Mori Dinauer

It’s all too predictable that economic bad times lend themselves to finding scapegoats, so I’m not surprised that David Brooks has decided to target public employees and their pension plans that are bankrupting state governments. Obviously, they’re not. Obviously, pensions are a long-term problem. And obviously, some pension plans are run better than others. But […]

Back in August, Stanley Kurtz explained how he came to believe Barack Obama was a socialist with a radical agenda, the premise of his book, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism: I myself tried to avoid the socialism issue during campaign 2008. When I began to research my book, I had […]

I think the issue of assigning blame to media personalities for encouraging violent acts is actually simple to understand. Everyone knows that as long as you’re not directly advocating violence, there will never be sufficient evidence that you did so. In Glenn Beck‘s case, I have no idea whether he (or Fox News) is consciously […]

The last time liberal branding came up was during the 2004 election, when the left was hanging on every word of George Lakoff, who, while not completely wrong, wasn’t able to translate his advice on “framing” into something Democrats could use to win elections. And that’s simply because framing is just a more sophisticated form […]

Mike Potemra begins by noting the obvious: President Obama is probably not an “anti-colonialist” or “socialist.” He concludes instead that he is a “clueless bungler” who had everyone fooled in 2008, but now the mask has fallen off. So where has Obama bungled, exactly? His handling of the economy? Potemra does not mention it in […]

The notion that there’s a silver lining for liberals in a Republican-controlled Congress is not terribly convincing, but it’s worth focusing on one aspect, highlighted by Ed Kilgore: “The real stakes this November are about which party will preside over congressional gridlock, and be held accountable for it.” On the surface, it would seem to […]

The reason Republicans don’t root for the underdog is that they have cultivated a narrative over the past 30 years in which “underdog” has been replaced with “freeloading loser.” You don’t help the poor — you punish them for their personal failures. Success is measured by wealth, which of course you earned with the sweat […]

I appreciate the list of reasons Nate Silver has compiled for why we can’t dismiss the possibility of a third-party candidacy in 2012, but one that he emphasizes — “a candidate who presented a ‘serious’ plan to balance the budget could possibly gain traction” — doesn’t ring true. After all, a “serious” plan would involve […]

I’d go even further than Greg Sargent in criticizing radical interpretations of “constitutionality.” If you take the view that the 10th Amendment invalidates legislation you don’t like, then you’re saying that Congress pretty much can’t make any laws; that is, Section 8 of Article One — “The Congress shall have power To lay and collect […]

Kevin D. Williamson reluctantly gives messaging advice to the GOP: “Frederick Douglass should be as much the face of the Republican party as Reagan and Goldwater.” The most charitable way to understand this is that movement conservatives see the Republican party as an imperfect but reliable vessel for promoting freedom through inspiring leaders. And since […]