Over at The Bulwark, Jonathan Tait has an excellent piece, “Anti-Democratic Conservatism Isn’t New.” Tait reminds us how divisions about democracy and racial equality were central in the forging of modern conservatism.  Here’s a short excerpt that focuses on William Buckley: “The central question,” Buckley argued, was not merely one of rights. It was whether “the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes.” Through high-minded and principled-sounding language, Buckley insisted that white southerners could suppress the black … Continue reading Anti-Democratic Conservatism

Will January 6th be the new norm? More pointedly, will efforts to overturn the results of close elections become an ordinary feature of American politics? In close elections, will state legislatures refuse to certify elections results if a candidate from the other party won? Will the House and Senate refuse to acknowledge the counting of electoral votes if the candidate of the other party won?  Such questions go to the heart of American democracy.   Liz Cheney is right that we should have a January 6th commission to fully understand the events the culminated in the attack on the Capitol. As she writes in … Continue reading A January 6th Commission