Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • A Note on Political Rhetoric

    Is the Social Security system a Ponzi scheme?  Many conservatives so label it.  But obviously it is not a Ponzi scheme.  The intent behind such schemes is fraud.  Not so with the SS system.  If your point is that the SS system as currently configured is unsustainable in the long run, and is to that…

  • Talk of ‘Dysfunctional’ Government is Moronic

    Petulant leftist cry babies, mad that they lost, pronounce 'broken' — a prime instance of contemporary baby talk – a government in which democracy triumphs.  The system works.  Our economy may be slouching towards Greece, but the political system works. 

  • Is Obama Smart?

    George W. Bush couldn't rub a subject and a verb together and come up with a clean sentence in his mother tongue.  The man lacked verbal facility.  Among many, myself included, verbal facility is a touchstone of intelligence, or rather of one sort of intelligence, verbal intelligence.  Barack Obama has it.  But there is more…

  • Why We Can’t Ignore Politics

    Thomas Mann, Diaries 1918-1939, entry of August 5, 1934:      A cynical egotism, a selfish limitation of concern to one's     personal welfare and one's reasonable survival in the face of the     headstrong and voluptuous madness of 'history' is amply justified.     One is a fool to take politics seriously, to care about it, to     sacrifice one's…

  • Political Parsimony

    The politically parsimonious do not multiply agencies beyond necessity.

  • Are Your Political Opponents Crazy?

    Gary Gutting maintains a thesis similar to the one I put forth in The Debt Debate.  Where he speaks of competing pictures, I speak of competing visions. 

  • Fiscal Responsibility

    What is the debt debate about?  Senator Marco Rubio in this video does an excellent job of explaining the issue. You decide whether he deserves the 'terrorist' label proffered by Vice President Joe Biden.  By the way, didn't Biden's boss give us a lecture recently about civility?

  • Conservatives in the Lead

    According to a Gallup Poll dated 1 August, 41% of Americans self-identify as conservatives, 36% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. Liberals have only themselves to blame for their poor showing.  Their extremism and reckless deviation from common sense condemn them in the eyes of most of us.  The op-ed columnists of the once-great New…

  • A Big Victory for the Tea Party

    Call it Schadenfreude, but it was certainly a pleasure to wake up this morning to the gnashing of leftist teeth over last night's Tea Party triumph.  The howling of the lefties is as music to my ears.  In his latest outburst, Paul Krugman speaks of "extortion."  Others speak of 'hostage-taking,' 'terrorism,' 'Taliban tactics,' 'arson.'  One commentator…

  • The Bigger the Government . . .

    . . . the smaller the citizen. (Dennis Prager) . . . the more to fight over. (Vallicella) . . . the bigger the debt. (Vallicella glossing Medved)

  • The Debt Debate

    A U.K. commenter remarks: Meanwhile, changing the subject completely, I fail to understand the game of 'chicken' that the two houses are playing over debt. (Wasn't there a James Dean film that started that way, with bad results?). I would be interested in hearing your views in a post. Here are some quick thoughts. To understand what…

  • An Establishment in Panic

    Pat Buchanan exposes the panic-driven extremist rhetoric of the Dems.

  • In Matters Political is Temperament Destiny?

    Before one is a conservative or a liberal ideologically, one is a conservative or a liberal temperamentally, or by disposition. Or at least this is a thesis with which I am seriously toying, to put it oxymoronically. The idea is that temperament is a major if not the main determinant of political commitments. First comes…

  • Voluntary Balkanization: Good or Bad?

    Another fit topic of rumination on this Independence Day 2011 is the question of voluntary segregation or balkanization.  Herewith, a few very preliminary remarks. I have been inclining toward the view that voluntary segregation, in conjunction with a return to federalism,  might be a way to ease tensions and prevent conflict in a country increasingly…

  • Patriotism and Jingoism

    It is not uncommon to hear people confuse patriotism with jingoism. So let's spend a few moments this Fourth of July reflecting on the difference. Jingoism is well described by Robert Hendrickson as "bellicose chauvinism." But given the general level of culture, I am afraid I can't leave it at that, but must go on…