This new book might be of interest to Lincoln enthusiasts. Not ending with his assassination or even wholly about the president himself, this book instead traces Lincoln's descendants in the century following his death. It is a different perspective than many other Lincoln biographies.
The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family, by Charles Lachman
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The Palin Catch-Phrase Collection
Fred mentioned Palinisms and Bushisms in some recent posts. As we embark on 2009, let us be glad that we may begin forgetting these vacuous expressions. In addition to those he listed, I am glad we no longer must suffer hearing the following:
"Palling around with terrorists"
"Team of Mavericks"
"Just a hockey mom"
"I put it on eBay"
"Thanks, but no thanks"
"You betcha"
The presidential election proved what I have long thought about GOPers: they are just a marketing ploy, a band of catchphrases.
"Palling around with terrorists"
"Team of Mavericks"
"Just a hockey mom"
"I put it on eBay"
"Thanks, but no thanks"
"You betcha"
The presidential election proved what I have long thought about GOPers: they are just a marketing ploy, a band of catchphrases.
2009 Reading
2009 will be the year of Lincoln. I anticipate reading many Lincoln books. Michael Burlingame's 2-volume biography is forthcoming and this will be the big Lincoln publishing event of the year. Close behind are Fred Kaplan's literary biography and the forthcoming biography from Ronald White. I am most interested in Lincoln's economic views and his Whig background.
I plan to read more Richard Yates books after enjoying Revolutionary Road.
I am currently finishing a novel by psychiatrist Irvin Yalom and plan to read all of his fiction.
I'd like to do some more reading on the Progressive Era in US history.
I anticipate reading up on health care reform, which will hopefully happen this year.
I plan to read more Richard Yates books after enjoying Revolutionary Road.
I am currently finishing a novel by psychiatrist Irvin Yalom and plan to read all of his fiction.
I'd like to do some more reading on the Progressive Era in US history.
I anticipate reading up on health care reform, which will hopefully happen this year.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Bigger Than Bush
BY Paul Krugman
1 January 2009
As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.
Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?
But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.
The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.
If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.
Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?
So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.
That’s why the soon-to-be-gone administration’s failure is bigger than Mr. Bush himself: it represents the end of the line for a political strategy that dominated the scene for more than a generation.
The reality of this strategy’s collapse has not, I believe, fully sunk in with some observers. Thus, some commentators warning President-elect Barack Obama against bold action have held up Bill Clinton’s political failures in his first two years as a cautionary tale.
But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.
Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.
Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.
1 January 2009
As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.
Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?
But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.
The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.
If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”
Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.
Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?
So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.
That’s why the soon-to-be-gone administration’s failure is bigger than Mr. Bush himself: it represents the end of the line for a political strategy that dominated the scene for more than a generation.
The reality of this strategy’s collapse has not, I believe, fully sunk in with some observers. Thus, some commentators warning President-elect Barack Obama against bold action have held up Bill Clinton’s political failures in his first two years as a cautionary tale.
But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.
Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.
Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bushisms
The only bad thing about Bush going back to Crawford to hopefully never be heard from again is that we will have to give up Bushisms. But we still have Palinisms. My belief is that people who cannot express themselves clearly have nothing in their minds to express clearly.
The Complete BushismsUpdated frequently.By Jacob WeisbergUpdated Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, at 4:02 PM ET
"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression."—Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008
"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."—Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008
"Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2008
"And they have no disregard for human life."—Describing the brutality of Afghan fighters, Washington, D.C., July 15, 2008
"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office."—Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008
The Complete BushismsUpdated frequently.By Jacob WeisbergUpdated Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, at 4:02 PM ET
"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression."—Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008
"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."—Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008
"Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2008
"And they have no disregard for human life."—Describing the brutality of Afghan fighters, Washington, D.C., July 15, 2008
"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office."—Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Reason Enough to Laugh at Sarah Palin
As if we didn't already have so many reasons to laugh at Governor Trailer Trash:
Thursday, Jan. 01, 2009
"You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time."
Governor SARAH PALIN,
leaving a phone message at PEOPLE magazine countering what she considers inaccurate descriptions about her daughter and future son-in-law
Thursday, Jan. 01, 2009
"You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time."
Governor SARAH PALIN,
leaving a phone message at PEOPLE magazine countering what she considers inaccurate descriptions about her daughter and future son-in-law
Things and People I'd Like to Forget about 2008
Before embarking on 2009, permit me to indulge myself by mentioning those things and people of 2008 that I'd like to forget.
Jen vs. Angelina. (Yawn. Who cares?)
The leader of this nation continuing to say "nucular. (If you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't control it)
Auto execs flying to DC to testify in private jets. (Are these people as dumb as they act?)
Blago's hair. (And everything else about this slimebag)
Elisabeth Hasselbeck. (Enough said)
The Bradley Effect. (Can we forget about it now?)
Tom Cruise. (Can't stand him in any way, shape, or form)
Sarah Palin winking at us. (And hockey mom, drill baby drill, and all other Palinisms)
Jeremiah Wright, Rod Parsley, and John Hagee. (Has there ever been another year when the clergy was so disgraced?)
I'M SURE OTHERS WILL OCCUR TO ME. THIS IS ENOUGH FOR NOW.
Jen vs. Angelina. (Yawn. Who cares?)
The leader of this nation continuing to say "nucular. (If you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't control it)
Auto execs flying to DC to testify in private jets. (Are these people as dumb as they act?)
Blago's hair. (And everything else about this slimebag)
Elisabeth Hasselbeck. (Enough said)
The Bradley Effect. (Can we forget about it now?)
Tom Cruise. (Can't stand him in any way, shape, or form)
Sarah Palin winking at us. (And hockey mom, drill baby drill, and all other Palinisms)
Jeremiah Wright, Rod Parsley, and John Hagee. (Has there ever been another year when the clergy was so disgraced?)
I'M SURE OTHERS WILL OCCUR TO ME. THIS IS ENOUGH FOR NOW.
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