September 2023
Anti-Modernization Movements
It is one thing to be nostalgic about the "good old days," but another to actually be hostile to modernization. Two current institutions are promoting the anti-modernization movement: the dictatorships around the world and the Republican Authoritarian party in our own country. Both are part of the pushback against all the things that have made America a modern country over the past several centuries.
The earliest anti-modernization movement in America was the southern push more...
America: Good and bad
Just when we think we know what kind of country we are, history comes in to correct the record. We currently have Reactionary governors who want our children to uncritically love our country and think it the best in the world. On the extreme other side Radical Leftists want our children to see our dark underbelly, slavery and its consequences, and dwell on it.
These two extreme views fail our children, who, unlike other children in democracies around the world, are taugh more...
Race-Based Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court Conservative majority has once more overturned previous set law in its latest decisions. They seem set to take things away from people, behavior at odds with popular concerns and at odds with all of these justices declaring at their Senate hearings that they believed in leaving set law alone.
It is becoming clearer every day that the older Republican party was much less ideological than today. Once, the majority of Court decisions were made by either unanimous o more...
It is becoming clearer every day that the older Republican party was much less ideological than today. Once, the majority of Court decisions were made by either unanimous o more...
Constitutional Changes
The United States has enjoyed a prolonged democracy thanks to divided rule: three equal institutions: Administration, Congress, and Supreme Court. Each of these institutions have problematic periods in our history, but rarely at the same time. Today, all three need considerable reform if our government is to continue to be a beacon to the world.
Presidency.
The election system for president is suffering from a poorly performing Primary Election system. Our first pre more...
November 2022
Supreme Court Reviews
We have been taking a long look at the Supreme Court, how it has worked for the past half century, and how it is working today. Several excellent authors have provided books to guide us. One that is particularly useful is: Jeffrey Tobin: The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Anchor Books, 2007 This book gives us an intense look at the dynamic among the nine members of the court that decides the law of the land.
The Supreme Court (and all of our courts) ar more...
September 2022
American Unjust Justice Problems (1 of 2)
One of the most important elements of fair government, supported by the majority of the governed, is justice. This is so basic that even small children protest when decisions or actions are "not fair." Revolutions often begin because of some very unfair action of governments: for example, when a policeman slapped a street vendor in Tunisia and arbitrarily seized his vegetable stand.
The vendor set himself on fire. The Tunisians had finally had enough of unfair police, corrupt off more...
The vendor set himself on fire. The Tunisians had finally had enough of unfair police, corrupt off more...
The Constitution and Minority Rule
What defines us as Americans is the Constitution. We are not one race, one gender, or only native-born, conditions that identify most older societies in the world. We are united by an idea: the idea that we can rule ourselves, that we can hold fair elections, and that we can have a peaceful transfer of power. We never anticipated losers who whine, lie, and refuse to step down.
We are obviously not living up to those ideals today. Our two political parties are no longer ho more...
The Two Faces of Faith
Faith has a place in human history?a mixed bag of good and bad consequences. Faith depends upon willing belief and assumptions that this belief is unchangeable.
Democracy depends on reasoned decisions, values that change as societies evolve. We think and know things today that were inconceivable for eons before our time.
Benefits of Faith
Faith can be a valuable unifying element, creating and sustaining communities. We do not do well as hermits. Even hermits more...
Democracy depends on reasoned decisions, values that change as societies evolve. We think and know things today that were inconceivable for eons before our time.
Benefits of Faith
Faith can be a valuable unifying element, creating and sustaining communities. We do not do well as hermits. Even hermits more...
December 2021
Justice for All, Part 2
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a book a few years ago tracking the history of the Supreme Court. He mentioned how often the court gets justice right, even when the justices were all male and all white. Yet the relatively few times when the court errs, the mistakes are monumental and have long-lasting damage.
The worst cited by Breyer was the notorious Dred Scott decision in 1857 that ruled that even when a slave was taken by his master to a free state, he could not sue in fe more...
Justice for All? (1 of 2)
Human beings seem programmed to want fairness: justice. We want to know that our leaders are protecting us from those who are violent or taking our property. Most of us want a just world, one that we can count on to keep us safe or remedy abuse.
The system of justice that we have in the United States is largely the replica of the British system. We have judges, juries "of our peers," and prisons that enforce sentences. We also have two opposing lawyers or teams, one defend more...
February 2021
The Fate of the Republican Party
We are historically a two-party republic, a system that works in a country that is essentially centrist, electing representatives and presidents not far from moderately conservative or moderately liberal. We have found that this arrangement works for us most of the time, and has made us a more stable republic than many with a multi-party Parliamentary system.
However, we have undergone terrible periods in our history when the two major parties had irreconcilable differences. Both more...
However, we have undergone terrible periods in our history when the two major parties had irreconcilable differences. Both more...