Europe in
the late nineteenth century experienced a remarkable boom of industrial,
technological, and educational advancement as well as significant electoral
progress. These transformations
primarily came about as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution and the
important social changes which occurred in its wake. The three decades proceeding the turn of the
twentieth century, however, planted the seeds for a wave of cultural malaise,
social tensions, and movement away from traditional liberal ideals. These downsides primarily occurred due to the
sudden and abrupt manner of the changes.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Please God, Don't Let It Be Rubio
While
most Americans experience election fatigue weeks before the election even
occurs, the media never ceases to speculate about the next presidential
election. Who will run? Will the demographic alignments change? Who will win?
It is fun to ask these questions, but difficult to answer them due to
the sheer temporal distance between now and 2016. This has not stopped some media outlets and
commentators from pegging Florida senator Marco Rubio as the front runner for
the Republican nomination. If the Republican
Party wants to lose in 2016, they should run Rubio. If they want to win, they should run Jon
Huntsman.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
State of the Union Response
In
2010, “Despite our hardships, our Union is strong.” In 2011, “…and the state of our Union is
strong…” In 2012, “…and the state of our
Union will always be strong…” and in 2013, “…we can say with renewed confidence
that the state of our Union is stronger…”
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Death of Native Belief
The
societies of the Americas and Oceania in the pre-European contact era had
numerous different religions, nearly a unique belief system to each individual
tribe. These belief systems had existed
for hundreds, if not thousands, of years—generations of believers linking the
present to the distant past. The culture
shock of even the initial contact must have been extreme; a huge and abrupt
paradigm shift which immediately challenged age old traditions.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Small Government is Dead
It is not
uncommon for conservatives to be portrayed in the media—typically popular
media, but occasionally the news media as well—as stupid, ignorant, or racist;
often a combination of all three. (For
the record, I distinguish a difference between “stupid” and “ignorant”. “Stupid” implies an inability to understand
something while “ignorant” implies the ability to understand something, but the
willful refusal to understand.) This
characterization is, of course, not true.
While it is nearly undeniable that some conservatives are stupid,
ignorant, or racist, there are likely just as many liberals who are stupid,
ignorant, or racist. However, there are
inherent flaws in the typical ideology which many conservatives subscribe to;
one of which is their insistence on small government.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Not Even Drops in the Bucket
In the quest
to eliminate the budget deficit and reduce the national debt both political
parties have proposed numerous solutions.
It is typical for Republicans to suggest spending cuts and for Democrats
to suggest the increase of certain tax rates.
While both parties seem to be firmly ingrained in these positions, the
reality of the situation is that a combination of selected spending cuts and
tax increases will be required to find a meaningful solution. Additionally, there appears to be a courage
gap between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party; while Democrats are
fully prepared to propose tax increases on the wealthy, Republicans tend to
expound on the need for spending cuts but avoid specifics. The reason for this is that the only way for
spending cuts alone to solve the economic crisis is to deliver deep cuts to
Social Security, Medicare, and the military; the first two tantamount to
political suicide and the last against the party’s other positions.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Programming Poll
I'm thinking about slimming down my post length to generate more content. The plan would be three posts a week of about five hundred words, with at least two posts a month of my typical length (about one thousand words). Just want to do a quick poll.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
The Tea Party, Occupy, and a Gun Rally
The First
Amendment guarantees Americans five freedoms, chief among them freedom of
speech and religion. The fourth freedom
mentioned in the amendment is the “freedom to peaceably assemble,” essentially
ensuring that Americans are free to form protest rallies, provided they do not spill
out into violence. This right belongs to
everybody in the nation, on both sides of the political spectrum, and is a
powerful tool when conducted correctly. In
recent years, there are two notable examples of its use, one from of the two
prominent ideologies, as well as an interest group which should call for a
national rally.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Ways to Reduce the Deficit and Debt
The United
States budget deficit and national debt problems remain a highly popular
political issue, and while some economists, namely Paul Krugman (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/),
assert that it is not as life-and-death as news outlets and politicians will
have citizens to believe, it still garners much discussion. With the 2013 budget deficit estimated at
about nine-hundred billion dollars and the national debt hovering at about
sixteen trillion dollars, there are numerous ways to address the problems. Here are simply a few.
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