Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • Bernie for President

    I support the superannuated socialist Sanders for president — of Sweden.  (Adapted from a Rubio riff from last night's Republican debate.  Always give credit where credit is due.  Thou shalt not steal.) Sanders is a decent human being as far as I can tell.  He is not a stealth ideologue like the disgusting Hillary who…

  • Michael Bloomberg?

    The former mayor of New York City threatens to run on a third-party ticket.  I just now heard Hugh Hewitt on the Charlie Rose show encourage him on the ground that he would siphon votes from Hillary.  Hewitt might be right given Bloomberg's leftist views.  Herewith, an edited  re-post from 18 June 2012. Michael Bloomberg…

  • Trump’s Traction and Conservative Inaction

    Donald Trump's 'traction' is largely due to conservative inaction.  I leave aside for the moment that other source of Trumpian traction: the abominations of the Obama administration. Conservatives are long on talk but short on action.  Donald Trump, an alpha male with the billions to be beholden to no one, whose style of self-presentation is…

  • Andrew Jackson, Revenant

    An excellent article by Walter Russell Meade.  Study it, muchachos.  Yes, this will be on the final. A revenant is one who has returned from the dead or from a long absence. Has Old Hickory come back as Donald Trump? Though I despise contemporary liberalism and leftism (any difference?), that doesn't quite put me on…

  • Chris Hedges

    I saw Chris Hedges on C-SPAN the other night.  Four years ago I heard him in the same venue and was much impressed by what he had to say about pornography. Oxymoronic as it may sound, I'd say Hedges is a decent leftist.  Decent but delusional, as witness this opening paragraph of The Creeping Villainy…

  • Trump and ISIS

    The party line on Donald Trump is that he is an 'agent' of ISIS, a 'recruiter' for them.  A typically supine liberal-left line in response to a real threat. Spouting the party line as Hillary did in the recent Democrat 'debate' is analogous to saying in the late '30s or early '40s that any opposition…

  • The Quality of The New York Times

    Here is the first comment on  Ross Douthat's December 16th column.  The comment has been awarded 'verified' status, meaning that ". . . it is earned based on a history of quality [read: high quality] comments."  Ready? The following means Douthat knows he is neing dishinest, but it is debatable by he and his buddies,…

  • David Horowitz on Donald Trump

    Here: Donald Trump’s great contribution is saying the unsayable; putting things on the table that would otherwise be buried; calling a spade a spade in a time when political correctness has made us unable to discuss things that have to do with our basic national survival.  This is the crux of the issue.  Every time…

  • What is to be Done? The Dark Side of Diversity

    What is to be done about the threat of radical Islam?  After explaining the problem, Pat Buchanan gives his answer: How do we deal with this irreconcilable conflict between a secular West and a  resurgent Islam? First, as it is our presence in their world that enrages so many, we should  end our interventions, shut down…

  • Machiavelli, Arendt, and Virtues Public and Private

    Current events warrant this re-post from two years ago.  Christian precepts such as "Turn the other cheek" and "Welcome the stranger" make sense and are salutary only within communities of the like-minded and morally decent; they make no sense and are positively harmful in the public sphere, and, a fortiori, in the international sphere.  The…

  • Ten Reasons to Support Ted Cruz

    An excellent piece by David P. Goldman, a.k.a. Spengler.  Excerpts: 5. Cruz is in but not of the system. The distinguished conservative scholar Robert P. George mentored him at Princeton and the flamboyant (but effective) liberal Alan Dershowitz taught him at Harvard Law School. Both agree he was the smartest student they ever had. An…

  • The Left’s Hatred of Conservative Talk Radio

    At the moment the MavPhil commentariat includes a couple of sharp young philosophers whose views are to the Right of mine.  My brand of conservatism takes on board what  I consider to be good in the old liberal tradition.  Their brand looks askance at paleo-liberalism and sees it as leading inevitably to the hard leftism…

  • Political Correctness Can Get You Killed

    Roger L. Simon: The truth is PC doesn't hack it in war.  PC is a rich liberal's plaything, a luxury item. It works best as a subject for ridicule on South Park.  And it's not the way we really think.  It's the way we pretend we think.   So  just who is it that is blowing innocent…

  • A Note on Civil Courage

    Responding to a commenter who states that one exposes oneself to tremendous risk by speaking out against leftist insanity, Malcolm Pollack writes: Most bloggers who write from a contrarian position about these things seem to use noms de plume. In fact, I do have another blog I’ve set up for this purpose, but I almost never…

  • I Wish I Could Stick to Philosophy . . .

    . . . and avoid politics.  But philosophy needs a 'safe space' within which to flourish.  And that space needs to be defended against the two-fold totalitarian threat.  There is the threat from radical Islam and the threat from the leftist enablers of and apologists for radical Islam.  (If you insist that radical Islam =…