The Victorian government’s reversal of policy on a state anti-corruption commission will be popular with voters and the media. Such bodies are useful but some scepticism is warranted. There is danger in encouraging a judicialisation of politics, judicial bodies and judges are skilled at certain things but not necessarily at public policy. The Victorian Bushfire […]
50 foot Pelosi tramples Republicans
Republicans couldn’t win today the only district to vote for John Kerry in 2004 and John McCain in 2008. Maybe the Democrats do have a chance of holding the House in November after all. Their chances would improve with more Republican ads like this…the inspiration is the 1958 film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Signs of hope for Congressional Democrats?
There are some signs of improving prospects for the Democrats in November. At least one poll now has then ahead in the generic ballot and the Real Clear Politics poll average has almost a dead heat. In this context Pennsylvania-12 takes on added significance.
Socialism within capitalism?
To look over the landscape of socialism is to be persuaded that again and again that Marx was the socialist thinker who had something enduring to say, non-Marxist socialism is fated to merge into liberalism, and if we were looking to political guidance Leonard Hobhouse probably more offers more than the Webbs.
Race, history and politics
Why it is that a hostility towards indigenous Australians is a core principle for some Australian conservatives? Some light on this is shed by the history of history.Â
The religious right & homophobia
With the American right apparently resurgent useful to consider the balance of its components. The focus of the tea-parties on tax and debt might indicate a decline in the influence of the religious right as Dana Goldstein suggets but Sarah Posner suggests that the religious right remains highly influential. Inclined to agree with Posner here. […]
Hispanics in the US
Interesting report from Pew on the perceptions of young American Hispanics: it is clear that many of today’s Latino youths, be they first or second generation, are straddling two worlds as they adapt to the new homeland. According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey of Latinos, more than half (52%) of Latinos ages 16 […]
Blue Dogs, health care and conservatism
Last year I applied for a research grant to examine conservative Democrats to the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and was unsuccessful. Perhaps the grant application was not very good or perhaps its lack of success reflected the underestimation of the significance of conservative Democrats in the immediate aftermath of Obama’s […]
American distrust of government?
Geoffrey Garrett neglects the importance of history and institutions when he compares the fortunes of Obama and Rudd: In a country of drought and flooding rains, sunburnt Australians care deeply about climate change, and they want their representatives to do something about it. But in the land of the free and the home of the […]
Conspiracy theories: be alert but not alarmed
Conspiracy theories such as the belief that Barack Obama was born outside the US are in the news. There’s a discussion at Larvatus Pradeo in which posters lash themselves into much anxiety about ‘birthers’ and other crazies. Is this attention deserved? There are some who probably lie awake at night worrying about popular belief in […]