Sublime
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Where to intervene? Where to bring democracy? Where to nation-build? I propose a single criterion: where it counts. Call it democratic realism. And this is its axiom: We will support democracy everywhere, but we will commit blood and treasure only in places where there is a strategic necessity—meaning, places central to the larger war against the e
... See moreCharles Krauthammer • Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics
One result is little planning and wretched execution—as both Trump and Biden have demonstrated on trade, immigration, pandemic response, and foreign policy. Another is the willingness of both parties, when in power, to eke out near-term economic gains by means of fiscal and monetary stimulus—until stimulus must be withdrawn, and then everybody suff
... See moreNeil Howe • The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End
But we wake up this morning and the American people are still the same people.
- 55 percent of them think the economy is shrinking, whe
Trump Is a Convicted Felon. But the American People Are Still the American People.
Real America isn’t a shining city on a hill with its gates open to freedom-loving people everywhere. Nor is it a cosmopolitan club where the right talents and credentials will get you admitted no matter who you are or where you’re from. It’s a provincial village where everyone knows everyone’s business, no one has much more money than anyone else,
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
Politically, Smart America came to be associated with the Democratic Party.
George Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
As the children of the white working class find themselves in the same position as African Americans, a more traditional social struggle will emerge, based on exclusion of the lower class. It will create alliances that are unthinkable today.
George Friedman • The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
One last thought: Let’s assume that we find the political will to begin the process of creating some version of the glide path option, which we admit is not easy. That means the most important election in this whole process was not the one last November, nor will it be the one in 2012. Rather, it will be the one in 2014.
John Mauldin • Endgame: The End of the Debt SuperCycle and How It Changes Everything
The winners in Smart America have withdrawn from the national life of their fellow Americans. Christopher Lasch, writing in the early 1990s when this withdrawal was young, called it “the revolt of the elites.” Between meritocracy and democracy, it’s the first that dominates their waking hours, commands their unthinking devotion, and drives them, li
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
After World War II, Harvard welcomed a generation that could never fit in to its crowd. Now Harvard is once again looking for the right sort of fellow, as in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.