Sigh. Even if one grants all the points in the piece cited by Oren, is it his point that the logical response is to elect an ignorant game show host? It's easy to blithely criticize Kristol and Kagan for views of long ago, but doesn't today matter just a smidge more?
Maybe a comment on the economic consequences of what is happening right now would be in order: the military leadership purge, the massive crypto corruption, the attacks on the rule of law, the blatant racism, unleashing masked federal agents to terrorize our neighbors instead of criminals, the attacks on science/universities/centers of independent thought, the use of tariffs as a personal grift, the hollowing out of the civil service, the appointment of unqualified loyalists to head the power ministries...I could go on.
The founder and intellectual lodestar of Oren's "new" right is Don, along with his shapeshifter sidekick JD. Don, JD, and the "new" right control the entire federal government. All of it. What the "new" right says and does is infinitely more relevant to the future of our economy than what long gone neocons said decades ago. Yet all we hear is grievance and complaint about times past. It's time to man up and defend your leaders Oren, tell us what his actions mean for the future of our economy. Give us examples from history of how the actions above, common in the history of so many nations (but not the US), have led to their economic success. No more grievance and looking backward, man up.
Read the other links as well. Note to Pirate Wires. Good article but if you think Heather Cox Richardson is a problem, you should read the comments on her stack. Basically batshit crazy. After reading comments on one of her TDS essays, I went looking for an anodyne topic. I found one on Memorial Day. The comments went from executing Confederates ( I guess they were going to dig them up like the British Royals did with Cromwell.) and then drifted off into outlawing pickup trucks and their owners.
As for The Liberal Patriot, I think Ruy Texiera has his head screwed on right. However, the owner of the Substack took exception to some harsh but fair comments I made about a guest column by someone from Labour. Threatened to ban me and when I saw that, I canceled my subscription not being willing to pay for the privilege of censoring myself. On further reflection, I just exited altogether. Thinking that Labour has anything useful to offer to the Democrats is just crazy. I would say the same thing about anyone extolling the Tories or Reform. The UK has the distinction of having the worst center left, worst center right and worst populist parties of anywhere in the world.
I'm chuckling at your fear of HCR:). I guess she's relevant, I'm just not sure how. I'd think the potus is more so, given his control of the entire federal government? As for me, I'm thinking that the billions Don's family is pocketing from his crypto corruption seems more interesting. Particularly following his "success" in shepherding through the BBB. Not only does the BBB put him on the path to breaking his first term record of debt accumulation, it continues his quest to shift wealth from the working class to the plutocrats. Meanwhile, HCR simply writes her irrelevant columns from the wilds of Maine, much to the consternation of Don's "new" right... I love irony:)
I suspect when a future D prez wields Don's newly claimed powers, the perspectives of some may change. But, mine will not. I'll call them out too. I look forward to you joining the team.
"Anyone preferring domination by China is of course welcome to go that route as well."
If other nations' peoples actually got to decide international affairs for their respective nations (w/out intervention or subversion), would they really choose the US over the PRC? Would they even think in terms of bloc alignment? Who currently makes those decisions, and why do they decide the way that they do? Are countries allowed to freely develop, exploit their own resources, come to partnerships of their own choosing, and not face capital flight among other things?
I will read the whole thing, after dinner, but the excerpt was great. It is going to take vigilance to avoid getting sucked back into late Empire overstretch. I submit that the problem is trying to keep Europe on side and humoring their efforts to suck us into conflict with Russia, which at worst is a secondary adversary. Europe is completely useless in a struggle with China. Russia and India are not useless.
Re America's new position in the world: What do you think of Adam Tooze's assessment of China's decision to bar rare-earth exports to the US? As I see it, this is an awfully big and unavoidable fly in the ointment as these elements are indispensable to every major US weapon system and a slew of products in the civilian economy. Tooze says that regaining autarky in these materials is absolutely necessary and would require a complete overhaul of the entire economy over a 20-to-30-year period with perhaps trillions of dollars of investment. Basically we would have to duplicate what China has accomplished over the past couple of decades, at considerable environment cost.
There is no shortcut or other solution as China holds a global near monopoly on rare earths, and minus such an (improbable) effort, the US looks pretty feeble.
Sigh. Even if one grants all the points in the piece cited by Oren, is it his point that the logical response is to elect an ignorant game show host? It's easy to blithely criticize Kristol and Kagan for views of long ago, but doesn't today matter just a smidge more?
Maybe a comment on the economic consequences of what is happening right now would be in order: the military leadership purge, the massive crypto corruption, the attacks on the rule of law, the blatant racism, unleashing masked federal agents to terrorize our neighbors instead of criminals, the attacks on science/universities/centers of independent thought, the use of tariffs as a personal grift, the hollowing out of the civil service, the appointment of unqualified loyalists to head the power ministries...I could go on.
The founder and intellectual lodestar of Oren's "new" right is Don, along with his shapeshifter sidekick JD. Don, JD, and the "new" right control the entire federal government. All of it. What the "new" right says and does is infinitely more relevant to the future of our economy than what long gone neocons said decades ago. Yet all we hear is grievance and complaint about times past. It's time to man up and defend your leaders Oren, tell us what his actions mean for the future of our economy. Give us examples from history of how the actions above, common in the history of so many nations (but not the US), have led to their economic success. No more grievance and looking backward, man up.
I am telling everyone I know, including my family, to buy Sharpies. Let's go!!! YAY SHARPIES!!!!
Come on Oren, think bigger. We’re not a regional power. We should strive to lead and dominate the century.
We can do it, just need to build. Develop, innovate, de regulate. Skilled immigration.
Think bigger Oren.
Read the other links as well. Note to Pirate Wires. Good article but if you think Heather Cox Richardson is a problem, you should read the comments on her stack. Basically batshit crazy. After reading comments on one of her TDS essays, I went looking for an anodyne topic. I found one on Memorial Day. The comments went from executing Confederates ( I guess they were going to dig them up like the British Royals did with Cromwell.) and then drifted off into outlawing pickup trucks and their owners.
As for The Liberal Patriot, I think Ruy Texiera has his head screwed on right. However, the owner of the Substack took exception to some harsh but fair comments I made about a guest column by someone from Labour. Threatened to ban me and when I saw that, I canceled my subscription not being willing to pay for the privilege of censoring myself. On further reflection, I just exited altogether. Thinking that Labour has anything useful to offer to the Democrats is just crazy. I would say the same thing about anyone extolling the Tories or Reform. The UK has the distinction of having the worst center left, worst center right and worst populist parties of anywhere in the world.
I'm chuckling at your fear of HCR:). I guess she's relevant, I'm just not sure how. I'd think the potus is more so, given his control of the entire federal government? As for me, I'm thinking that the billions Don's family is pocketing from his crypto corruption seems more interesting. Particularly following his "success" in shepherding through the BBB. Not only does the BBB put him on the path to breaking his first term record of debt accumulation, it continues his quest to shift wealth from the working class to the plutocrats. Meanwhile, HCR simply writes her irrelevant columns from the wilds of Maine, much to the consternation of Don's "new" right... I love irony:)
I suspect when a future D prez wields Don's newly claimed powers, the perspectives of some may change. But, mine will not. I'll call them out too. I look forward to you joining the team.
Some of the happiest news I read these days comes from Commonplace.
As for the big essay, the way some events were framed was dishonest: w/re Russia in Georgia and Ukraine, and w/re our actions in the Balkans.
Subsidization and currency manipulation are commonplace, and are things we also do in one form or another. I fail to see a problem there.
"Anyone preferring domination by China is of course welcome to go that route as well."
If other nations' peoples actually got to decide international affairs for their respective nations (w/out intervention or subversion), would they really choose the US over the PRC? Would they even think in terms of bloc alignment? Who currently makes those decisions, and why do they decide the way that they do? Are countries allowed to freely develop, exploit their own resources, come to partnerships of their own choosing, and not face capital flight among other things?
I will read the whole thing, after dinner, but the excerpt was great. It is going to take vigilance to avoid getting sucked back into late Empire overstretch. I submit that the problem is trying to keep Europe on side and humoring their efforts to suck us into conflict with Russia, which at worst is a secondary adversary. Europe is completely useless in a struggle with China. Russia and India are not useless.
I did read it and it reinforced my earlier comment. The problem is Europe and we need to cut them loose.
Re America's new position in the world: What do you think of Adam Tooze's assessment of China's decision to bar rare-earth exports to the US? As I see it, this is an awfully big and unavoidable fly in the ointment as these elements are indispensable to every major US weapon system and a slew of products in the civilian economy. Tooze says that regaining autarky in these materials is absolutely necessary and would require a complete overhaul of the entire economy over a 20-to-30-year period with perhaps trillions of dollars of investment. Basically we would have to duplicate what China has accomplished over the past couple of decades, at considerable environment cost.
There is no shortcut or other solution as China holds a global near monopoly on rare earths, and minus such an (improbable) effort, the US looks pretty feeble.