Others’ Thoughts on the Election Results

Many agree with what Mark Steyn and others have said before:  The culture is deeper than politics, and our politics are a result of our culture much more than the other way around.  Unfortunately, our culture has been degenerating in this direction for some time.

• Michael Knox Beran

At the same time, conservatives ought to recognize that our deeper problems . . . are cultural, not political, and are therefore not susceptible of a political solution.

• Michael Knox Beran, longer discussion

Edmund Burke questioned whether the state can even distribute alms without doing more harm than good. . . .

John Derbyshire

This morning I had occasion to go back to an old John Derbyshire column.  I haven’t read him much lately, but I should; he’s insightful and funny, and as a bonus that column also includes some (surprisingly timely again) reflections about Rick Santorum.

Not Inevitable

In the July 4th issue of National Review (page 18), Kevin D. Williamson has a piece that’s informative and also pretty funny (perhaps he hopes to be the next Mark Steyn?), describing how Canada overindulged in deficit spending for decades, but then sobered up in response to fiscal crisis in the ’90s, and has kept deficit spending under control ever since. 

Loser-pays Can Win in America?

Today I read that under Governor Rick Perry, Texas has adopted a loser-pays system!

In America, if someone sues you, you pay for a lawyer.  Even if you ultimately win the lawsuit and aren’t held liable for any damages at all, you’ve still lost thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees (not to mention the time taken out of your life, which you can never get back).  A lot of the theory behind tort law revolves around making people “whole” for the wrongs they’ve suffered.  Who will make you whole? 

Lights Out

Did you know that Congress has already banned incandescent light bulbs in the future?  Neither do most Americans.  The law was passed in 2007; the phase-out begins with the 100-watt bulb in 2012.  (You can also read more about it at a Web site created for the movement to repeal the ban.)

Practically speaking, like most overweening big-government schemes, this will have unintended consequences.  In this case, we already know what some of them will be: 

1 — Scientists find that the main alternative, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), should be used sparingly and not left on for very long, because they are poisonous and may give you cancer: 

Popularity and Prosperity

I was talking with a friend the other day about gas prices.  We agreed that when gas prices (or unemployment, or the economy generally) improve, that will tend to help any incumbent president’s chances of re-election—and that, by the same token, when they worsen that will tend to hurt his chances—regardless of whether they’re his fault or not.  The question, then, was whether it can fairly be said that the recent high gas prices are partly President Obama’s fault or not.

So I was interested to hear that the answer may be an emphatic Yes: 

Starting to Paddle Back from the Cliff

Republican House speaker John Boehner and Democrat Senate majority leader Harry Reid appear to have reached a final deal on this year’s budget.

If you’re just joining us, the Democrats didn’t pass a budget last year for this fiscal year (October 2010 to September 2011), possibly because they could already see the rising tide of public sentiment against government spending and thought passing any kind of Democrat budget would only hurt them even further in last November’s elections. 

Oxymoron for President

More inside baseball, but if you’re interested in this stuff, another writer at National Review Online also pans most of the rest of the Republican governors (and one speaker of the House) expected to run for president in 2012—Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, and Mitch Daniels—as big-government conservatives (in which case, “conservatives”).

Does anyone have an opinion on whether Rick Perry or John Bolton is a serious possibility?

Postscript on Civility

Two months ago, someone shot a lot of people at an event in Tucson, Arizona, including Congressman Gabrielle Giffords.  Six of those people died; many others were injured.  Liberals argued that conservatives (e.g., radio-talk-show hosts) participate in the great national debate a little bit too boisterously, and that eruptions of such violence are a natural result of that debate (i.e., a natural result of what I think Mark Steyn has called the rough and tumble of a free society).  Liberals talked about the need for “civility” in the national discourse, ambiguously attempting to deligitimize debate.

On “Winning the Future”

A writer at National Review Online has more on America’s looming debt crisis, and a warning that Washington politicians may have to choose between balanced budgets in the near term and the structural reforms needed to make America solvent in the long term.  Normally, I wouldn’t bet on politicians’ choosing the common good in the future over what makes them look good in the present, but America isn’t dead yet; so here’s hoping.

Don’t Sing Along, Mitch

This is a little bit inside baseball, but for those of you contemplating possible Republican contenders for the presidency in 2012, a writer in National Review Online makes my former governor, Indiana’s Mitch Daniels, sound pretty bad.  Sample:

Daniels has an Obamacare problem that could hurt the repeal movement if he doesn’t deal with it. . . . This isn’t the first time conservatives have danced with the devil on health-care questions (see Massachusetts), but with health-care freedom now at its moment of maximum peril, that needs to stop.

I don’t know whom that leaves.

Tightening the Belt?

(Tightening the screws?)

I’ve talked before (here and here) about the possibility of a constitutional amendment to address the structural problems with our democracy that make it tend toward a more and more bloated government.  Apparently Senator Orrin Hatch has proposed a balanced-budget amendment several times before, but this time, as I’ve suggested, the current political climate could actually make it happen.  In fact, this writer says that new Senator Rand Paul will also be proposing a balanced-budget amendment of his own.  Better too many than too few!

In other news, I’m encouraged to hear that new Tea Party-type congressmen and the American people may actually be serious about dealing with the problem of government spending.

Update (February 10th, 2011): National Review Online reports (with links to further details) that the conservatives have won this internal debate among House Republicans:  “GOP Will Fulfill ‘Pledge,’ Cut $100 Billion”.  It’s only one battle, but as far as it goes, I think this is great news!

More of the Same

Didn’t President Obama and other Democrats use to criticize the Failed Policies of the Past Eight Years?  (See, e.g., here and here.)  The more things change, the more they stay the same:  Apparently sticking with the failed policies of the past two years, by contrast, is a great idea.

Keep It Gay

The government is going to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell”, the compromise policy whereby the military doesn’t ask servicemen about their sexual proclivities or practices and they don’t tell. 

The Uncolonialism

In Mark Steyn’s America Alone, he notes that relatively child-unfriendly Western nations prop themselves up to some extent through what is sometimes called “brain drain”—that is, by attracting some of the best and brightest from poorer countries to fill out the ranks of those Western nations’ doctors.  Thus the Western nations postpone the problems caused by poor birthrates and by policies that make it unattractive to go into medicine, but in so doing, they presumably further impoverish the source countries.