Tacitus defends Dean

By Aziz P. -
Tacitus defends Dean:

A phrase I thought I'd never write, there. But seriously, what's the big deal in shifting some positions during a race? The positions in question, according to Jim VandeHei's WaPo piece, don't even seem to be particularly central ones: The Cuba embargo? The Social Security retirement age? Don't get me wrong, I care about the former (it's a moral litmus test of American foreign policy), and rather less about the latter; but neither are driving questions of the age. God help me for sounding like Atrios, but this does seem like a press-concocted issue.


It's hardly an endorsement, and his assertion that Dean has never been a straight-shooter is probably based on misinformation than anything else, but it's still a nice gesture.

It would be nice to have a debate with a principled conservative about trade issue, the Cuba embargo, and other topics. Tacitus' comment boards are reknowned for their civility, research, and intelligence. I encourage Dean Nationites to head over to Tac and engage him in discussion, but trolls be forewarned: you'll be banned from Dean Nation if you try to screw with him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A fair solution to Jerusalem

By Aziz P. -
I remember reading one of the books by Tom Clancy in which Jack Ryan was credited with coming up with a solution for Middle East peace which was pointedly never actually detailed in the novel. It was just a way to give his character some foreign policy cred, but ended up like that mysterious suitcase in Pulp Fiction. I couldn't help but be reminded of that, though, when I read former New York mayor Ed Koch's innovative solution to resolving the status of Jerusalem . Instead of putting the hot-button issue of Jerusalem last on the agenda, the issue should be addressed first. If the Jerusalem question is solved, everything else should fall into place more easily. I believe there is a way to keep Jerusalem unified. I am talking not only of the old walled city, which is a very small part of the city of Jerusalem, but the whole city, east, west, north and south. [...] My suggestion is to situate the new Palestinian capital in that part of East Jerusalem that is occupied overwhelming
Read more

Conservatism's shari'a, liberalism's ijtihad

By Aziz P. -
An interesting meta-debate by intellectual conservatives over conservatism's future is playing out. It started with David Frum's Waterloo essay, which led to his political excommunication. Julian Sanchez observed that this represented an epistemic closing of the conservative mind , a thesis that was validated by the retribution visited upon Jim Manzi for daring to suggest that conservatives will achieve more persuasion by using honest, strong arguments instead of weak, emotional ones. All of this has led John Quiggin at Crooked Timber to argue most wisely that as conservatism implodes, liberalism needs to find its own rationale that is more than just "not conservatism". Quiggin has a list of priorities for the liberal movement to address, and closes with the general plea, ...the left has to stand for something more than keeping the existing order afloat with incremental improvements. We need to offer the hope of a better world as an alternative to the angry tribali
Read more