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HOW MUCH DEMOCRACY?

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve watched or read some pundit or egghead tell me over the past two years that this time The Donald has gone too far and surely outraged the American people beyond their outmost limits, I’d be having two toppings on the pizza tonight and have enough left over to take the nephews for ice cream afterward.   All this public outrage, of course, put him into the White House.  And don’t let some spin doctor tell you that he’s become less popular whilst there—his favorability rating was 37% on election night, and, though it’s declined marginally at a couple of points, basically, there it still stands.  

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The Liberal Academy

In recent decades, Republicans have developed a strong distaste for higher education. They criticize it at every turn, complaining about the liberal bias of universities. And they do seem to have a point; study after study has pointed to a strong tendency for liberal arts programs to hire mostly liberal professors. This fact has generated barrels of ink on forests worth of paper, decrying the propagandizing of our youth, and the refusal to hire conservative thinkers. Many liberal pundits and journalists appear to agree with them, chastising their own for the terrible refusal to allow conservative thought to get a hearing. I would like to join my voice to the noisy throng.

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Identity Politics

One of the common memes going around the punditry today is that the Democrats lost the election because of identity politics. This is meant to say that, because the Democrats are the party connected with Civil Rights for people of color and Equal Rights for women, they are making big mistakes and ignoring a group of hard-working, honest, tax-paying people - in short, white men. The commentary has routinely suggested that the Democrats should abandon this stance and start listening to the people variously termed "working class", "flyover country", "gun-owning, church-going patriots", or, in rare moments of honesty, "white men".

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