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Archives for August 2017

August 30, 2017|Identity Politics, John Fonte, Mark Lilla, Pierre Manent, Progressivism, Socrates, The Resistance

The Resistance and Socrates

by Paul Seaton|48 Comments

We have come to the end of this little series of observations and reflections on the Resistance. Perhaps a little retrospect is in order, before concluding with Socrates.

Every so often our politics produces something relatively new, something worth watching and thinking about. 

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August 30, 2017|Anti-Federalists, Charlottesville, Donald Trump, James McHenry, Luther Martin, Roger Taney

We Still Need Heroes

by Lauren Weiner|11 Comments

The statue of Roger Taney was removed from the front lawn of the Maryland State House on Thursday night, Aug. 17, 2017. (Matthew Cole/Baltimore Sun/TNS via Getty Images)

Maryland’s state song made the front page of the Baltimore Sun yesterday. The marching band at the state university doesn’t want to play it at football games anymore.

The lyrics, set to the tune of “O Christmas Tree” by a secession-minded poet in 1861, begin: “The despot’s heel is on thy shore.” It’s a reference to the federal government. Marylanders are urged to use their “peerless chivalry” to rise up and defend the state: “She is not dead, nor deaf nor dumb. Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum!”

This egregious song comes up for debate every so often. For years there’s been a bill in the legislature in Annapolis proposing that it be replaced. Amid moves all across the country to ditch public reminders of American slavery and/or the Confederacy, the on-again-off-again campaign against “Maryland, My Maryland” is on again.

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August 29, 2017|Determinacy, Larry Solum, Michael Dorf, Originalism

Dorf and Solum on the Determinacy of Originalism

by Mike Rappaport|24 Comments

Originalism continues to be debated among scholars.  Serious work occurs in the academic journals but also in the blogs.  If one is not reading the blogs, one simply misses a lot of what is important.

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August 29, 2017|EEOC, John Calhoun, Missouri Compromise, Plessy v. Ferguson, Taylor Swift, Thomas Jefferson

Today’s Missouri Compromise Is Bad News

by Richard Samuelson|16 Comments

 

Are our laws producing “identity politics” and the divisions it fosters?

A scientist, or perhaps it was an engineer, once asked the political philosopher Harry Jaffa for a general scientific rule about politics. After reflecting upon the bizarre request, Jaffa came up with the following:

S = 2P, where “S” = solution and “P” = problem. Politics is tragic; there are no final solutions.

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August 28, 2017|antitwar movment, communism, Hue, Mark Bowden, North Vietnam, polarization

The Lessons of Hue and the Dangers of Polarization

by John O. McGinnis|6 Comments

I missed most of the Vietnam War, because I was too young to follow the news and it was too recent to be covered in my American history classes. I was thus glad to have the opportunity to read Mark Bowden’s Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. Bowden is a superb writer and he makes the reader feel present for the house to house combat needed to take back Hue from the North Vietnamese and National Front forces during the Tet offensive. And he persuasively makes the case that a battle won by our Marines marked the beginning of decline in popular support for the war that led to America’s ultimate defeat.

The book has important lessons for today. First, the generals in charge of our troops did not understand the war because they were still fighting the battles of their youth. This retrospection led them to overestimate the importance of armor and underestimate the effectiveness of the Vietcong whose lack of advanced weaponry made less difference in the jungle and urban areas than it did the more open fields of Europe.

Similarly today, it seems that the generals have not mastered the art of war in Afghanistan, relying on tactics like the surge that succeeded in Iraq but have not beaten the Taliban.  Whether President Trump’s new more focused counter-terrorism strategy will work better is beyond my capacity to judge. But I was heartened that the President demanded to speak to non-commissioned officers who had spent a lot of time fighting in Afghanistan.

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August 28, 2017|Christopher DeMuth, Donald Trump, Federalist 58, Reihan Salam, Separation of Powers

The Return of Congressional Government

by Richard M. Reinsch II, Greg Weiner|17 Comments

 

President Trump’s inability or unwillingness to lead on a legislative agenda has been cast as bad news for conservatism. But his weakness may trigger a renaissance of conservatism properly understood.

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August 26, 2017|Arnold kling, Conservatives, Libertarians, Progressives, The Languages of Politics

The Three Languages of Politics

by Mike Rappaport|5 Comments

This is the title of an e book by Arnold Kling, who used to blog at our sister site and now blogs at Askblog.  The book, which is well worth reading, argues that conservatives, libertarians, and progressives each have a different language that they use to analyze politics. According to Kling, conservatives view political issues as involving those who favor the institutions of civilization and those who seek to tear them down.  Libertarians view political issues as a conflict between those who favor liberty and those who seek to impose coercion.  And progressives view political issues as involving a situation where…

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August 25, 2017|Catherine MacKinnon, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, Office of Civil Rights, Sexual Assault, sexual harassment, Title IX

The Sex Bureaucrats Are Dug In

by R. Shep Melnick|39 Comments

A scene from Orson Welles 1962 film The Trial, an adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel.

Secretary Betsy DeVos recently announced that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will review the controversial Title IX guidelines on sexual assault and other forms of sexual harassment disseminated by the Obama administration. The new leadership at OCR has already made an important change in enforcement policy: no longer does it follow the 2014-2016 strategy of turning every sexual violence complaint filed by an individual into a well-publicized compliance review of the entire educational institution in question.

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August 24, 2017|banking, Choke Point, Gun Sellers, Pay Day Lending, soft regulatory power, Take Care

Choking Choke Point: A Return to the Rule of Law

by John O. McGinnis|30 Comments

The Trump administration has been accused of being a threat to the rule of law but in at least one very important respect, it has restored the rule of law. The Department of Justice recently announced the end of operation Choke Point. Choke Point was a program by which the Obama administration through the Department of Justice  and banking agencies discouraged banks from lending to whole classes of businesses. Not surprisingly, two of the industries targeted, pay day lending and gun sellers, were ones that the Obama administration disliked but could not persuade Congress to shut down or harass.

The problem with this program is that the government lacked authority to try to attack certain industries by impairing their access to capital. To be sure, the government can prohibit banks from  doing business with particular companies that are engaged in money laundering or where there is evidence that that there is high risk of their doing so. But the government did not have the substantial evidence that whole industries engaged in money laundering to justify handcuffing completely innocent enterprises.  The Obama administration also tried to bolster its case by arguing that banks would damage their reputation by lending to these companies, as if the government has the general authority to figure out what burnishes the reputation of banks.

While the Obama administration was lawless in other respects, Operation Choke Point was particularly dangerous.  Banking lies at the commanding heights of the economy. By occupying it, the government can take control.

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August 24, 2017|Hizb-ut-Tahrir, John Stuart Mill, Peter Balint, Respecting Toleration, Tariq Ramadan, Tolerance

How to Defend Tolerance

by Flemming Rose|3 Comments

Police try to block counter-protesters of the 'Free Speech' Rally on August 19, 2017, in Boston. (Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In historical terms, tolerance is a relatively recent invention.

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Book Reviews

Andrew Roberts Takes the Measure of the “Populist” Aristocrat, Churchill

by Joao Carlos Espada

Yes, there is something new to be learned about Winston Churchill, and it's in the new 1,105-page biography by Andrew Roberts.

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Honor, Sacred and Profane

by Lynn Uzzell

Craig Bruce Smith shows that honor was a vitally important concept for the development of the American nation.

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Liberty Classics

Bringing Natural Law to the Nations

by Samuel Gregg

If sovereign states ordered their domestic affairs in accordance with principles of natural law, the international sphere would benefit greatly.

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Belloc’s Humane Defense of Personhood and Property

by James Matthew Wilson

Perhaps the memory of that metaphysical right to property informs our fears, and could lead to a restoration of human flourishing.

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Podcasts

Born-Again Paganism: A Conversation with Steven Smith

A discussion with Steven D. Smith

Steven Smith talks with Richard Reinsch about his provocative thesis that a modern form of paganism is becoming public orthodoxy.

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"Slouching Towards Mar-a-Lago:" A Conversation with Andrew Bacevich

A discussion with Andrew J. Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich discusses his new book Twilight of the American Century

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Bureaucracy, Regulation, and the Unmanly Contempt for the Constitution

A discussion with John Marini

John Marini unmasks the century-long effort to undermine the Constitution's distribution of power.

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Beautiful Losers in American Politics: A Conversation with Nicole Mellow

A discussion with Nicole Mellow

Nicole Mellow on the beautiful losers in American politics who have redefined the country.

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

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