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Barry Goldwater

 

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The table below logs my occasional commentaries on U.S. politics, both foreign and domestic. Topics relating to the National Question (i.e. immigration and demographics) are under a separate index page. The columns listed here deal with other aspects of U.S. politics.

In commenting on politics, I try to express the views of an ordinary newspaper-reading but un-wonkish citizen of a conservative temperament, skeptical towards all grand schemes for human improvement carried out by careerist bureaucrats. In common with approximately 99 percent of the human race, I am not very interested in politics, and distrust people who are.

I also try to keep in mind Dr. Johnson's dictum that in forming my opinions about political matters, I should try to set aside my personal interests and figure out what's good for the country at large, even is it isn't particularly and immediately good for John Derbyshire. This is much less easy than the good Doctor makes it sound. I don't see much of it going on around me.

Date Place Title Topic
2024
September 2024 Chronicles The Countermarch What's at stake in the 2024 election?
2021
April/May 2021 Chronicles Rejecting "Systemic Racism" Let's take up the Anti-Anti-White banner.
2020
December 2020 Chronicles Dissecting a Dirty Election Indignation, and 3 predictions.
October 2020 Chronicles Election Suspense What to hope for? What to fear?
2015
July 2, 2015 VDARE Trump-Coulter 2016! Can we get some buttons made up?
March 5, 2015 Taki's Magazine Begging Questions Twenty questions for a presidential hopeful.
February 19, 2015 Taki's Magazine Rot Springs Eternal Corruption all over.
January 10, 2015 VDARE There Are Worse Things Than Political Dynasties Like, for example, affirmative action presidencies.
2014
November 13, 2014 VDARE New York City Under a Minority Occupation Government The de Blasio follies.
April 24, 2014 Taki's Magazine While We're At It Suggested Constitutional amendments.
January 29, 2014 VDARE Immigration Boilerplate, "Poetry," And Lies
At Obama's Stalinesque SOTU Extravaganza		 Please make it stop.
2013
November 6, 2013 VDARE Politics and Intelligence —
A Modest Proposal		 Leave big decisions to the middle kind.
May 9, 2013 Taki's Magazine The Incredible Talking Weiner Life among the elites.
February 7, 2013 VDARE Eric Cantor Makes a Point …
But Not the One He Intended		 The bankruptcy of Conservatism, Inc.
2012
November 22, 2012 Taki's Magazine Waiting for Darwin Reality bites.
November 15, 2012 Taki's Magazine Brooms and Shovels Sweeping up after the election.
November 14, 2012 VDARE Was the Conservative Movement Destined to Go Bad? Yes.
November 8, 2012 Taki's Magazine Ballots and Bullets Voting for the next generation.
November 7, 2012 VDARE Election Diary Thanks A Lot, Willard.
You Couldn't Have Taken Just one
Strong Conservative Position?
October 25, 2012 Taki's Magazine Free to be a Communist Raise the scarlet banner high!
October 23, 2012 VDARE The Third Obama-Romney Debate Obamneyism In Florida.
October 18, 2012 Taki's Magazine The One-Party State To-may-to, to-mah-to.
October 17, 2012 VDARE The Second Obama-Romney Debate Arizona's immigration law brings
out Romney's natural cowardice.
October 4, 2012 VDARE The First Obama-Romney Debate If They Can't Do Better Than This,
The Debates Are An Utter Swindle.
July 12, 2012 VDARE One Cheer for Conservatism, Inc. They're not totally useless.
May 10, 2012 VDARE Who Are We? A pitch for "Dissident Right."
February 16, 2012 Taki's Magazine Facing Down the Thugs Conservatism is missing something.
January 26, 2012 Taki's Magazine They Don't Have a Clue For sound policies, ask your Dad.
2011
December 22, 2011 Taki's Magazine Ron Paul Drops the H-Bomb Who hates ya, baby?
November 24, 2011 Taki's Magazine Silver Linings A walk on the optimistic side.
November 10, 2011 Taki's Magazine Are Blacks Natural Pols? And what does being good at politics mean?
September 29, 2011 Taki's Magazine Raising Cain Run, Herman, run
September 22, 2011 Taki's Magazine The Dignity of Sloth Meet Ragle Gumm
September 8, 2011 Taki's Magazine Nothing to Commemorate 9/11: a date between 9/10 and 9/12
August 12, 2011 Taki's Magazine Can We Still Afford the Slavery Tax? And what happens if we can't?
July 28, 2011 Taki's Magazine No-one's Right and Nothing's Left Thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored.
April 28, 2011 Taki's Magazine 2012 Election Preview Surveying the field.
April 21, 2011 Taki's Magazine Simplify, Simplify Entitlements in an age
    of information asymmetry.
April 13, 2011 Address at Providence College Dissidence and Doom Two cheers for the Awkward Squad.
January 27, 2011 Taki's Magazine The Multicultural Cringe Lang Lang's patriotism, and Obama's.
January 12, 2011 Taki's Magazine Republic of Hysteria Let the shrieking begin.
2010
December 15, 2010 Taki's Magazine Pigford at the Trough Biggest race shakedown ever.
November 16, 2010 Taki's Magazine From Baby Boom to Bust The Obama anomaly.
October 6, 2010 Taki's Magazine The Race for New York …  … and why Andrew Cuomo's got "game."
September 1, 2010 Taki's Magazine Glenn Beck: Beggar-in-Chief In the beggars' democracy
August 4, 2010 Taki's Magazine The Old Right's Jewish Problem Is the traditional Right anti-Jewish?
August 2010 The American Conservative Prole Tax Tea Partiers revolt, but government still wins.
July 28, 2010 Taki's Magazine A False Dawn of Race Realism The narcissism of small differences.
July 15, 2010 Taki's Magazine The Last Days of D.C. The right place to build a wall.
July 1, 2010 Taki's Magazine The National Debt: Apocalypse Now Brace for impact!
April 2010 The American Conservative No Life on MARs Prospects for
    the Tea Party movement.
2009
June 15, 2009 NRO End of an Extravaganza Goodbye and good riddance
  to the Space Shuttle.
2008
December 9, 2008 NRO Sing!  Heavenly Muse  … about paradise lost.
November 17, 2008 NRO Next Under the Bus:  UAW?  … or an auto industry bailout?
November 5, 2008 NRO Eight Wasted Years  … and the ratchet slips free.
September 8, 2008 NRO Charity Begins … Where? The lurking menace
    of presidential wives.
August 25, 2008 NRO The Election from Hell Two terrible candidates.
June 19, 2008 NRO Obama's Black Edge Does blackness help or hurt?
May 23, 2008 NRO Amid th'Encircling Gloom Lead Thou me, Ron.
May 15, 2008 NRO Seat-Warming Champions  … and the issue we have
  with one of them.
April 7, 2008 NRO The Alliance About Nothing What is NATO for?
March 24, 2008 The American
    Conservative		 Into Africa The President's Africa trip.
March 11, 2008 NRO Let Us Have Done With You Governor Spitzer should go.
February 20, 2008 NRO The Man on the White Stallion The inevitability of Al Gore.
February 11, 2008 Taki's Magazine Only A Revolution Will Do Onward and upward with Ron Paul.
January 26, 2008 VDARE Paradoxically, Ron Paul's
Success Proving Irrelevance
of Libertarianism		 Paul not pure enough for libertarians.
2007
December 20, 2007 NRO Liberty! Liberty! Endorsing Ron Paul in reality.
July 31, 2007 NRO That Old Time Religion Seeing Ron Paul in a dream.
July 17, 2007 NRO Means and Ends Something's out of whack.
June 2007 New English Review The New Communism? Islamophobia and conservatism.
May 16, 2007 NRO The Republican Debate Rudy McRomney & Co.
May 15, 2007 NRO None of the Above The next President of
  the United States will be …
May 2007 New English Review Private Lives Should we care about them?
March 12, 2007 NRO The S.o.B. Factor Rudy's got it.
February 12, 2007 The American
    Conservative		 Not Your Father's Conservatism Response to Weyrich & Lind's
  "The Next Conservatism"
February 2007 New English Review George W. Bush:
Nurturist-in-Chief		 Hopes for transformation.
2006
November 21, 2006 NRO From Neoconservatism
to Paleorealism		 The end of the adventure.
November 6, 2006 NRO To Vote Or Not To Vote That's the question.
October 2006 New English Review The G-Word and the C-Word Thinking the unthinkable.
September 28, 2006 NRO Empire Election Your 2008 choice: Three Noo Yawkers.
September 2006 New English Review Race and Conservatism Should conservatives talk about race?
August 28, 2006 The American
    Conservative		 What Is Left? What Is Right? My contribution to a symposium.
July 17, 2006 NRO WW4? Don't flatter them We're fighting a rabble, not a nation.
June 12, 2006 NRO Apologizing for Iraq I eat crow for my support of the Iraq war.
March 29, 2006 NRO Chickenhawks (Series #947) Tinker, tailor, soldier, blogger.
March 21, 2006 NRO To Hell With The "To Hell With
The '"To Hell With
Them" Hawks' Hawks"		 Response to Rich Lowry.
January 23, 2006 NRO The Wood Has Been Made Into A Boat Unwinding social change.
2005
December 20, 2005 NRO Differently Clued Checking last year's predictions.
August 5, 2005 NRO Faery Gold In a faery economy.
June 16, 2005 NRO The Folly of Our Age Scrap the space shuttle.
May 10, 2005 NRO Twilight of Conservatism We are doomed, doomed.
February 8, 2005 NRO Nice Election: Now
Let's Get Out		 The point of diminishing
    returns in Iraq.
2004
December 6, 2004 The American Conservative Security Begins At Home Advice for George W. Bush
    on approaching his second term
    as POTUS..
November 9, 2004 NRO Afterthoughts Qualified rejoicing.
November 3, 2004 NRO Targeted Gloating Deserving gloatees.
September 14, 2004 NRO Good Evening, Iraq! Mission accomplished.
September 3, 2004 NRO It's a wrap GOP national convention, day 4.
September 2, 2004 NRO Convention Live GOP national convention, day 3.
September 1, 2004 NRO That Winning Feeling GOP national convention, days 1 and 2.
August 25, 2004 NRO Zakaria's False Dichotomy Was it "racist" to oppose the Iraq war?
June 10, 2004 NRO Should Reagan Be
On Mount Rushmore?		 No.
April 14, 2004 NRO Third Way in Iraq Punishment, imperialism, or nation-building?
March 18, 2004 NRO What Use Is Congress? None that I can see.
February 17, 2004 NRO Only A Trillion Govt. spending —
    a trillion here, a trillion there.
2003
December 5, 2003 NRO One Cheer for Rev'm Al He sure can talk.
November 24, 2003 NRO Isms and Wasms I don't like ideologies.
October 20, 2003 NRO Third Party Peril An issue that could     upset the election.
October 7, 2003 NRO Outsource This! Your job's gone to Bangladesh.
September 24, 2003 NRO The Demonization of Henry Kissinger The world's No. 1 criminal.
September 19, 2003 NRO The Age of No Consequences You can get away with anything nowadays.
September 11, 2003 NRO Two Years On I worry.
June 12, 2003 NRO The Presidency About Nothing All the Clintons did was
    make us hate each other.
May 27, 2003 NRO Disenfranchise the Public Sector Gummint workers shouldn't vote.
May 8, 2003 NRO Confessions of a
  Metropolitan Conservative		 I'm just not authentic.
April 22, 2003 NRO Pseudoscience vs. Snobbery Thoughts on reading a Doonesbury cartoon strip.
April 9, 2003 NRO The Victory Dividend Side benefits.
April 8, 2003 NRO A Brief Moment of Jubilation We've won the war.
March 27, 2003 NRO Ten Points on the War Lame name, too nice, etc.
March 10, 2003 NRO Night Thoughts How I came to stop worrying
    and love the Bomb.
February 18, 2003 NRO Will the U.S.A. Go to War Against Iraq? Will I eat crow?.
January 8, 2003 NRO Traveling Without A Map Mayor Bloomberg, political imbecile.
2002
October 16, 2002 NRO Crunchy or Soggy Nothing to do with breakfast cereal.
September 19, 2002 NRO The BSD Factor Big swinging … what?.
September 3, 2002 NRO Defiant Normality a/k/a KBO.
August 20, 2002 NRO Management or Confrontation? Brent Scowcroft and his style.
July 17, 2002 NRO The Government People Have Won Thoughts while watching my 401(K) shrivel.
June 25, 2002 NRO Mind Your Own Business The Racial Privacy Initiative.
June 11, 2002 NRO Civic Guilt I am not a conscientious citizen.
May 20, 2002 NRO The U.S. Will Not Go To War Against Iraq You heard it here first.
January 8, 2002 NRO Nepotism in New York Should the Mayor give his daughter a job?
2001
December 11, 2001 NRO The Price of Grief Money for 9/11 relatives.
November 16, 2001 NRO We Have Ways … Torture, pro and con (I'm con).
October 16, 2001 NRO Kinder, Gentler Warmaking O what a sensitive war.
September 19, 2001 NRO Into the Realm of Chaos Is God on our side?
September 14, 2001 NRO Aftermath Afterthoughts Footnotes to the attack.
September 12, 2001 NRO The Surrender Option Republic or empire?
September 11, 2001 NRO Steel and Fire and Stone The World Trade Center attacks.
September 7, 2001 NRO Attorney General
Janet Ashcroft		 The Rainbow Farms shootings.
August 21, 2001 NRO The Iron Triangle Taxation, Regulation, Litigation.
June 21, 2001 NRO Too Many Nukes? You can never have enough.
June 14, 2001 NRO Making Your Point with Terror Execution of Timothy McVeigh.
May 15, 2001 NRO Paying for Education School board elections.
April 13, 2001 NRO Tax Panic I brace to do my taxes.
March 29, 2001 NRO Mad Preacher Disease Hillary's weird behavior explained.
March 5, 2001 National Review Exterminate This How the law-school elites
    see the rest of us.
February 22, 2001 NRO On Chelsea's Case Refusal to apologize for the previous.
February 20, 2001 NRO America's First "Public Service"
Billionaire		 That would be Bubba.
February 15, 2001 NRO Be Afraid The lurking threat of Chelsea Clinton.
February 6, 2001 NRO Hillary's Style Crash Politics and pulchritude.
January 25, 2001 NRO Who Would You Pardon? My choices, and Clinton's.
January 23, 2001 NRO The Privilege of
Serving the Public		 Remember term limits?
January 22, 2001 National Review Energy in the Executive An energy policy for
    the new administration.
2000
December 31, 2000 National Review 9 Edge First How to replace a fallen chad.
December 19, 2000 NRO From Beneath the Sign of Saturn What's the bloody point?
December 18, 2000 National Review Too Dumb to Vote Some people are.
December 14, 2000 NRO Noblesse Oblige Al Gores's concession speech.
December 12, 2000 NRO One Leg At a Time How SCOTUS justices don lower garments.
December 5, 2000 NRO They'll Swallow It Audacity as a political technique.
December 4, 2000 National Review 'Twixt Heaven and Earth Philosophical roots of the parties.
November 30, 2000 NRO Wormwood and Gall Suck it up, Al.
November 28, 2000 NRO America's Narrow Escape From the Gore terror.
November 23, 2000 NRO Stand Up and Take the War On the Florida Supreme Court decision.
November 21, 2000 NRO The Red and the Blue Riposte to a disgraceful
    Paul Begala piece.
November 16, 2000 NRO Election Reflections Some thoughts on
    the Nov. 7 elections.
November 15, 2000 VDARE The Asian Vote 2000 How "Chinese-Americans" voted.
November 14, 2000 NRO Flyover Country George W. Bush's topographical landslide.
November 9, 2000 NRO Publick Affairs Vex No Man Election cliffhanger survival guide.
November 7, 2000 NRO Fate of the Nation Vote GOP or start learning Chinese.
November 6, 2000 National Review The New Class Gore had to be stopped.
October 24, 2000 NRO Is God a Democrat? The Ten Commandments,
    according to Joe Lieberman.
October 23, 2000 National Review The Eclipse of Risk Security vs. risk
  as political attitudes.
October 10, 2000 NRO Abortion: First Convince the Soul What George W. Bush should have said.
October 5, 2000 NRO The Things They Didn't Talk About Topics absent from
    the first Bush-Gore debate.
October 3, 2000 NRO Al Gore's Ordinary people Or are they marching morons?
September 25, 2000 National Review Attack of the Wealth-Eaters In defense of capitalism.
September 14, 2000 NRO Wild with Ambition Al Gore's favorite book.
September 12, 2000 NRO First Thing We Do … Tort reform, gun laws, etc.
September 5, 2000 NRO A Democratic Supremacy? We're stuck with the bastards.
August 18, 2000 NRO Never Never Land Disneyland vs. Conventionland.
August 15, 2000 NRO The Showbiz Party Hillary on The Tonight Show.
August 3, 2000 NRO Not the Stupid Party Republicans show some smarts.
August 1, 2000 NRO Sense and Sensibility in Philadelphia Reflections on
    "compassionate conservatism."
July 22, 2000 VDARE Whither the Chinese Vote? Some exchanges with Norman Matloff.
June 29, 2000 NRO When None Cares Looking back on
    the Elián González episode.
May 22, 2000 National Review Elián Nation Media reaction to
    the Elián González case.
May 11, 2000 NRO The Only Hope for Elián:
Judicial Amour Propre		 Appeals court ruling on
    the Elián González case.
May 1, 2000 National Review Still Useful, and Idiotic Fidel Castro's U.S. shills.
1999
May 3, 1999 National Review Forget About It The Society for the Prevention
    of Cruelty to Dead Horses.
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