Native American Sovereignty is an Obstacle to Equality

Many left wing commentators writing about the tragedy unfolding in Standing Roc k believe that the government erred by failing to respect Native American sovereignty. This argument claims that Native Americans are nations that have sovereign rights over the territory reserved to them and consequently the US government is wrong to take action that impacts them and their territory without their consent. This is well-intentioned, but there are few beliefs that have done more damage to the welfare of Native American citizens than the idea that Native American tribes constitute sovereign nations. Native Americans are treated very poorly in the United States and tribal sovereignty facilitates this instead of ameliorating it.

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Cruz vs Rubio: The Unfinished Business from the Republican Primary

After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, the Republican Party establishment decided it needed to expand its base and wrote a report to this effect. The plan was for the party to triangulate to some degree on immigration and social issues to win more votes from Hispanics and women, moderating its positions and principles to make itself more attractive to these demographic groups. As Jeb Bush flamed out, Marco Rubio became the poster boy of this new style of conservative politics. But the Republican anti-establishment never bought into this strategy. Led by Ted Cruz, they firmly believed that Romney lost because he failed to excite the Republican base and that the answer was for the party to nominate a “true conservative”. The 2016 Republican primary was all set to be a showdown between “reform conservatism” and the Cruz counterrevolution, but then Donald Trump showed up and made the whole thing about him and about the public’s growing economic frustration. It now looks increasingly likely (but far from certain) that Trump will lose by a significant margin. What effect will that have on this debate and the party’s prospects in 2020?

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A Hierarchy of Lies and Falsehood

The 2016 election has been full of lies and falsehood. Candidates routinely say things that are not true or make misleading and fallacious arguments. But not all lies are equal–some are more damaging than others, some may even appear justifiable. So today I’d like to break down the different kinds of lies in politics and think about which ones are the most objectionable. To spice things up, we’ll include examples from the campaign of each kind of lie. Are you ready? Let’s go.

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The American Healthcare System is the Least Efficient By Far

During the 2nd presidential debate, Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of wanting single payer:

She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster. Somewhat similar to Canada. And if you ever noticed the Canadians–when they need a big operation when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow, it’s catastrophic in certain ways. But, she wants to go to single payer which means the government basically rules everything.

As a matter of fact this is not Clinton’s position–she has advocated for a public option but not a wholesale replacement of the private sector healthcare system. During the primary she attacked Bernie Sanders’ single payer plan as politically unfeasible:

People who have health emergencies can’t wait for us to have a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass.

Amusingly, Donald Trump has expressed support for single payer in the past:

The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than America. … We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing.

So today I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the numbers on healthcare than I’ve done before and look at whether our system is any good at helping people live longer for less money.

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5 Best and 5 Worst Reasons to Oppose Donald Trump

Too often, opponents of Donald Trump discredit themselves by distorting or exaggerating his statements in an effort to damage him. Don’t mistake my meaning–there are a lot of serious problems with Trump as a potential president. But by focusing on made up garbage instead of hitting Trump with hard policy arguments, we end up giving Trump a pass in all the areas that really matter and encouraging people to disbelieve us when we are pointing at something that’s truly important. So today I’m going to establish myself as not one of those people by picking apart 5 bad anti-Trump arguments, followed with 5 anti-Trump arguments that really should be convincing.

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