by w4l3XzY3
History
On Lincoln and Our Second Founding
I recently had the opportunity to sing “American the Beautiful.” The lines that most hit me are in the third verse: Oh, beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life! When I sing these, I don’t think about Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etc. Instead, I usually…
Diversity in the Classroom is Doomed.
Yesterday, supporters of affirmative action in admissions got a reprieve. The Supreme Court voted 7-1 to return the case to the 5th Circuit for reconsideration. But that reprieve won’t change the ultimate calculus that spells the doom of affirmative action in school admissions. The problem is a fundamental contradiction between the allowed reason for such policies…
Why I Did Not Vote for a Third Party Presidential Candidate
The other night I took another of those online tests to see who you should be voting for. You know the type. They ask a set of questions on your policy views and then tell you which candidate you should vote for. Many people, myself included, find that their preferences match more closely with a…
Judicial Activism
As a follow up to my last piece and the blog entry by James Fallows, I’d like to address the balance between ideology and deference in the Supreme Court. Fallows is upset that justices who claimed a fealty to precedent are now going “out of their way … to decree new law contrary to what…
The Foundations of My Constitutional Beliefs
Jacob asked me to explain why I think it’s acceptable for the federal government to get involved in health care, education, etc. In many ways, this gets to the central purpose of the whole blog, but I think it’s worth trying to give a more succinct answer to the specific issues he raised. So here is a…
On Compromise and Obstruction
First, my apologies for the recent silence. Who knew a new baby would take so much time away from blogging!? (Ok, yes, we all knew.) In response to my last post, Jacob raised some excellent questions. As I mentioned on the Facebook page, I think they are worth everyone’s consideration. I’ll respond to Jacob’s simpler points…
What’s Actually Wrong with the Republican Party
This piece by Jonathan Bernstein alerted me to this Washington Post op-ed by Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein. Mann and Ornstein suggest that the problem with the Republicans is that they’ve gone too far to the right and are subsequently unwilling/unable to compromise in beneficial ways. The result is more detrimental government gridlock. I think Bernstein…
The Colorado Springs Experiment, Part I
A recent episode of This American Life examined the difficulties and decisions made by the city government of Colorado Springs. Put briefly, the city began to run out of money and had to start shutting down basic services. Then a successful resort owner in town proposed that the city could save money by running more…
An Imperfect Constitution
For those who imagine the original Constitution was perfect or nearly perfect, two examples to consider: 1. Slavery is the most obvious way in which the Constitution was far from perfect. For a nation predicated on liberty, a founding document that protected hereditary chattel slavery constitutes a huge injustice. To the extent that the preservation…