Malaise
*How to Bankrupt a Country in Three Easy Steps, by Roger Kimball.
“What is happening all around us is like a real-life dramatization of those pages Alexis de Tocqueville devoted to “democratic despotism.” There are two sides to this novel form of tyranny. The fundamental political question, said Lenin, is “Who-Whom?” For the “whom,” i.e., for the ruled, democratic despotism has an enervating effect. It acts to reduce energy, initiative, the spirit of derring-do and entrepreneurship. If you are more dependent on the state, if your activities are more hemmed in by bureaucracy, regulation, and taxation, you will be less likely to embark upon morning enterprises that require an appetite for risk, adventure, and ambition.
For the “who,” however, the fundamental effect of democratic despotism is a net increase in arrogance and unaccountability.”
Read the whole thing.
*Why Have We Lost Confidence? By Jay Ambrose.
“Our economy is hugely at risk, and Congress did this to us.”
Racism
*From Reverend Wright to the Sherrod Affair, by Victor Davis Hanson.
*Cry Racism! And let slip the dogs of politics, by Tony Blankley.
“In the last fortnight: 1) The NAACP called the tea party racist; 2) Andrew Breitbart called the NAACP racist; 3) Shirley Sherrod called Republican opponents of Obamacare racists; 4) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called Shirley Sherrod racist; 5) many in mainstream media called Andrew Breitbart racist; 6) Howard Dean called Fox racist; and, 7) it was revealed that liberal journalist Spencer Ackerman proposed calling Fred Barnes and Karl Rove racist.
Thus, through a confluence of bizarrely unlikely events, the vicious act of falsely accusing people of racism became a laughingstock. It went from being a career killer to a punch line; from villainy to vaudeville; from knife in the back to pie in the face.”
Let’s pray that it’s true.
*Our Divisive President, by Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen.
1st Amendment
*Breathe a slow sigh of relief, DISCLOSE act fails to garner 60 votes.
*Our precarious 1st Amendment, by Jennifer Rubin.
“The DISCLOSE Act — a nefarious attempt to do through the backdoor that which the Supreme Court barred by the front door, namely government regulation of First Amendment–protected speech — is dead for now. It is a lesson in how precarious (57-41 was the cloture vote) is our attachment to basic constitutional values.”
*The Left’s Crusade to End Debate, by Andrew Klavan.
