Perhaps you know the saying: Pessimists always claim to be realists. Well, in my experience, pessimism more often than not is realism. (more…)
Tag: elections
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Endicott & Swett, Nullification . . . Despotism (1833). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.
Endicott & Swett, Nullification . . . Despotism (1833). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.
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Part 1 of 2
Classical liberalism tends to get a bad rap in our circles. There are reasons for that, of course. Although it didn’t turn out to be the final word in political theory, or a be-all end-all ideology, there are some valid principles from it which should be salvaged. More to the point, is democracy — or representative government, to be specific — washed up? (more…)
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Jim Goad has produced a short film to accompany his latest essay, “Straining to Care About This Year’s Election,” on why he’s going to be sitting out this year’s presidential election. (more…)
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Now that we’ve taken off our holiday party masks and furtively tiptoed into 2024, the presidential election looms only ten months away.
I find myself violently uninterested in the whole sorry affair. I can’t recall a time in my life when I cared less about the candidates or the outcome.
It wasn’t always this way.
I was barely out of diapers when Lyndon Johnson thrashed Barry Goldwater in 1964, so I can’t be faulted for not doing my civic duty and paying attention to that election. (more…)
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The 2020 film Irresistible, written and directed by the well-known former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, is a much-underrated political comedy in which a small-town mayoral campaign becomes a partisan battleground. At first I thought it might cover the same ground as The Candidate. (As I remember from when I watched it around 1979, a young greenhorn campaigns for a Senate seat, has to tone down his far-Left politics for optics purposes, and is furious because he wins after compromising himself.) Instead, it went in some surprising directions. (more…)
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Guest host Pox Populi (Telegram, YouTube) welcomed the Italian author, political strategist, and CasaPound Italia activist Guido Taietti to Counter-Currents Radio last weekend to discuss politics in Italy, the CasaPound Italia social movement, Mr. Taietti’s book Political Witchcraft, and to take questions from the audience. It is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
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Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)
And even if all financial incentives were totally eradicated from politics, this would not — and could not — exclude non-monetary forms of lobbying and influence, where private entities influence politicians in ways that do not involve any form of financial compensation. In the words of Rep. Maggie Wood Hassan, “When you are in the legislature, it can be hard to distinguish the loud from the many.” The distant nature of political representation ensures that even the most well-meaning politician’s perspective can be biased and distorted by dozens of external influences. (more…)
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Hunter Biden sells his own paintings for up to $500,000 apiece, and the buyers’ names are a closely-guarded secret.
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Part 3 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)
Aside from campaign contributions, wealthy donors and special interest groups can also be gateways to extremely lucrative career opportunities after a politician’s time in office. These special interest groups often lace their campaign contributions with extremely tempting and lucrative private-sector opportunities such as book tours, speaking tours, and privileged consulting positions and careers at the apex of the corporate world, which have allowed many politicians to monetize their political careers and become extraordinarily wealthy. (more…)
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Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)
“The dollar votes more times than the man,” goes the century-old political proverb. Before voters enter the equation, political parties need donors to finance their campaign. This means that political parties will not necessarily adopt the preferences of voters, because “no party can afford to take up the median position that represents the views of the vast majority if investors disagree.” (more…)
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Pro-segregation third-party US presidential candidate Gov. George Wallace, who is the most recent third-party candidate to have won electoral votes, is one who would have benefited if the option of a vote of no confidence had been available.
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No one sensible could fail to see that our current political situation is unhealthy and unsustainable. Nor could anyone who is being honest fail to admit that our government is undergoing uncontrolled growth, looming larger and larger in this once-free land that it coldly leeches of vitality in order to strengthen itself. It is not my intent here to provide solutions for all aspects of these problems, but rather to focus on one of its roots, and thereby help to make it at least marginally harder for our elites to spit on our laws, degrade our culture, displace our people with hostile foreigners, and saddle our sons and daughters with massive debt in the process. I am talking about our two-party oligarchy. (more…)
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Part 3 of 9 (Chapter 1 here, Chapter 2 here, Chapter 4 Part 1 here)
Of the things for which I summoned the people to assemble,
was there one I compassed not? . . .
This is how the people will best follow their leaders:
If they are neither unleashed nor restrained too much. — Solon, circa sixth century BC (more…) -
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On March 5, 2023, Estonia held parliamentary elections which saw a victory for the ruling Estonian Reform Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, as well as an increase in its number of parliamentary seats in the Riigikogu, the country’s unicameral legislative body, and share of the popular vote. (more…)