A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Conservatism

  • Food politics: it’s not about “freedom”

    The new “culture war” over food safety and regulation is a perfect example of the misleading way these debates are so often framed in American public life, a framing that uncritically swallows conservative rhetoric about “freedom.” The debate (over, for example, the food safety bill currently working its way through Congress or the Hunger-Free Kids Read more

  • The elitism quiz

    See Marvin, Camassia, and/or Russell for explanation. 1. Can you talk about “Mad Men?” All but the fourth season; I don’t have cable so I have to wait for the DVD. 2. Can you talk about the “The Sopranos?” No. 3. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right?” Drew Carey. Read more

  • On becoming politically predictable

    I haven’t done much political blogging lately, which in part has to do with the fact that (1) my core interests generally lie elsewhere and (2) I think you, dear reader, can probably get better-quality political blogging elsewhere. Another reason, though, has to do with the fact that, over the last few years, my political Read more

  • John Birch redivivus

    In the New Yorker, historian Sean Wilentz notes the parallels between the ideology and tactics of the Glenn Beck-inspired tea party movement and the Cold War-era John Birch Society. The similarities extend even to drawing on some of the same crackpot conspiracy-mongering “scholarship.” What I didn’t realize before reading this is that Woodrow Wilson has Read more

  • Small government for thee, not for me

    Smart take from Matt Yglesias on the GOP’s “Pledge to America”: Perhaps the most telling thing about where the modern conservative movement is now, however, is their pledge on spending which says that “with common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels.” Of course once Read more

  • Social justice and Christianity are inseparable

    I’ve honestly not paid much attention to Glenn Beck–I’ve never even seen a clip of his show, and most of what I know about him comes from blogs and other media reports. This past weekend’s “Beckfest” on the Mall, though, significantly raised his profile. It’s even being suggested that he’s now the head of a Read more

  • Why do Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin (and the American people) hate our freedom?

    William Saletan has a good round-up and rebuttal of the campaign on the Right to prevent the construction of a Muslim community center and mosque in lower Manhattan, not far from the World Trade Center site. Maybe I’m naive, but it’s actually kind of shocking to hear high-profile pols like Gingrinch and Palin all but Read more

  • The Right and guilt-by-association

    Saying that the Right has been employing McCarthyite tactics seems almost redundant at this point, since virtually the entire repertoire of the Right since the 2008 election seems to consist of guilt-by-association. Still, Robert Wright’s analysis of the ludicrous ginned up controversy over the proposed mosque to be built near the Ground Zero site in Read more

  • Balance!

    Today’s WaPo offers a review of a spate of new political books under the headline “Flame-throwing political books from the Right and the Left.” In judicious Post fashion, it finds the Left and the Right about equally guilty of partisan extremism. “If you believe the liberals,” we’re told “we have Republicans going insane after their Read more

  • Red Toryism revisited

    Philosopher and political gadfly John Gray has what seems to be a balanced take on Philip Blond’s “Red Toryism,” which has been making waves in politico-theological circles. Blond is an acolyte of John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy and an advisor to British Tory leader David Cameron who proposes a program of economic “relocalization” combined with political Read more