Essays and opinion pieces from our hosts and listeners involving American politics touching on current events, politics, history, and the like.
by D.J. McGuire
The more one looks at the actual policies enacted during the Roosevelt administration, the more one comes to the painful conclusion that FDR, whatever his intentions, allowed the government under his command to build a welfare state not for all, but for whites only. Perhaps I’m coming to this realization later than most who are younger (I’ll turn 45 next week), but I am painfully certain I’ve reached it faster than those who are my age or older.
by D.J. McGuire
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. – United States Constitution, Amendment II
The Las Vegas carnage has reopened the debate on gun rights. This should neither surprise nor disappoint (the reopening of the debate, that is; the carnage should – and I’m sure does – sadden all of us). Also completely expected is the focus on the constitutional amendment cited above, part of the Bill of Rights passed by the First Congress over two centuries ago.
Strangely enough, the entire amendment never gets the attention it should, in particular the opening phrase.
by D.J. McGuire
Over the eight months and change of the Trump Administration, two of his closest allies – both geopolitically and personally – have been Justin Trudeau and Theresa May, Prime Ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom, respectively.
This week, the Trump Administration declared a trade war on both of them – and the Democrats are practically silent. Between Trump’s economic ignorance and the opposition’s political malpractice, we’re in for a very bumpy ride.
by D.J. McGuire
Over the eight months and change of the Trump Administration, two of his closest allies – both geopolitically and personally – have been Justin Trudeau and Theresa May, Prime Ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom, respectively.
This week, the Trump Administration declared a trade war on both of them – and the Democrats are practically silent. Between Trump’s economic ignorance and the opposition’s political malpractice, we’re in for a very bumpy ride.
by D.J. McGuire
As of this morning (the 25th), the Senior Senator from South Carolina is still pushing for the woeful health care bill that bears his name. In his latest attempt to win over conservative critics, he exposes himself as being largely illiterate on the microeconomic reality behind health insurance and health care, providing yet another reason for Senators to vote down his bill.
by D.J. McGuire
Republicans keep telling me that being a conservative Democrat will be difficult, and yet they continue to make it easier. The latest example of this is the Graham-Cassidy bill, which is ostensibly the latest Obamacare “repeal and replace” effort coming from the GOP.
by D.J. McGuire
The events of this week in Washington do not bode well for the Democratic Party. The combination of Democratic senators openly endorsing government monopoly health insurance and the Republican president making a move toward immigration reform, however small, puts the GOP in a better position to hold the Free Marketeers in 2018 and 2020.
by D.J. McGuire
Democrats in Washington have a spring in their step this weekend. Why? Because, Gosh darn it, Trump likes them.
by D.J. McGuire
The Trump Administration has used a couple lines of argument in defense of their decision to wind down Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that allows many children brought into the United States without authorization to remain here and build a life for themselves. The most robust argument Trump and his defenders have is their insistence that Congress via legislation, and not the president via executive order, should have created DACA. However, their other assertion – that DACA beneficiaries have taken jobs that should have gone to native-born American – undermines the Congress-should-act argument by proving it dishonest.
by D.J. McGuire
While the rest of the nation places the Charlottesville Incident in its collective memory, it continues to impact election campaigns here in Virginia. Elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and members of the House of Delegates are in less than three months, and it is in the AG race that the issue of Rebel monuments has been steered into absurdity by unjustified Republican outrage.
by Kevin Kelton
With the September release of Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened, there will undoubtably be a renewed dust-up over whether she or Bernie Sanders should’ve been the 2016 Democratic standard bearer. But it’s over a year since the Democrats settled on a presidential candidate, and it’s time we put that primary campaign on the shelf. We have a common enemy now: alt-President Donald Trump and his alt version of America. To win that Herculean battle, liberal-progressive Democrats cannot waste time and breath fighting against anything but that.
The question now is, was Bernie Sanders’ promise of a political “revolution” real or all talk. The test will come November 6, 2018.
The midterms.
by William Gleed
On Saturday, August 19, Boston became the site of the latest protests between the alt-right and its opponents. This is the story of one man’s attempt to see history up close.
I went to the Boston Common on Saturday. I wanted to see these alt-right neo-Nazis I’d heard about who were coming out to defend American history, heritage, and culture from the big, bad city elders of Boston and the week before in Charlottesville, Virginia.
You see, where I live, you don’t get to see real-life Klansmen and Nazis very often. You read about them in history books and hear about them on the TV. But real life Nazi sightings are about as rare as a solar eclipse. And I might get to see both in one week!