Point:
To support the classical liberal ideal of equality of opportunity and limited government is a noble endeavor.
Counterpoint:
No, it’s not. There is no prospect in the real world of anything remotely resembling equality of opportunity without considerable government action to provide it. Supporting limited government is code for supporting the current class structure.
There was an article in the NY Times yesterday on the right wingers lining up to challenge Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP primary next year. Here are a few reader comments:
There is considerable empirical evidence across the country that Tea Party candidates in general take the attitude that their way is right–and everyone else is wrong, or even evil. There is also considerable empirical evidence that Tea Party office holders and activists oppose any compromise with Democrats in general, or President Obama in particular. You may choose to characterize that as taking a “principled” stand. You may also choose to characterize the Tea Party’s threats to shut down the government or plunge the country into default as a much needed “challenge to the status quo.” I would characterize it as petulant, extreme and destructive to the political fabric of the United States.
We have an ill-informed or misinformed electorate, politicians who gleefully add to the misinformation and watchdogs who are afraid to bark. And to the extent that there are widely respected, not-too-partisan players, they seem to be fostering, not fixing, the public’s false impressions.
So what should we be doing? Keep pounding away at the truth, I guess, and hope it breaks through.
Information wants to be free? So does food. But farmers aren’t as stupid as certain publishers, journalists and ad salesmen.
It’s easy to “steward” a business when it’s also making you rich. It’s more difficult when the going gets tough.
Despite the fact that the distorted American debate claims that everybody wins, in fact, globalization creates winners and losers. That’s not at all an endorsement of protectionism. It’s saying that policy makers have to work hard, much harder than ours have, to create an environment where citizens benefit from expanded global trade not just as consumers seeking lower prices but as workers needing rising wages.
“The legal lesson for Floridians [from the Zimmerman case]: in any altercation, however minor, the easiest way to avoid criminal liability is to kill the counterparty.”
“A just war is not merely a war fought in a good cause against a terrible tyrant; there are an infinity of good causes and no shortage of terrible tyrants. A just war is one that can justify the destruction it sows, and the enduring responsibility it entails.”
– Stephen Budiansky
Choosing 95 percent confidence as the threshold for statistical significance is 100 percent arbitrary.
“There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and wrong.”
– H.L.Mencken