“Race is a ‘bulldozer’ that destroys other subjects.” — Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel, Race et sciences sociales: Une socio-histoire de la raison identitaire In his book Age of Entitlement , Christopher Caldwell showed (see previous blog ) how race has dominated national debate since the 1960s. Affirmative action’s advancement has created an alternate U.S. constitution to the document Americans have fought and died for over 230 years. Our credentialed elite stands behind the change. They believe in meritocracy; cream rises to the top. That’s a problem in a democracy where most are the milk below, but hold the votes. Wanting control, the elite has seized on affirmative action as the means to divide and rule. Coming out of the Vietnam disaster, progressives worried about ordinary Americans destroying Earth’s future, creating an ecological crisis. Too many people. Zero Population Growth seemed an answer, along with legalized abortion. But politically, depopulating your own base . ...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — Declaration of Independence (1776)  Equality . Equal opportunity . Under God, all hold equal worth. One person, one vote. Rulers rule with the consent of the governed. Justice is blind. Legal guardrails help us make the most of our God-given talents. Or Equity ? “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Karl Marx’s communist ideal (1875), once the creed of one-third of the world and still of China, Vietnam, and others. In the U.S., called affirmative action . Christopher Caldwell’s epic The Age of Entitlement helps us understand the dominant role race has played in America since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. We invest race, Caldwell writes , “with a religious significance.” It’s “the main ideological legacy of the last fifty years.” Race was, af...

“ God help us from the planners .” — Larry Kudlow, Trump economist Our two parties have shifted identities. Democrats are the elite, in power and fighting to hang on. Republicans represent the restive masses below, itching for freedom from elite domination. University of Texas professor Michael Lind describes how elites took control during Covid. Professionals are elite: the three occupations with the greatest proportion donating to Democrats are professors, librarians, and therapists, along with nurses and teachers. By contrast, Republicans have relied on small-business donations. The lockdowns devastated small business; they are furious, many out of work. But progressives favor the lockdowns, 6-foot social distancing, and mask mandates. Many work for government agencies, school districts, universities, nonprofits, large corporations, and banks. They enjoy actual or implicit tenure, and are able to operate remotely from home with groceries delivered. Our privileged elite follow an id...

Bari Weiss                        Batya Ungar-Sargon The founding documents were .   .   . “magnificent,” as Martin Luther King Jr. put it, because they were “a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” In other words: The founders themselves planted the seeds of slavery’s destruction. And our second founding fathers—abolitionists like Frederick Douglass—made it so. America would never be perfect, but we could always strive toward building a more perfect union. No longer. American liberalism is under siege. — Bari Weiss, Tablet   Bari Weiss resigned in protest last July from the New York Times . You can read  her resignation letter, which in part states, “intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times .” To me, Weiss is a hero. Batya Ungar-Sargon on Twitter praised  Weiss’ letter. The two shar...

“ According to liberals, racism is not a human problem but a uniquely white problem .” — George Neumayr, American Spectator   Right, and liberals are wrong. Neumayr goes on to quote Black economist Thomas Sowell: Of all the tragic facts about the history of slavery, the most astonishing to an American today is that, although slavery was a worldwide institution for thousands of years, nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century. People of every race and color were enslaved — and enslaved others. White people were still being bought and sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire, decades after American blacks were freed. Everyone hated the idea of being a slave but few had any qualms about enslaving others. Slavery was just not an issue, not even among intellectuals, much less among political leaders, until the 18th century — and then it was an issue only in Western civilization. Among those who turned against slavery in the 18th century were George Wa...

Here are surprising results from February 25’s Harvard Harris Poll (PDF):                                                                                                                                                                                   Agree/Yes The ($1.9 trillion) Covid Relief Bill should focus on Covid relie f      82%  Continue maximum pressure on Iran         ...

Donald Trump’s February 28 keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) was an effective attack on Joe Biden’s emerging progressive presidency. The former president contrasted Biden’s actions with Trump’s own accomplishments, including protecting against open borders during Covid, striving to reopen schools, achieving U.S. energy independence, pushing the “Operation Warp Speed” vaccines, supporting open businesses over Blue state lockdowns, screening refugees from failed states like Syria, building peace between Israel and the Gulf States, isolating Iran and taking on China. But it was Trump’s analysis (at 1:25:58) of the 2020 election that stood out for me: Thanks to my coattails, Democrats failed to flip a single state legislature. Think of it, or a legislative chamber, because Republicans came out to vote for me.    .   . one [legislator] told me .   .   . “You know, I thought I was going to lose my position, lose...

“ The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself .” -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan In divided America, the "cultural wars" fought since the 1960s have left the nation with shreds of traditional Judeo-Christian culture overwhelmed by a secular culture of sex, violence, rock and roll, drugs, junk food, and whatever else the elite tolerates in order to pacify the masses with — echoing the Roman Empire — “bread and circuses.” Progressives themselves practice a higher “luxury beliefs” culture, their modern, undemanding version of religion (see earlier blog ). The battle is uneven. Traditional religion remains a force in America, but no longer wins elections. We noted elsewhere that the 100 counties with the largest share of college degrees voted 84% for Biden. These suburban areas may well grow increasingly Democratic, as their residen...