RATIONAL RESISTANCE
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March 24, 2017
It is an audacious pursuit to divine an assertive original context from a text written by men who themselves did not agree. Such is the conceit of constitutional originalism and it’s disciples. Even a modest history lesson divulges the disagreements among the founders — whether a Bill of Rights should exist, or even if there ought to be a constitution at all.
March 23, 2017
It seems logical to blame the internet for our growing political polarization. Some blame “fake news” shared on Twitter and Facebook for the outcome of the 2016 election. And we know tens of millions of Americans get their news from social media.
March 21, 2017
March 16, 2017
With giddy pride, liberals have deservedly vilified an expansive sea of right-wing conspiracy theories. But it now appears those seditious chickens have come home to a roost of left-wing treachery. Modern liberalism has become a hospitable nesting place for paranoia in the months since President Donald Trump’s election. With vociferous oratory growing in the weeks after his inauguration, left-wing talk show hosts and liberal pundits have stoked the base to a level of conspiratorial thinking previously thought reserved for conservative talk radio.
March 13, 2017
This past Sunday on Face The Nation, host John Dickerson asked Speaker Paul Ryan how many people will lose health care coverage under Ryan’s “American Health Care Act.” Ryan’s answer informs us to his priority.
March 11, 2017
Conservative commentators characterize sanctuary cities as legal apostates, but the principles in practice in sanctuary cities share little with that description. It’s the latest example of the Right’s inability to parse the weeds of reality, seeking to find comforting answers attuned to black and white and good vs. evil.
March 10, 2017
It appears Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is deeply disturbed that insurance premiums paid by healthy people help offset the insurance costs of people who are sick. But that is exactly how health insurance works. In fact, it’s how all insurance works. It’s called spreading the risk. In any insurance pot, there is a minority segment who are higher risk, and these higher risk individuals rightfully pay higher premiums. But in addition to those high-risk premiums, the low-risk majority chips-in to cover the greater cost outlay to insure the high-risk minority.
March 8, 2017
Fiscal conservatism defines nearly all Republicans, even if decades of failed economic promises say otherwise, but the modern Republican Party is also a collective of combative factions. There are extreme social conservatives who often vote based on social wedge issues like abortion. There are moderate social conservatives who tend to go along with many social conservative positions, but who are primarily fiscal hawks. And there are extreme fiscal hawks who lean libertarian, and in many cases reject some of the more offensive tenets of social conservatism.
March 7, 2017
In a series of reckless tweets over the weekend, President Trump accused President Obama of tapping his phone at Trump Tower. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy,” said Trump via his favorite form of communication. Of course Trump offered no evidence, and worse, it seems he received the “intel” from Breitbart News and the cranial hemorrhage conservative radio host, Mark Levin.
March 5, 2017
On February 22, 2017, President Trump directed the Education and Justice departments to revoke guidance prohibiting transgender discrimination in public schools. Under the now defunct guidance, schools could not bar students from using bathrooms and locker rooms matching their sexual identity. Transgender people already face discrimination, harassment, violence and worse, and this move by the Trump administration effectively allows schools to legally discriminate against transgender students, singling them out in an environment that should instead foster inclusiveness.