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Hadley Arkes on Lawrence
NRO has a lot of good stuff today. In particular, Hadley Arkes has a piece about how to respond to the Lawrence decision. A student of Lincoln, he understands the art of prudence in a democratic society better than anyone today. He played a crucial role in convincing pro-life groups to shift focus, from a Human Life constitutional amendment to a legislative strategy focusing on born-alive and partial-birth abortion laws. This was Lincolnian prudence in action. Relinquish the good that is politically impossible to attain, to focus on the less ambitious good that arouses the sympathies and persuades the reason of a voting majority. His reactions to Lawrence manifest the same understanding of prudence and democratic politics.
Posted by Eric Claeys | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 7/2/2003 5:55 PM
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Dean, dough, & the FEC
The Presidential candidates are required to submit FEC disclosure forms by tomorrow. The New York Times and WSJ’s Best of the Web (citing the Times) both report that Howard Dean is set to disclose that he’s raised $6 million in the last quarter, well ahead of the other Democratic candidates’ fund raising.
Posted by Eric Claeys | Link to this Entry | Comments [3] | 6/30/2003 3:19 PM
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Bowling for Moore . . .
A filmmaker is producing a documentary entitled "Michael Moore Hates America," which is intended to be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in January. The description of the project is interesting:
Contrary to its title, Michael Moore Hates America isn’t a hatchet job on the filmmaker. It’s a journey across the nation where we meet celebrities, scholars and average folks alike, all of whom are living the American Dream and proving that America is a great place to be! In the process, we’ll look at Michael Moore’s claims about the country, its people, and its corporations.
Sounds like a good project. (Thanks to Ramesh Ponnuru at The Corner for bringing it to my attention.)
Posted by Robert Alt | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 6/30/2003 10:21 AM
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A Bad Week: Quotas, Sodomy and a new Entitlement
David Frum sums up what has to be the worst week in American Politics in recent memory: 1st)The Supreme Court’s endorsement of race based admissions in the Michigan Law School Case; 2nd)The Supreme Court strikes down the anti-sodomy law in Texas; and 3rd)the GOP Senate votes a new prescription drug benefit, the greatest new entitlement program in almost 30 years.
Here’s a paragraph on the sodomy decision from Frum: "The court could have written quite a constrained opinion – one that accepted as valid precedent the right to privacy created in the Griswold and Eisenstadt cases of three and four decades ago, and then used that judge-made right to strike down a Texas morality statute that just about everybody agreed was ridiculous. Instead, Justice Kennedy produced an astonishingly open-ended opinion, that seemed to treat as a constitutional offense almost any attempt by a state legislature to enact traditional sexual morality into local law. It’s hard to see how Justice Kennedy can from now on consistently vote to uphold any state law that distinguishes one kind of sexual relationship from another. He’s driven onto a highway with no exit ramps."
This ’Lawrence v. Texas’ case will likely have the greatest political impact. Majority Leader Frist has already called for a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as between a male and a female. This is necessary Frist argues because the Court’s recent decision virtually calls for a court decision endorsing Same-Sex Marriage.
The whole idea of limited government assumes that human beings can and should govern themselves. Liberty, understood as self-government, assumes the virtue of moderation, i.e., the voluntary restraint of the passions, in its citizens. On the other hand, the right to privacy assumes that liberty (or the right to privacy) is licentiousness (or self-indulgence), i.e., the right of the individual to unrestrained self-expression. This notion of liberty is incompatible with traditional Constitutionalism. Tragic that such a battle will have to be fought.
Posted by Mickey Craig | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 6/30/2003 10:29 AM
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California: Gray Davis Recall, Budget Woes
This Washington Post article details the budget crisis facing California. The State Legislature has until midnight tonight to come up with a solution to the $38 billion deficit or payments to various agencies will stop and other services will be cut beginning tomorrow, July 1st. While the Dems control both houses of the legislature, passage of the budget requires a 2/3s vote. So far Republicans have insisted that they will not vote for any tax increases to address the budget crisis. Read my lips, anyone?
Here’s an article from Fox News which updates the Recall Gray Davis petition and the increasing pressure on Gov. Davis to resign. Finally, here’s
George Will’s latest thoughts on California and Gray Davis. Will thinks that California needs a new Ataturk to address its problems.
The Dems cry politics, although I don’t think they’ve read Aristotle.
Posted by Mickey Craig | Link to this Entry | Comments [6] | 6/30/2003 10:14 AM
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Miller Campaigns For Bush
First a regular spot on Hannity and Colmes, now Dennis Miller is out stumping for the President. Reuters reports that Dennis Miller did his stand up routine for a fundraiser for Bush in L.A. Speaking of Senator Byrd and his recent stance on the war: "I think he must be burning the cross at both ends." As for Howard Dean, Miller suggested "He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain’s name on his right forearms, he’s never going anywhere." Once again, I don’t always agree with Miller, but he is one of the brightest political satirists around.
Posted by Robert Alt | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 6/30/2003 10:16 AM
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Canada, Gay Rights, and SCOTUS
Peter meant to blog on this before he left for Vermont--it’s an insightful piece on how Canada’s recognition of gay marriages, combined with the recent Supreme Court decision on sodomy laws, are likely to affect the United States.
Posted by John Moser | Link to this Entry | Comments [16] | 6/29/2003 11:51 AM
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Trip to Vermont
I am off to Vermont for a meeting next week, so I will not blog until after the Fourth. Johnny and I are riding and we’ll make stops at Cooperstown, West Point, and Fort Ticanderoga. Be back late on the Fourth. I’ll give a full report that weekend. Have a very good Fourth. Here is what Calvin Coolidge, the last president to have written his own speeches, had to say on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. Remember.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [5] | 6/29/2003 9:13 AM
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Paradigm Shift
Victor Davis Hanson tries to account for "this sudden independent action abroad while becoming ever more skeptical of traditional alliances." He thinks the general public has a clearer understanding of what he calls the "post-Cold War teenager syndrome" (that perpetual dependency creates envy and jealousy) than do the elites (and Europeans). So the real story, he writes, is not global "anti-Americanism", "but perhaps a growing American weariness with strident allies and the braggadocio of pathetic Middle Eastern despotisms." And Hanson has some suggestions on what we ought to do. Very interesting stuff. 
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [38] | 6/28/2003 1:42 PM
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Nation of Grinders
David Brooks writes a very thoughtful and readable essay using Lincoln to great effect. He is trying to understand success. Lincoln’s simplicity, humility, and work ethic (plow horse like) should appeal to the young--too many of whom want to get rich as fast as possible--argues Brooks. He thinks that most successful people, like Lincoln, also have a core faith inn the moral power of hard work. Here is a paragraph, but read the whole thing; light and breezy. "In the land of the plow horses, wealth is acceptable because it is legitimized by the creed of social mobility, which in many ways originated with Lincoln and the Whig Party, of which he was a member for most of his career. According to this creed, affluence is admired because it is the product of hard work, and it does not corrupt because you continue to work even when you don’t have to anymore. According to this creed, social mobility is the saving fire that redeems society. Social mobility opens up horizons because people can see wider opportunities and live transformed lives. Social mobility reduces class conflict because each person can build his own fortune, rather than taking from the fortunes of others. Social mobility unleashes creative energies and keeps everything new and dynamic. It compensates for inequality, because the family that is poor today may become richer tomorrow. It is the very essence of justice, because each person’s destiny is somehow related to the amount of talent and effort he or she pours into life. The purpose of government is to ensure that there is, to use Lincoln’s words, ’an open field and a fair chance’ so that everyone can compete in the race of life.
This is the sensible, steady and admirable ethic of American life. And people who hew to this ethic are still rewarded. If you get an education, get married and stay married, the odds are overwhelming that you will rise. If you migrate here from a developing country, and if you work hard, the odds are pretty good that you and your children will enjoy brighter and more open futures."
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 6/28/2003 1:14 PM
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The EU’s Constitution
James Lileks has a typically witty column on the new constitution of the European Union. He’s particularly amused by the constitution’s "Charter of Fundamental Rights, a laundry list of goodness that should stand as a warning against convening a constitutional convention in the era of the busybody bureaucrat." The best part is his description of Article 24: "’Children have the right to demand chocolate milk be poured on their cereal, and to request that the cereal be made entirely of glazed donuts and marshmallows, and to hold their breath and turn blue. ("Blue" shall be defined as any hue between light sky-blue and a deep Cerulean tint.)’ "Well, again, not exactly. Article 24 concerns ’The Rights of the Child,’ and states that kids ’may express their views freely.’ So it’s a deprivation of their constitutional rights to tell them to knock off the whining. The right to whine for candy bought with someone else’s money -- can you get any more European than that?"
Posted by John Moser | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 6/28/2003 10:17 AM
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Killings in Baghdad, slightly concerned
American soldier shot in the head while buying a video disc at a shop. This, and other daily incidents, are beginning to add up, and I don’t mean just the numbers. They are starting to have an effect on how the whole Iraqi operation is being viewed and perceived, by both us and them. The regularity and predictability of the attacks (and deaths) on Americans and Brits is a bad sign. If this continues for another--say--four weeks, a new kind of understanding will follow, from both us and them. Also, the Bush administration will have to start becoming a little clearer on the issue; they will have to give better and more persuasive speeches, speeches of both understanding and explanation. Although I think they are up to it, I am becoming slightly concerned.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 6/27/2003 5:06 PM
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