Mrs. Clinton has yet to propose a truly new idea. Each of her few policy positions are regurgitations of populist pabulum that offer nothing innovative, nothing for Americans…
Read MoreAn astute value investor maintains a disciplined approach to his craft. He knows to value the company based on careful analysis and avoids the seduction of rationalizing the acquisition of attractive companies that fail to fit the criteria. There will…
Read Moreby Henry Oliner As Bernie Sanders was beginning to gather traction as an avowed socialist running as a Democrat Chris Matthews on his MSNBC show, Hardball, asked Democratic Party Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz if she could articulate the difference between…
Read MoreFrom whatever biased analysis I can render on Trump he seems to be a Progressive- much like Perot- He believes in strong central executive power, majoritarian democracy, pragmatism over constitutional or economic principles, and charismatic leadership. As a pragmatic leader…
Read MoreWhy has the left become so intolerant of dissent? The quality and the rationality of any position can be discerned by its tolerance for dissent. In a world of absolute truth there is no safe space, in a world of…
Read Morefrom Peggy Noonan at the WSJ The Court, Like the Country, Needs Balance There is something increasingly unappeasable in the left. This is something conservatives and others have come to fear, that progressives now accept no limits. We can’t just have…
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