I’ve written a new piece about two philosophers – Raymond Geuss and the late Alasdair MacIntyre – for the Marginalia Review of Books. There’s no paywall. You can read it here:
https://www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/two-ships-passing-at-high-noon-alasdair-macintyre-raymond-geuss
I have a new piece out at New Republic on the president’s tariffs. You can read it here:
https://newrepublic.com/article/154852/real-stakes-trumps-trade-war-china
They have edited it to sync up with their preferred style, so it reads a bit differently from the rest of my work.
Heading into the 2020 election cycle, the Trump administration is trying to portray the president as America’s shield against socialism. First President Trump proclaimed at the State of the Union that America “will never be a socialist country”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKF_590azfw
More recently, he has levied sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The administration alleges that Cuba and Nicaragua are propping up the Maduro regime in Venezuela. It hopes to use the sanctions to get them to stop, while sending a warning to external powers like Russia and China.
Continue reading “Why Trump Can’t Red-Bait His Way Out of 2020”
In the days following the death of former President George H.W. Bush, there have been a lot of obituaries with different takes on his legacy. The left has tended to criticise his Cold War foreign policy interventions and relationship with the CIA and its activities. The right has praised his handling of the Gulf War and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Both these kinds of takes have focused on Bush’s foreign policy legacy. I want to focus on a different part of the story–Bush’s position in domestic politics as the last Republican president in the postwar tradition of Dwight Eisenhower.
Continue reading “George H.W. Bush was the Last of the Postwar Republicans”
There are lots of folks who think that the answer to America’s woes are more political parties, and the way to get more political parties is to adopt electoral reforms which move America in the direction of continental European-style proportional representation. I used to like electoral reform once upon a time, but I have increasingly become convinced that this is not only never going to happen but it is actually a bad idea. Here’s why.
Continue reading “The American Two Party System is Actually Pretty Great”
Benjamin Studebaker 