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The most famous battle in the long, internecine war on the right between libertarians and traditionalists was fought over Labor Day weekend, 1969 at the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) convention in Saint Louis. The two groups argued semi-peacefully over a number of proposed planks for YAF’s platform–the legalization of marijuana, withdrawal from Vietnam, etc.–but [...]
Filed under: history, libertarians
This year’s CPAC was probably as notable for the people and groups who didn’t show up, as it is for those who did. Since Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and a number of Beltway groups and think tanks were absent, the conference wasn’t necessarily a weathervane for where the conservative movement—depending how one defines it—is heading. [...]
Filed under: culture, libertarians, politics
The neocons are regrettably all too skillful in their use of the big lie — in this case, the maddening whopper that the protesters in Egypt and beyond are carrying out the global democratic revolution proclaimed by George W. Bush. Increasingly, this lie is premised on the bald-faced lie which the neocons are getting away [...]
Filed under: world
MINT-AND-CORN COUNTRY, INDIANA — Do the “nine most terrifying words in the English language“* apply to citizens of other nations whom our government decides to “liberate”? We certainly were a busy bunch of government-is-the-problem types in the Nineteen Eighties. Postscript: Apologies (or a great, big “You’re welcome!” depending on what you think of me) for [...]
Filed under: politics
The consistency of American foreign policy is a thing to marvel at. Sure, there have been various ideological and strategic consistencies from Truman to Obama, but even during potentially game-changing crises imperial policy remains steadfast. Thus the official line quietly insists: “Pay no mind to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across the Arab world [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
The need to finally blog about something other than Egypt moves me to acknowledge the gathering out of the TAC vault to acknowledge the Reagan centennial. Dan came closest to nailing it of anyone in this review for Reason, that he was an enormously complex figure whose complexity we would only come to properly appreciate [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
As Brendan O’Neill, occasionally of TAC, explains, the Muslim Brotherhood is very largely a British creation. It retains excellent Foreign Office links to this day; in Egypt as in many other places, we Britons have long and rightly played both sides of the street. But then, we are all realists now. Well, almost all of [...]
Filed under: foreign policy, world
Events in Egypt have revealed something incredible about American political discourse. Most of the time, most Americans – and even most of the media pundits – operate under the assumption that America is a force for good in the world. They glean and grin and comfort themselves in “knowing” that America has a tradition of [...]
Filed under: foreign policy, ideas, politics, world
I made my premiere this week on RightWeb, with an article on the strange twists and turns of the neocon party line on Egypt I have amply covered throughout on this blog. The article already seems somewhat dated with all that has happened in just the last few days. (I’m in DC through next week, [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
The events in Egypt and across the Middle East are the most stunning popular uprisings in half a century or more. They have the potential to radically transform what has been a consistent policy of injustice towards the region from the world’s sole hegemonic power, and reform respective governments towards more decent, human rights-based democracies. [...]
Filed under: foreign policy