“You can fool all the people some of the time.   .   .” With the election just 70 days away,   Article by Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University   [Excerpts:] Tim Walz in his speech before the Democratic National Convention [] claimed that Vice President Harris was not just a moderate but “never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives, and she’s always done it with energy, with passion and with joy.”  Harris was one of the most liberal members of the Senate and was never viewed as someone likely to form a compromise on key votes. She was not one of the Democrats commonly referenced as moderates in that body on close votes.  Harris was even rated to the left of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). After her ranking by GovTrack was cited widely in the media  as showing her as the most liberal member of the Senate, the site took down the page, which had been up fo...

    The Communist October 1917 Russian Revolution overthrew what had been a corrupt Czarist regime and doing so, captured the worldwide intelligencia’s imagination. Liberation from history’s “Devine Right of Kings” tyranny comes in two basic forms, defined by philosopher Isaiah Berlin in 1958 as “positive liberty” and “negative liberty.” “Positive liberty" is freedom "to do" certain things; “negative liberty” is freedom "from" things (especially government power). Positive liberty is idealistic, associated with grand political dreams from great minds, from Hegel, Rousseau, Marx . Positive liberty says: "I know what’s best for you.” Positive liberty would if necessary overcome negative liberty’s God-given protective rights, rights enshrined in America’s Bill of Rights. Positive liberty is, at its worst, totalitarian. Negative liberty’s "from" is the 1776 American revolution. Positive liberty’s "to do" is both the 1789 French revolution...

JFK (1956)                          Josh Shapiro Jeffery Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques, both at Yale, told us just before the Vice President picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate that  “If Harris wants to sustain the momentum of her campaign and give herself the best chance to win in November, we believe that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro would make for the wisest choice.” To the surprise of the Yale profs and most observers, Jewish Shapiro lost the Harris Veep pick race to Walz. But Shapiro should take heart from the Democrats’ analogous failure to nominate Catholic John Kennedy for Vice President in 1956.  It turned out well for JFK. When Kennedy failed to achieve the nomination as Vice President that year, his near win ultimately gave him the best of both worlds. He received significant national attention by running for and almost...