Bill Kristol had the greatest job in Washington. He could say literally anything, and no matter how ridiculous it might be, he maintained his status as a wise political leader. (This in the party that hectors poor single mothers about personal responsibility and taking responsibility for their actions). Kristol even earned an entire Washington Post […]
House Republicans Incapable of Embarrassment
As a glutton for punishment, I occasionally turn on C-SPAN radio. House Republicans on the Oversight Committee put on a heck of a show a week ago today. The problems start right in the title of the hearing: “White House Narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal.” So the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform […]
In Defense of “The National Interest”
What sort of foreign policies would be good for the 320 million people who comprise the United States? If we aren’t going to break up the country, we at least ought to figure out what benefits this group, on net. Few phrases have been used to obscure so many bad ideas as “the national interest.” […]
A Modest Proposal: The Case for a Third Obama Term
In a column last week, the conservative Catholic commentator Michael Brendan Dougherty made the case why even he would miss President Obama, best summed up in this sentence: And yet, it could have been worse. It doesn’t seem premature to suggest that it’s about to get worse. Maybe a lot worse. The most likely indignity […]
Breaking Up the United States, Part 2
The various cultures, affectations, and traditions contained in the United States make about as much sense combined as one nation as does the European Union. Which is to say: not much. An alien that descended and tried to form peoples into nations would have a hard time making an argument for the United States beyond […]
Breaking Up the United States, Part 1
With the nation locked in a pulsing tug of war over who gets to determine who goes peepee in which potty, perhaps it is time to consider breaking up the United States. Don’t laugh. It’s an argument with a rich tradition behind it. Today: the tradition. Next week: the praxis. One of the first serious […]
What Is Libertarian Politics About?
In Washington, there is a lot of pretense about who does politics and who does not. Frequently, politics is seen as icky–Ted Cruz! Hillary Clinton! Eww!–whereas lawyers, judges, think tankers, civil servants, journalists and an array of other trades see themselves as doing something other than politics. Being a policy wonk, or even an ideologue, […]
The DC Foreign Policy Establishment: An Accountability-Free Zone
Yesterday, the Justice Department announced a $5 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis. On the one hand, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of guys. On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to consider if anyone could have fled a smoldering crater and gotten off lighter than […]
Changing GOP Foreign Policy, Part III – Journalists and Publications
In the early days of the second Iraq War, Bill Niskanen and Ed Crane wrote that neoconservatism had always been “a movement with a head but no body. One rarely runs into a neocon on the street.” The other side of that coin is that sometimes heads matter a lot. Thomas Friedman was overstating things–but […]
Changing GOP Foreign Policy, Part II – The Donor Class
Last week we looked at the best that could be hoped for as concerns right-of-center think tanks on foreign policy. Today we’ll look at one of the biggest obstacles to a sensible GOP foreign policy: the GOP donor class. It’s important at the outset to dispel a myth about super-wealthy GOP donors and foreign policy: […]
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