Tag Archives: values

Trump Time Out To Restore Values, Institutions

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUN 2, 2018

We are a nation being consumed by our own anger, anxieties, disillusionment, and alienation from one another.

They are emotions widely exploited by a vast media empire that employs everyone from late night comedians to early morning news anchors. They are manifest in our tribal politics and social behavior. They are also, of course, manifest in the persona and politics of our President, who rubs them raw when he should be applying soothing salves.

It is Donald Trump, on whom we place much of the blame for this current condition, but the truth is he is not the cause; he is only the result. Continue reading →

Five Tools of Political Success

BY WILLIAM F. GAVIN

In baseball, a scout looks for the “five tools” while recruiting a prospect: can he hit, hit with power, run, field, and throw?

Now, as the second Obama administration shows signs of unraveling (in the Obama administration, the letters IRS now stand for Intimidate Republican Suspects), the GOP should remember the five tools of a successful political party: it has to have personalities, principles, policies, propaganda, and opportunity.

Allow me for a  moment to briefly discuss the importance of attractive political personalities. This is not original stuff, but as G. K. Chesterton once said, on most important matters, people have to be reminded rather than instructed. Continue reading →

Republican’s RINO Problem

BY MICKEY EDWARDS

It has become common in recent years for self-described Republican “conservatives” to target for defeat in party primaries those candidates (including incumbent officeholders) whom they consider Republicans In Name Only (“RINOs).

This purification process is based on the rational view that if one believes in party-based governance, Republican voters should elect those candidates who most accurately reflect what the party stands for. It’s a view that confuses America’s constituent-based governing system with the parliamentary systems the Founders rejected (for good reason) but I’m willing to accept the anti-RINO logic even if based on a faulty premise. Continue reading →