December 2023
Future of our Enemies
Lately the news has been filled with dire reports about the strength of China as an adversary and the always looming threat of Russia. It is certainly true that both are active with hostile moves today. Both are dictatorships and both are engaged in efforts to damage the liberal democracies, the US, western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the illiberal democracies (Hungary, Latin America, Africa).
One bit of good news: one illiberal democracy, Poland, recently more...
Minority Rule (2 of 2)
Our democracy is at a breaking point. About 40 percent of our population that votes Republican is divided: about half of them in the new Trump Cult and the other half left homeless. The Democratic Party is still devoted to democracy, but they are often like one hand clapping.
The country?s distress must be addressed, or we will wind up an autocracy, with or without Trump. The issues that must be met are the following:
The Electoral College, which gives too m more...
Minority Rule (1 of 2)
If one were to ask dozens of people on the street what is wrong with our country today, they would probably say the lies that have divided us into factions, or the tremendous gap in earnings between the corporate heads and the rest, or the corruption in the legal community (the Supreme Court the most) that suggests our justice system is crumbling
A new book, just released, has made me see a bigger picture about what is wrong with us and how it can be fixed. In the book: Ty more...
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...
August 2022
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...
Saving America?s Democracy (2 of 2)
In Reviewing the Index of Democracies for 2022, we can see the difference between Total Democracies and Flawed Democracies, a position that the United States currently holds.
Why do the countries at the top of the list succeed while we flail? We can see that the winning countries are all small and have a single culture that makes governing easy. Political parties are mostly either centrist liberal or centrist conservative, making for less contentious issues. Although most of these more...
Why do the countries at the top of the list succeed while we flail? We can see that the winning countries are all small and have a single culture that makes governing easy. Political parties are mostly either centrist liberal or centrist conservative, making for less contentious issues. Although most of these more...