Under Consideration: Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, Natan Sharansky (with Shira Wolosky Weiss), PublicAffairs (2008), 259 pages. After Jesus Christ, Natan Sharansky is George Bush’s favorite philosopher. In early 2005, around the time of his second inaugural, the president praised Sharansky—ex-prisoner of the Soviet Gulag, former Israeli cabinet minister, and crusader for human rights—in effusive terms.  Sharansky’s book … [Read More]

This is the second of two posts critiquing Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam’s new book, Grand New Party. This first can be found here. I wrote previously that “Douthat and Salam neither defend nor stick to a consistent theory of what motivates voters.”  At least three such theories appear in Grand New Party: 1. First, some voters collect political allegiances as … [Read More]

One provision of Congress’s newest higher education bill requires that colleges and universities report their reasons for tuition hikes to the Department of Education.  It will be interesting to see how many ways they can come up with to say, “Because we can.” The motivation behind the bill, which passed both houses of Congress today, is to expand access to higher … [Read More]

“Will race be an issue in this campaign?”         Hearing the cable talk-show host solemnly pose the question, I could not suppress a belly laugh. For the anchor was fearful that some white folks might reject Obama because he is African-American—even as a Rasmussen poll was reporting that Barack is beating McCain among black voters 94 to 1. … [Read More]