from Kimberly Strassel at the WSJ, Comey’s Secret Power: Mr. Comey’s meddling has never seemed to stem from some hidden partisan impulse, but rather from an overweening self-righteousness. But power can be misused as much in the hands of the
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from The Wall Street Journal, Powerbull: The Lottery Loves Poverty by Arthur Brooks Harmless entertainment, you may say, but poor people don’t see it that way. They tend to view lottery tickets as an investment. Duke University social scientists Charles Clotfelter
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From The Wall Street Journal, Why the Left Can’t Let Go of Racism by Shelby Steele So today there is sweetness at the news of racism because it sets off the hunt for innocence and power. Racism and bigotry generally are the
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from the Wall Street Journal, Mizzou Pays a Price for Appeasing the Left by Jillian Kay Melchior He was not alone. Thousands of pages of emails I obtained through the Missouri Freedom of Information Act show that many alumni and other
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by Henry Oliner Both parties are fragmented, trying to assemble a consensus from groups that do not want to concede. Populist movements are defined by their demons. It is why they are prone to seduction by saviors. They would settle
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from the editors of The Wall Street Journal, The Poison of Identity Politics A politics fixated on indelible differences will inevitably lead to resentments that extremists can exploit in ugly ways on the right and left. The extremists were on
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Mark Lilla writes a great analysis of the rise of identity politics in the Wall Street Journal, The Liberal Crackup All that began to change when the New Left shattered in the 1970s, in no small part due to identity
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from the WSJ and William Galston, What Would Madison Do About the Budget? When it comes to government, I am a die-hard Madisonian. The chief intellectual architect of our constitutional order knew that public officials would always be torn between
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from the editors of The Wall Street Journal, The Poison of Identity Politics Yet the focus on Mr. Trump is also a cop-out because it lets everyone duck the deeper and growing problem of identity politics on the right and left.
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from The Wage Paradox Explained from the Wall Street Journal So why haven’t wages risen faster amid an increase in hiring and unfilled jobs? One answer is that wages have actually been growing at a faster clip—around 4% to 5%—at least
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from Liberalism’s Summer of ’17 by Daniel Henninger at The WSJ For decades, urban liberalism has sold itself as a compact between government and taxpayers. The people paid, and with that revenue liberal politicians would deliver infrastructure, services, economic opportunity and civil
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Do I Make Myself Clear by Harold Evans– great editing advice and examples. Clear writing is a moral imperative. Must read for any non-fiction writer. The Treat of Versailles- A Concise History by Michael Neiberg. “It was a typical Treaty
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From Ted Van Dyk at The Wall Street Journal, The Democrats’ Biggest Problem Is Cultural: Political scientist V.O. Key famously observed that “the voters are not fools.” Millions of them, including traditional Democrats, driven by anger and frustration, abandoned their political
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from The WSJ, Phil Gramm and Michael Salon, Reagan Cut Taxes, Revenue Boomed: As inflation plummeted from the CBO’s projected average annual rate of 8.3% for 1982-86 to an average of 3.8%, revenue compared with projections tumbled $22 billion in 1982
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From Ted Van Dyk at The Wall Street Journal, The Democrats’ Biggest Problem Is Cultural: The Democratic voter exodus began in 1968 when millions of traditional blue-collar and middle-income voters moved to Republican Richard Nixon or third-party candidate George Wallace,
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This is the consequence of political consensus ruling over scientific inquiry. Scientific objectivity is thwarted by intellectual McCarthyism. Dissent is demonized, careers are destroyed. It is more like religious fanaticism than science. Yet they have been able to brand the right with the pejorative of being anti-science. Moral superiority justifies illiberalism. Obvious conflicts of interests are ignored.
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from James Dobbins at The WSJ, American Retrenchment Is a Golden Oldie But we don’t know how the country will respond to the next crisis. It took the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, nine months after Luce’s call to
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Lawrence J. Haas reviews “The Retreat of Western Liberalism” by Edward Luce in The WSJ How does this growing inequality affect the liberal project? “Liberal democracy’s strongest glue is economic growth,” Mr. Luce argues. “When groups fight over the fruits
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from Kenneth Stars in the WSJ, Gorsuch Gets Comfortable in Scalia’s Chair: When Scalia ascended to the high court in 1986, he saw the danger of a runaway judiciary, as embodied in the Warren Court and to a lesser extent
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from Let’s Get Metaphysical About Trump and the ‘Post-Truth Era’ by Crispin Sartwell Likewise, truth cannot be a matter of social consensus. That groups are in agreement has no tendency to show that what they believe is true, or else
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