This is from an article in the National Journal by Ronald Brownstein and Janie Boschma; note that the “education” referred to in the chart is the proportion of whites with four-year college degrees in each district. A district is high or low if it is above or below the national average on those measures: And […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Credit, and Blame, Where It’s Due
Two months ago, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner suddenly started talking about “restoring the 40 hour workweek,” which they said the Affordable Care Act had destroyed. It was about as misleading an argument as you’d imagine; what it has to do with is the fact that the ACA defines “full-time” work as 30 hours or […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Charlie Hebdo, the Democratic Bargain, and the Limits of Solidarity
Every free society makes a bargain when it comes to free speech. The bargain says that we believe that it’s so essential to human flourishing that everyone be able to say what they want that we’re willing to tolerate speech we despise. Every society draws borders around that right-here in America, which may have the […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Mike Huckabee Is Literally a Con Artist
Mike Huckabee is widely known as an amiable fellow. Whatever you might think of his politics, he seems like a nice guy. But Mike Huckabee is a con artist. Literally. Like many conservative pundits, Huckabee maintains an email list that he uses to generate income. The way it works is that because of his public […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Fat Is Freedom
Like Ed Kilgore, I couldn’t help but notice this colorful detail from a New York Times story today by Jonathan Martin about how the seemingly different Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush share a challenge in that both have been out of elected office for most of the last decade while the Republican party has sprinted […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Foreign Policy Experience, Or the Lack Thereof
How concerned should we be about the possibility that the next president could have little or no foreign policy experience before taking the job? Dan Drezner points out that none of the potential GOP presidents have done much in foreign affairs, but is that really a problem? Maybe, maybe not. But here’s what Dan says: […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Today’s Charts
As any Republican will tell you, the federal government is an enormous beast that grows bigger by the year, feasting upon our precious freedoms for sustenance as it expands into every corner of our lives-and it gets particularly bad when the Democrats are in charge. While there are a number of ways we could measure […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Chicken Little ’16
Tim Alberta of the National Journal takes on the dismal task of reading American Dreams, Marco Rubio’s pre-presidential candidacy book, and finds this, among other things: The Florida senator takes several strongly worded shots at the Democratic front-runner. “Hillary Clinton has proven herself wedded to the policies and programs of the past,” Rubio writes in […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
A Simple Question for the NYPD
View image | gettyimages.com I haven’t done any kind of systematic survey, but most of the coverage (particularly broadcast coverage) I’ve seen about the conflict between New York mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD (or portions thereof) has been maddeningly he said/she said, just noting quickly that the two sides are angry with each […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The GOP’s 2016 Demographic Challenge Is Even Worse Than You Thought
There are reasons to be at least a little skeptical of the demography-is-destiny argument about presidential politics, which says that given the increasing minority population, it will be all but impossible for Republicans to win the White House any time soon. Most importantly, the argument rests on Republicans’ continued eagerness to alienate minorities, particularly Latinos, […]
