So Ron Paul has released his plan to cut one trillion from the budget and balance the budget in three years. Well, I don’t like it. Here is a nonexhaustive list of reasons why, 1. Ron Paul cuts 2013 Medicaid spending to a level 30% lower than the Ryan budget (and . . . . Continue Reading »
I was gonna do longish post about Ron Paul and Herman Cain, but I don’t have the energy today, so a few thoughts about Romney on Tuesday, Romney really prepares for debates. He and his staff try to anticipate questions and his answers are sharp and hard. Just listen to him talk . . . . Continue Reading »
What is modern politics? Kahn describes it as “a distinctive form of religious experience” that depends on the shift of sovereignty (Schmitt) from the monarch to the people. When the miraculous of sovereignty shifts, so does sacrifice: “The domain of sacrifice shifted [in modern . . . . Continue Reading »
Kahn ( Putting Liberalism in Its Place ) again, a wonderful passage on martyrological politics: “Hegel writes of the master-slave relationship as the origin of political history. The slave is not willing to die; he is a failed martyr. He grants others the power to script the meaning of his . . . . Continue Reading »
In a fascinating passage, Kahn draws links between early Christian martyrdom and the operation state power in the Western world. Start with martyrs: “The martyr [like Jesus] denies the state power, while yielding to its violence . . . . This is not a kind of quietism in the face of the state, . . . . Continue Reading »
Kahn again: “My most fundamental claim is that liberalism lacks an adequate conception of the will.” This is not because liberalism fails to talk about will. It does constantly, pointing to the will exercised in the formation of social contract and the will manifest in political and . . . . Continue Reading »
In his provocative 2005 study, Putting Liberalism in Its Place , Yale’s Paul W. Kahn argues that “we will never understand the character of the American rule of law without first understanding the way in which it is embedded in a conception of popular sovereignty. More importantly, we . . . . Continue Reading »
So Stephen Moore is suggesting that Cain should (will?) drop the 9% sales tax in his plan and replace it with a 9% payroll tax. So we are having a discussion about enormous changes to our tax system during an era of slow growth and enormous budgets. The discussion seems to have a acquired an . . . . Continue Reading »
Let’s assume that the Eucharist makes a political difference. And let’s observe that the predominate Christian tradition of the US has been a-Eucharistic. Then we must ask, What political difference has that made? . . . . Continue Reading »
The Cain boom is in its final weeks. National Review has found the frame for attacking the 9-9-9 plan. It is a 9% VAT + a 9% sales tax + a 9% income tax. Now I don’t think that National Review editorials move a decisive number of votes, but the argument that Cain is going to . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
