Redistricting Away Our Consent
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 24th, 2010 4:31 am by HL
Redistricting Away Our Consent
Jeremy Lott, RealClearPolitics
America was founded on the bedrock notion of the consent of the governed. In the past, that consent was often and easily withdrawn by the governed. Pollster Scott Rasmussen points out in his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, that high incumbency reelection rates are a recent and troubling change in our politics. The House of Representatives used to enjoy frequent and massive turnovers. In the election of 1948, that body saw a 75-seat swing in favor of the Democrats, ushering out the so-called “do nothing” Republican Congress.What has changed since then? Gerrymandering, on a…
Mexico City and DC Gang Up On Phoenix
Debra Saunders, SF Chronicle
Mexican President Felipe Calderon got the tough new Arizona immigration law wrong when he told Congress on Thursday, “It is a law that not only ignores a reality — but also introduces a terrible idea of racial profiling as the basis for law enforcement.”To the contrary, Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally, expressly prohibits police actions based on “race, color or national origin.”
Our New Culture War: Freedom vs. Govt
Arthur Brooks, Washington Post
America faces a new culture war.This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country's future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise — limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income…