Comparative Politics and Political Change: what Works and Why?
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” Bejamin Franklin. When I was in graduate school, I took a course on comparative political systems. The course readings seemed to favor the parliamentary system, and I took a bit of an…
Can a Free Republic be a Superpower: Part 4 Toxic Debt
Toxic Debt threatens not only the ability to be a superpower, but our entire way of life. When I was in Bosnia right after the 911 attacks, many of our soldiers said this could never happen in the US. I…
Defending The Republic, Part 1: Scenarios
Over the last year, I’ve been thinking, researching, and writing (Corporatism Part 1, Part 2; Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 7: The Joint Corporatist Scenario, among others) a lot about corporatism. I’ve been searching for a reason why corporations are doing…
Faustian Bargain Part 2: Compassionate Conservation: Is it needed? Is it real?
This is a three-part series on developing the concept of compassionate conservativism to develop effective policies and solutions that address the problems of poverty and its threat to sustainable liberty and prosperity. Both the left and the right entered Faustian…
Operant Conditioning, Path Dependency and Societal Revolution, Part 1
First a disclaimer. I dislike the practice of operant conditioning. It robs a person of their free will and inherently erodes virtue. Now there are some people in the neuroscience community that say freewill does not exist. While I cannot…
Power Shift, Part 8: Concluding Thoughts
“If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you” Friedrich Nietzsche I rather suspect many people that wield federal power or shape those who do have stared very long into the abyss. Some genuinely want to…
Power Shift, Part 7: The Great Society
“The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a…
Power Shift, Part 6: World War II
A command economy is a key aspect of a political system in which a central governmental authority dictates the levels of production that are permissible and the prices that may be charged for goods and services. Most industries are…
Power Shift, Part 5: The New Deal
“We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security…
Power Shift, Part 4: The Spanish-American War, the American Empire, and Progressivism
Abstract: The Spanish-American War is perhaps the least understood, crucial events in American History. It ushered in an era of the American Empire that build upon the previous westward expansion of the US. Empires need money and power. The US…
