James Madison once said that if we were all angels, government wouldn’t be necessary.  Madison was wrong.  If all people […]

A bizarre thing happened in November of 2010.  Millions of ill-informed Americans went to the voting booths and shot themselves […]

If people were to blame the fire department for the fire a group of arsonists had set, we may find […]

(Reflections On the Tea Party Phenomenon) It’s one thing to bite the hand that feeds you.  It’s quite another thing […]

AN ODD CASE OF IDOLATRY: The U.S. Constitution is no idol—so it is unwise to treat it as such.  It […]

A GUIDED TOUR   The bizarre-o-world in which unreconstructed right-wingers dwell is no more clearly illustrated than by the surreal […]

How do democratic movements go too far, and thus take an abrupt, drastic turn rightwards—thereby catapulting themselves into tyranny?  What […]

In an earlier essay, “Understanding The Right Wing”, I outlined the case that in order to vote for right-wing politicians, […]

It would be very easy to write a Tea Party speech.  The bombastic perorations and rhetorical flourishes have tremendous appeal […]

OVERVIEW: Surprisingly little scholarship has been done on the social phenomenon pejoratively dubbed “the right wing”.  This is odd if […]