Baris and Barnes
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Populism …. Hmm..
Suddenly my liberal and conservative relatives are in agreement.. now that the Bull looking for a China shop has exposed soooooo much and left the stage.
I missed most of the live show this afternoon, but near the end Robert “Paul” Barnes was losing his voice and coughing a bit. It sounds like he’s coming down with something.
Agree with Barnes. Support a Populist 3rd Party. That is the only viable way to go now.
Disagree. If we had a different electoral system – say, one making use of ranked-choice voting – a 3d party might be a passable idea. As long as you have first-past-the-post tabulation, it’s a poor idea unless you’re proposing a regional party or a pressure-group party. Republican voters have been content with Trump (if not with everything about him). It’s the Capitol Hill nexus, the policy shops, and the chatterati who haven’t been content. The discontented chatterati have lost their audience and are now dependent on the patronage of liberals (personal and corporate), residual endowment income, and inertial income (e.g. library subscriptions). The output of the policy shops is transmitted to politicians for policy development, so their options are regulated by the dispositions of the politicians. The politicians fall into three categories: those not hostile to Trump, those antagonistic but anxious about the reaction of their constituency, and those inveterately hostile. IMO, Kevin McCarthy is in category two and McConnell is on the knife-edge of category two and category three. As for category 3, it appears to consist of about 14 members of Congress, at least 8 of whom will be facing primary challenges in 2022. As for rent-seekers McConnell loves to fellate, I’d be delighted if the Republicans threw them over the side.