Comments on: Democracy and the Grounds of Distrust

By: Post Right » What Madness Isn’t the Government Capable of?

Post Right » What Madness Isn’t the Government Capable of? — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:08:25 +0000

[...] having problems” compared to Fed Ex and UPS. But as to Klein’s main point, Will Wilkinson responded ably: It requires an amazing kind of selective amnesia to think that there is “no evidence’ that the [...]

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By: Weir

Weir — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:25:46 +0000

For the record. Being wrong and lying are not the same thing.

So if Will Wilkinson thinks his opponent's a liar, and says his opponent's a liar, Will Wilkinson's not lying. Just wrong.

By: strangelet

strangelet — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:13:20 +0000

disenfranchised..... to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity.

hehe, I think the emergence of the Third Culture is the death knell of conservatism.

By: Richard Pointer

Richard Pointer — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:27:24 +0000

I don't know what cultural disenfranchised means and it seems to be meaningless. If you mean delegitimized, then that might be true. They probably have as much to do with that as the Left. Social norms and culture are not democratically chosen so 'disenfranchised' draws the wrong kind of analogy.

Federalist 51 explains the point of the system. Nothing was supposed to be easy. In fact, parties were seen as antithetical to the functioning of the system.

And yes, I know it is a REPUBLIC. Nice way to be a troll.

By: Richard Pointer

Richard Pointer — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:26:41 +0000

By: strangelet

strangelet — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:51:15 +0000

well..actually our REPUBLIC is broken.
The Founders and Framers wanted parity in representation.
However, the right has been being gradually culturally disenfranchised over the past 20 years. Since there was still political parity, that kept the equilibrium.
But the right was brutally and instantly politically disenfranchised in the 2008 election.
So, crazypants time.

By: strangelet

strangelet — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:45:03 +0000

I can also explain easily why Obama didn't fold our tents in MENA and gtfo (what you call aligning with Bush policy).
This is why.
ALL mil-strategists (including Petraeus) knew the “Surge” could only “work” as long as teh SuperAwesome World Police maintained Big Presence in Baghdad.
If we had left right away, then the GOP Teabagger Party could have demagogued the Inevitable Unrallevelling as Cut and Run and Throwing Away “Victory” in Iraq.

By: strangelet

strangelet — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:40:04 +0000

ummm, pardon, but no.
The visual representation of the new Teabagger Demographic is people-who-you-could-meet-at-a-Klan-rally.
The Right has been gradually culturally disenfranchised over the past 20 years……but due to the near universal detestation of evangelical Torture President and Gog/Magog fan GW Bush, they were also brutally and instantly disenfranchised politically, 356 to 173 electoral college votes.
So they are older, white, and very, very angry.
“Real America” i guess.

By: ravenshrike

ravenshrike — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:50:57 +0000

Grassroots movements, unlike the nicely designed astroturf signs of the administration, take time to build. They require the dissemination of information through alternate channels, especially when the only news station that even considers the matter important never actually lays down the exact reasons something is bad, but wreaths the issue in rhetoric to protect their own side.

By: Eric H

Eric H — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:33:25 +0000

"in what world does the health care reform currently being pushed (with varying degrees of intensity) by Obama and the Democrats constitute "the party line?" Surely not this one."

I think perhaps you are confused about the phrase "Party Line". The Democratic Party is pressing this, thus it is the Party Line. Party line does not mean national tradition.

"the acts of madness you list ... are things most of the people currently protesting health care reform would not recognize as madness."

And the same could be said, though for a completely different set of people during, say, the period 1993-2000, of Carnivore, Echelon, rendition, detention of foreigners without trial on the basis of secret evidence (Mazen al-Najjar? Nasser Ahmed?), the wars on Somalis, Serbians, Afghanis, and Sudanese, .... As Will said, it requires a selective kind of amnesia, chiefly that of remembering only the good that your guy did and only the bad that the other side's guy did.

The comment immediately above, noting the Tuskegee Syphillis Study, is on target. We might also discuss some interesting stuff that happened to Japanese-Americans under FDR, or blacks and anarchists under Wilson, or the interest among Progressives and socialists like Shaw and the Fabians in eugenics. The list is long.

By: A Matter Of Trust « Around The Sphere

A Matter Of Trust « Around The Sphere — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:14:09 +0000

[...] Will Wilkinson: It requires an amazing kind of selective amnesia to think that there is “no evidence’ that the U.S. government is “capable of madness.” The government of the United States invaded Iraq and its agents have killed many tens of thousands people on the basis of the fact that some Saudis trained in Afganistan flew planes into the World Trade Center, plus some lies. Torture, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, etc. I call that madness. Of course, Ezra means the other parts of government concerned with domestic affairs. But not the parts that break into peoples’ houses and destroy their lives for selling contraband herbs, or that subject us constantly to mendacious propaganda about drugs. Our government — and by extension our fellow citizens — is capable of terrible things and proves it every single day. Is it really possible to love government so much, to invest so much hope in its benevolent efficacy, that we grow blind to its evident capacity for evil? Anyway, there must be some parts of the government that are not capable of madness. Ezra invites us to think about those when considering health care reform. Will you accept? [...]

By: joshgeek

joshgeek — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:32:25 +0000

For the record, I don't really have a problem with a single payer system. ( we're paying for all this mess as it is, let's at least cover it first, as paying sooner than later usually ends up with a net savings.) considering that, this was the most entertaining post I've read today. I would certainly read a blog by the same author.

By: strangelet

strangelet — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:16:10 +0000

oh sure, but that is a separate demographic….the Paulites or Paulbots. The Teabaggers are a seperable demographic.
The ronpaul supporters are much less numerous, and demographically very disparate from the teabaggers. A lot of Ron Paul supports are young, and tech savvy, and self-define as libertarians, not conservatives.