If everyone were enlightened, politics would be minimal and almost automatic. Studies would be done on any issue, and the facts found and the course of action would be almost always self-evident. "Enlightened self-interest" is not an idle phrase and not to be dismissed lightly. The examples of antibiotics and the "tragedy of the commons" are good and are examples where government regulation performs a role in the absence of enlightenment and education. The Republicans are anti-libertarian in...

There are at least two political dimensions: social lib/cons and fiscal lib/con. Some add a third dimension: foreign policy hawk/dove. Trying to squeeze it all into the American duopoly of Republicans vs. Democrats is sheer idiocy. The founding "fathers" wanted to avoid factionalism but the end result is worse: a duopoly is almost as bad as a monopoly. The two parties cooperate to squeeze out Green and Libertarian and other parties. Then they fight internally: Republicans fight over socia...

You think it is just mouthing stuff, it goes much deeper. Read this sentence by Lakoff: "What Democrats have shied away from is a frontal attack on radical conservatism itself as an un-American and harmful ideology." It needs to permeate all the thinking and doing. The Republicans have swindled the working poor and the middle class to vote against their best interests just because they dream of joining the upper class that McMansions epitomizes. To vote for corporate welfare just in case th...

The Democrats are the Truth party. The Republicans are the Power party. "We will continue to get our butts kicked if we keep on bringing a rule book and white gloves to a knife fight." Sure, fight hard, but don't fight dirty. That is why Obama and Biden are staying above the fray and the froth. The truth will out. Even the mainstream media will get interested if there is a kernel of truth here, and it looks like there is. The Republicans are known for trampling the truth to get and use pow...

Senator Leahy was livid today in hearings, extremely angry about the case of Arar. The US is refusing to remove him from the "terrorist" watchlist, despite there being no evidence to link him with terrorists. A meeting between Chertoff and the Canadian security minister revealed nothing to convince the Canadian government. This is straining relations with our Canadian allies at a time when the US becomes lonelier and lonelier. (Link) I think the US refuses to apologize because that would ma...