Category: Uncategorized

So I recognized something fascinating today. I sometimes try to explain to progressives that the barriers to some of the policies they favor, like single payer, are not just or mainly corporate contributions but, first, the structural features of our government that make it extremely difficult to enact legislation and, second, the anti-statist views of Americans that lead them to distrust large expansions of government power. And they always say I’m wrong, especially about the anti-statist views of Americans. But let the US government do something of which they disapprove, e.g., collecting the meta-data from phone conversations, or make a botch of something, e.g., the ACA website, and you find these same progressives expressing views that echo the borderline paranoid anti-government, anti-statist arguments of the right. Now they are the ones who are suspicious of or impatient with the “damn government.” My point is not just that the left is… Continue reading

The Republicans are angry that Democrats, by eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court justices, are doing something so undemocratic, so unconstitutional, so disrespecting of minority rights that … Republicans are threatening to do the exact same thing once in power. This is the type of ethics that you find among kindergarteners (“you stole my toy, so it’s okay to steal yours”), or among people who believe in some crude version of an eye-for-an-eye. If McConnell and his caucus are serious, they should change the rules back once they have a majority. But of course they won’t. The whole display is a charade. The only surprise is how blatantly obvious the charade is. Continue reading

I, for one, have no trouble with George Bush speaking before a group that seeks to convert Jews. Of course, I disagree with the notion that underlies the effort to convert Jews, that there is only one path to salvation or redemption by God. But my religious belief doesn’t depend on what other people think. And I care more about whether someone respects me as an individual than whether they respect my religious (or philosophical or political beliefs.) It’s a sign of respect for people as individuals that we try to reason with them and convince them of the truth as we see it. Tolerance means allowing others to speak their minds and act on their beliefs, not being wishy-washy about one’s own beliefs. Continue reading

The progressive challenge is not as much to overcome corporate money as it is to build organizational strength. If you gave me a choice between enacting limitations on corporate donations or or EFCA, I’d I’d pick EFCA. Expanding the the labor movement would not only help unions organize to raise wages but give Democrats the organizational and financial strength we need to win marginal elections. Continue reading

As someone who has spent a lot of time with older people over the course of my life and now takes care of an aging parent and in-law, can I give you some advice? You don’t get less crazy or personality disordered as you age. It doesn’t burn out. Old age is really hard to begin with. And whether you are obsessive or hysterical or unrealistic or narcissistic, it’s not going to get better when you are in your 70s and 80s. It’s going to get worse. So get therapy now, while you might be emotionally flexible enough to benefit from it. And before it is too late. Continue reading

Philip Roth’s novels were very important to the early thinking that eventually led to the book I’m writing Civilization and Its Discontents, mostly because I disagreed with so much of what his works seemed to imply about the tension between sexual desire and family life. (In making that argument, Roth was, of course, carrying on in the long Augustinian tradition I criticize, particularly in it’s Freudian version, although Roth is in many ways a critic of Freud.) It occurred to me to re-read some of Roth’s books, as I near the end of this project and I’ve discovered two things. One is that there are many more voices in Roth’s work than I saw when I first read him. The second is something that I’ve always known, reading Roth is an immense pleasure–so many wonderful lines, carefully constructed and beautiful sentences and paragraphs, clever but not obtrusive plots, and a… Continue reading

The liquor store privatization issue is really a good test of whether you know what you are talking about when it comes to progressive politics in our state. If you support privatization then you don’t understand that: 1. There is no progressive power in this country that isn’t based in a strong labor movement. A middle class highly educated person who tells you he is a progressive but doesn’t understand what UFCW has meant to the politics of this state needs a graduate degree from the school of real politics. 2. That there is no middle class that doesn’t require government action to increase the wages of working people and that well paid public sector workers benefits all workers. 3. That our unique system means that PA’s take from liquor and wine sales is at least double that of any other state in the country and that we can’t end… Continue reading

An earlier and very different version of this paper appears under this title in Craig de Paulo, Patrick Messina, and Marc Stier, eds. Ambiguity in the Western Mind(Peter Lang, Inc. International Academic Publishers, 2005). The current text is a substantial revision that brings out some themes that were only implicit in the early version.  The original text was written to be delivered as a talk at conference sponsored by the Intellectual Heritage Program of Temple University entitled “Ambiguity in the Western Tradition.” It was directed not to specialists on Plato but to anyone interested in the issues raised by the text. As such, my argument does not turn on any disputes about the meaning or translation of particular passages. So, it has not seemed necessary to point the reader to the particular passages I paraphrase. Continue reading

Trump tweeted this first thing in the morning. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” The Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted in response: “We Agree.” #notmypresident #whichsideareyouon? Continue reading

Dear Friends, American had a really bad day on Tuesday. And Pennsylvania had it worse than most states. We are, as you know, a swing state and when the nation swings, we swing harder more than most states. Despite all the good work Penn ACTION did (preliminary details here), we lost five Democratic members of Congress who were strong supporters of health care reform. We lost races for Governor and Senate. And we lost the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. So where do we progressive go from here? We will be discussing this for some time, but let me share with you some initial thoughts. A referenda on the economy First, we have to see this election as what it was, a referenda on the sad state of the economy. There is little evidence that there was any substantial shift in the fundamental beliefs of Americans about politics. America is a… Continue reading