Free Republic

Schwarzenegger on the State of the State By Ken Masugi Television allowed us to visualize the fight against "special interests" Governor Schwarzenegger is spoiling for. The tedious build-up he was given at his State of the State speech Wednesday night said almost all. (Sacbee audio here, under the story on the speech.) The silly Assembly Speaker Nunez, the investigated Secretary of State Shelley, the investigated President Pro Tem of the Senate Perata, the boorish, ponderous Lt. Gov. Bustamante (whom the Governor sarcastically congratulated for "his wonderful speech" introducing him), all those officials down to members of the State Board...

Killing Them With Kindness By William Voegeli Conservatives have a new reason to voice the four loveliest words in the English language: I told you so. A Stanford Law Review article by Prof. Richard Sander of UCLA concludes, "Blacks are the victims of law school programs of affirmative action, not the beneficiaries." According to Stuart Taylor, Jr.'s summary of Sander's research, preferences do such a thorough job of placing black students in law schools where they are unlikely to succeed, that abolishing affirmative action in admissions would decrease the number of blacks admitted to law schools—but increase the number...

  Democracy in Washington State, San Diego, and the Ukraine  Reading accounts of the Washington election for governor in the national papers makes the Republican request for a recount sound like loser's sour grapes. But there is a deeper issue that makes the episode surprass San Diego, even if doesn't near Ukrainean proportions. The conservative Republican challenger ran narrowly ahead of long-time Democratic pol, Attorney General Christine Gregoire, in the original election (261 votes) and then the first recount (42 votes). But, the second recount, by hand, put her ahead (by 129 votes), with her margin of victory increased...

Tom Wolfe's Struggle With God and the Greeks A review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe By Ken Masugi This is an ugly book, but it could have been even uglier, being as it is a book about the life of the mind. And protagonist Charlotte Simmons of Sparta, North Carolina is scarcely an heroic figure. Prized by her protective family and a determined teacher, Charlotte becomes an outstanding student—admitted with full scholarship to Dupont University (a fictitious Ivy League school with a Georgetown or Duke-level basketball team). She is a freshman version of Sherman McCoy of...

Fallen Idol A review of Mao: A Reinterpretation by Lee Feigon By Arthur Waldron Mao Zedong was the great hero and icon of much of the "New Left" of forty years ago much as Stalin was for its predecessor, the "Old Left" in the early to middle decades of the last century. Those who fell under the spell of these tyrants in their youth have rarely managed completely to rid themselves of visceral sympathies for them, and a sense that somehow those who pillory their erstwhile heroes don't quite understand. So it is perhaps not surprising that the first...

  May Christian Teachers Teach the Declaration of Independence?  Bill Becker of Schwartz & Janzen, who has filed a brief with our John Eastman, Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence on the LA County Seal case, discusses religious liberty, in the recent Williams case involving the Cupertino school district. The district had forbidden him to distribute American political documents, including the Declaration of Independence, on the grounds he was using the documents for purposes of religious indoctrination. The article appears in today's Daily Journal, the legal newspaper for Los Angeles.  School District Should Teach Nation's Vaunted Christian Principles...

Can Catholics Vote Democratic Anymore? A review of The American Catholic Voter: 200 Years of Political Impact by George J. Marlin By Dennis E. Teti For the first time in history, a majority of American Catholics voted this year against one of their own for President. President Bush and Senator Kerry both campaigned for the support of Catholics. In the end, 52 percent, including 56 percent of weekly church-goers, supported the Protestant Republican rather than the Catholic Democrat. In 2000, only 45 percent of Catholics supported Bush against a Southern Baptist. If Kerry had won the same Catholic vote...

Defending Thomas By Tom Krannawitter When asked recently what he thought of Justice Clarence Thomas, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press," "I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." Reid went so far as to say that Thomas was "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court" and that his opinions were "poorly written." Reid's comments came during speculation over the possible successor to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, should he retire soon. Aside from the fact that Reid was disrespectful, we must ask why a Democrat...

The Implausibility of a New Liberalism By William Voegeli Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic, has written an unusually long, provocative, and important essay for that magazine. Its title, "An Argument For a New Liberalism," is at odds with its thesis, since what Beinart really wants is to revive an old liberalism. But then, its thesis is at odds with the reality of that old liberalism. Beinart wants, specifically, a revival of the liberalism of 1947, the year the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) was founded. More specifically still, he wants liberalism to stand resolutely against Islamist...

The Logic of the Colorblind Constitution By Harry V. Jaffa The crisis of American constitutionalism today turns on the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the jurisprudence of something called the "living constitution" has largely replaced the traditional jurisprudence of "original intent." What has ruled the judicial process or the last half century is not what the framers and ratifiers of the original Constitution, as modified by the framers and ratifiers of the amendments, understood their words to mean, but what justices (and litigators) think those words...

Introduction by Alex SpanosI am delighted to be here this evening because I just love Rush Limbaugh. (Cheers and applause) I love his courage. I love his principles. And most of all, I love that his heart is as big as his compassion and generosity. I have seen Rush give of his time and resources to help others many times over. My friends, he is truly one of a kind. Rush Limbaugh's influence on American politics is unrivaled by any other person in the media world. (Applause) Although he holds no elected office, he commands the attention of millions of...

Islamo-Fascists Bring Malnutrition, and U.S. Invasion Gets the Blame  Old Media have as much difficulty with war-torn Iraq as apologists for slavery had for Civil War and Reconstruction. Why, things were much better when there was an autocratic authority and there was no opposition. This WaPo piece, that goes against the grain of the overwhelmingly good news from most of Iraq, cites the decline in health care and the rise of malnutrition "since the war." True, U.S. forces have nothing to do with these unfortunate developments, which are chiefly caused by terrorist attacks on doctors, hospitals and groups like...

Doubling Down on a Losing Bet By William VoegeliPosted November 8, 2004   The list of credits for the Republican victory in 2004 would be incomplete without a line for Michael Moore—not Michael Moore the filmmaker and activist so much as Michael Moore the phenomenon.  Fahrenheit 911 was the ultimate expression of the hatred and contempt for George W. Bush that existed long before this election year.  The popularity of the film both reflected that hatred and intensified it. President Bush benefited in two ways from being not only misunderestimated but misoverdespised.  First, the volume level inside the liberal echo...

The Multiplier Effect How the Popular Vote Translates into Electoral Votes By Brian P. JaniskeePosted October 29, 2004 In the first presidential contest since the razor-thin election of 2000, it seems as if unprecedented attention is being paid to state polls. This is understandable. However, a bit of perspective is in order. That fact is that the Electoral College, for the most part, closely tracks the results in the national popular vote. For example, in the last presidential election George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore by 0.5 percent but won a bare electoral majority with...

"Stolen Honor" Morphs Into Broader Sinclair Documentary  The long-awaited Sinclair Broadcasting Company production about "Stolen Honor" was, according to a company press release, always intended to be a documentary in the customary sense of the term. Appearing tonight at 8 (7 p.m. central) on 62 stations in 39 markets to 24 percent of the television households, "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media" will go beyond the Swift Boat Veterans (and POWs) for Truth documentary previously expected.  "The news special will focus in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting, which emerged during...

Partisans of Neutrality By Richard ReebPosted October 19, 2004   A review of Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media by L. Brent Bozell III The Republican Noise Machine: Right Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy by David Brock This presidential election brings with it the near-simultaneous publication of two books radically different in their understanding of the political influences in today's mass media. Brent Bozell and David Brock are both well known to conservatives, although Brock's star has fallen since he turned left. Brock first came to public attention with his "Troopergate" exposes...

War and Progress A review of Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History, by Lee Harris. By Paul J. Cella IIIPosted October 14, 2004   It would be a pity if this book were ignored. It runs the risk of being ignored because its author thinks for himself, and deeply. Moreover, he is not afraid to follow his thought to its logical conclusions and in the process say things that will win him few enthusiastic allies. His objectivity—an almost clinical detachment at times—can be frankly appalling. The book also runs the parallel risk of not being attended...

President Bush's Domestic Agenda: Freedom and Dignity  President Bush's performances in the three scheduled debates have become progressively better, culminating in tonight's superior effort. I think the key to his success in this debate that focused on domestic issues is his clarity about the virtues of American citizenship. The President was asked some tough questions about health care, Social Security, the minimum wage and unemployment, and he deftly tied them all to citizens' taking responsibility for their lives and their own self improvement. He made health care clearer than anyone in a presidential debate I can remember by emphasizing...

Asian-Americans and Affirmative Action in Higher Education  The WaPo's Jay Matthews concedes points to an Asian-American critic of racial preferences in higher education. Leftist Asian-Americans often make shocking arguments about standing aside for those who have suffered more discrimination. In other words, Asian-Americans should not protest discrimination in favor of blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans. Matthews' interlocutor, Ed Chin, M.D., lacks such generosity: "I am convinced that one reason why Chin's well-reasoned complaints have not led to massive demonstrations and legislative reform is that the students of Asian descent who are rejected by the Ivies get educations just as good...

Bush Judges Rightly on Dred Scott  Democratic politico Susan Estrich on television and the LA Times (see the last paragraph) both went after Bush for his comments on Dred Scott, in response to his answer about whom he would pick for the Supreme Court. But Bush was in fact right in using the Dred Scott case as an example of bad judging and a bad reading of the Constitution.  Like the justice he has expressed admiration for, Clarence Thomas, Bush believes that the Declaration’s “principle of inherent equality … underlies and infuses our Constitution.” Bush’s understanding differs from that...