“Political philosophy” on The Daily Caller

In the late 1970’s, with interest rates, inflation and taxes at back-breaking levels, a broad array of politicians and interest groups with a shared conviction that excess spending, taxes and regulation must be turned around coalesced into a “conservative movement” that elected Ronald Reagan and set into motion a fundamental shift in American politics. That coalition included a lot of different interests who did not necessarily agree on all issues, but for whom the imperative to save the economy was the rightful priority of the day. (more)

One democratic uprising or vote does not make a country a democracy. This important point is being overlooked in the debate about the U.S. response to the populist uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East. Pundits have filled the airwaves claiming the United States must choose between supporting “democracy” and governments that are friendly to America. This is a false choice. (more)

I recently ran across a website for the Communist Party of Houston, Texas. In response to the midterm elections this week, one of the Communists wrote: (more)

Virginia’s fiery attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who argued against the constitutionality of the health care law in federal court this week, has a new line: President Obama is worse than King George III, the English king in power when Americans declared independence in 1776. (more)

Japan on Wednesday said South Korea would face scrutiny over its repeated moves to weaken the won and called on China to act “responsibly” amid escalating fears of a global currency war. (more)

The South of the future is a liberal bastion, according to speakers at a National Archives symposium Tuesday evening. (more)

Cuba’s plan to lay off half a million state workers is another bid to save its economy through gradual but strictly controlled reforms that lean toward, if not fully embrace, capitalism, Tracy Wilkinson reports in The Times. (more)

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don’t have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. “I have a message for you from Fidel,” he said. This made me sit up straight. “He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article.” I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I called a friend at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig, who is a preeminent expert on Cuba and Latin America: “Road trip,” I said. (more)

Barack Obama’s precipitous rise to the White House and his awesome expansion of federal power are frequently explained either as the products of failure or as crucial elements in progressivism’s undoing of American Constitutionalism. While each account is not exclusive of the other, both seek an explanation for the challenges posed by Obama’s presidency to self-government properly understood. The former wagers that the distorting effects of Bush’s foreign policy, a badly flawed Republican Party, and the 2008 market crash were crucial to his mastery of fortune. President Obama stands as the accidental leader. The comforting thought is that as political prospects for Obama have grown dimmer, the repeal of Obama’s mandate to govern is surely just around the bend of the Potomac. We conservatives can almost see it. Alternatively, other more trenchant observations point towards the ongoing corruption of America’s founding spirit. Within this tale of deformation, occurring for well nigh a century, President Obama represents a fresh and dramatic episode in government expansion. (more)

Nothing seems to scare the populist Left more than the people.  Protest the Obama administration’s big spending, pervasive centralizing, expansive regulating policies, and you must be an enemy of all that is good and true.  Attend a Tea Party rally and you’re probably a racist and certainly not a Christian. (more)

An expert on North Korea tells The Daily Caller that it would be “worth a shot” for pop star Justin Bieber to inquire to the communist country’s government about performing a concert there. (more)

As you probably know, the Obama administration filed a legal challenge against the new Arizona immigration law.  The administration has been claiming for weeks that the law is unjust because it will lead to “racial profiling.” However, now that the administration has filed suit – their argument against this law has taken a turn.  The Obama Justice Department is not making an argument about profiling (according to the New York Times, the word “profiling” only appears once, in passing).  Instead, they are claiming that the law violates the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which states that the Constitution, federal laws and treaties supersede state laws. (more)

As I witnessed the birth of my first child on July 4th, screams echoed throughout the delivery room. The anguish wasn’t coming from my stoic wife, but rather from the doctor, who was irate over Obamacare. After practicing medicine for 17 years, her malpractice insurance now represents half of her annual salary: a sum she must borrow with interest in order to pay in one lump sum. (more)

According to a Zogby survey (buried by the mainstream media as an irrelevant news item), self-identified Democrats and Progressives score badly on a simple test of economic understanding. This, according to the May issue of Econ Journal Watch (which I read only because it was the swimsuit issue), was no surprise to the cognitive few remaining among us. (more)

Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, seemed to shock many people when she dodged questions about the Declaration of Independence during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (more)

When I read the wonderful debate between Kerry Howley, Todd Seavey and Daniel McCarthey about whether or not libertarians have an obligation to stake out opposition to social and cultural oppression, rather than only to governmental oppression, I was fascinated. Hooked. All three were articulate and I commend to you the link, again. (more)

Forget the G-20, the BP oil spill, the World Cup, forget even S.E. Cupp. (more)

From the micro-donation platform first popularized by Howard Dean in 2003 to the million-strong Barack Obama Facebook page to the huge audience of the Huffington Post, liberals have been the dominant political force on the internet since the digital revolution began. (more)

Barack Obama in an extreme conservative in the Old-World sense. He believes he is a progressive, but he is exactly the opposite. (more)

Reading the tea leaves offers both danger and hope: (more)