Blog Posts


Election Denialism and "White Supremacism"

The other day I raised what I consider to be the dishonest rhetoric involving white supremacism. If you're white and you disagree with a person of color, some other emergent and privileged identity, or the progressive agenda embracing diversity for diversity's sake, you are immediately smeared as a...


Let's Deconstruct Critical Race Theory

Rhetorical choices define our options in life. What you see conceptually is, in a sense, what you can aim at in terms of strategic behavioral choices. And so, in this era of so-called “Critical Race Theory,” I say we lay bare the choices the theorists are making. It’s...

Yo, Can You Spare Forty Acres And A Mule?

It was obvious to me one year ago that the pandemic would yield a time of extraordinary social tumult. Indeed, just over one year ago, I wrote in these pages about the general strike theory of the pandemic, how the viral contagion would be turned into an occasion to try to recast the...

Suggestions for a Commission on the January 6 Riot/Insurrection

The acquittal of Donald Trump was a foregone conclusion in his first and second impeachment trials. Now Senators are suggesting that a bipartisan commission study the riot/insurrection of January 6, 2021. Such a commission would produce a report similar to that produced after the 9/11...

Can We Impeach the Impeachers?

The Senate trial in the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump is unlike any other trial in American history. It is so unique, I wonder whether it should be a trial at all. There is nothing like it in our jurisprudence.
The former president has been accused by the House of...

How Would Jefferson Vote On Trump's Impeachment?

It’s an open question in my mind whether Donald J. Trump committed a high crime or misdemeanor justifying impeachment. Were he a private citizen, I would say there is no question his speech on January 6, 2021, was protected. He no more incited a riot than do cheerleaders at a pep...

Will Trump Testify At His Second Impeachment Trial?

Although the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump has yet formally to begin, I can say this much: The House managers’ impeachment trial brief wins my vote as the better of the two briefs filed.
First a word on process.
An impeachment...

Federal Prosecutors Take Aim At Free Speech

Jumpin’ Jiminy, Holy Moly, and WTF: Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York have either lost their minds, or never had minds to being with. They are prosecuting a social media influencer for the snake oil he tweeted in the 2016 election.
It goes...

Revenge of the Puritans: Some Ruminations on the Politics of Virtue

At the mid-point of the tenth month of the Covid-19 pandemic, one thing has become self-evidently clear: Our republic is not well-equipped to deal with a widespread public health emergency. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends in large part on your politics: the left calls for...

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