As a result of the Tea Party success in Delaware, different mainstream conservatives like Charles Krauthammer have resurrected the Buckley rule of political activism, to wit, that we should all support the most rightward candidate who is electable. This was the conventional wisdom with regard to the primary campaign between Mike Castle and Christine O’ …
Sarah Palin and the Narrative Arc
Political campaigns are like a jumble of improv artists crowded onto a stage, with two or three directors working with two or three competing scripts. When the audience walks away thinking that they saw “that play,” and not “the other one,” then the relevant director wins. I actually used to do something like that as …
Republicans As Abusive Former Boyfriend
So, then, it appears that the electorate remains surly. And it also appears that the unpleasantness is being manifested by means of internecine conflict within the Republican party, at least to this point. The old guard politicos are, to use the technical jargon, freaking out. The most striking example of this was the defeat of …
Warholian Christians
There are, of course, some observations to be made from the Koran burning in Florida on Saturday. But for the farce to be given full justice, we really need more time. That limitation confessed right up front, here are just a few thoughts. The first point is that Andy Warhol lives. The media response to …
It Just Keeps Getting Better . . .
The Republicans of Connecticut have picked Linda McMahon to run for the U.S. Senate. She made her millions in the very odd world of professional wrestling, and I have already seen more than one airing of a video clip in which she is holding a microphone and kicking someone in the crotch, professional wrestling style. …
Three Things Sarah Palin Needs to Get Ahead Of
Readers of this blog may recall that in the last presidential election, I brought myself to vote for the Repuglican ticket for the first time in many years, and I did so because of Sarah Palin’s presence on that ticket. She is genuinely and sincerely and believably pro-life, and that, in my mind, is the …
The Overton Thingy
Yesterday I finished The Overton Window by Glenn Beck, the only Beck book I have read. This is what I posted at my Goodreads account about it. “I picked this one up in an airport on a whim. I had been hearing people froth about it, and wanted to see if it was as bad …
Advisor to the Tamarack and White Pine
Jim Wallis recently offered the opening salvo of an invitation to discuss exactly how “Christian” the Tea Party movement is. I would like to briefly engage with his five points here, but not in the hope that we will wind up with an actual discussion. He, after all, is an advisor to the president, while …
The Kettle Drummer in the Back
The flotilla fiasco, as it is now being called, provides us with a textbook case of how nations get themselves into wars. The run-up to wars is frequently not a matter of clearly defined and contrary objectives from two hostile powers, but rather a muddled, tangled mess. Nations usually don’t march quick-step to war, but …