archive

The existential battle for the soul of the GOP

Has the “libertarian moment” finally arrived? Robert Draper on how Rand Paul and the libertarians could win young voters for the G.O.P. — if the party doesn’t shut them down. If Ron Paul is Nirvana, who is everyone else? Rightbloggers revel in "libertarian moment", which suspiciously resembles conservative whenever. Jonathan Chait on how libertarians snookered the New York Times Magazine. Ed Kilgore on how the so-called “libertarian moment” is engineered by the Christian Right. There aren’t many freedoms more fundamental than the freedom to walk to your grandmother’s apartment, as Michael Brown was doing, without getting shot by a representative of the government, so why aren’t libertarians talking about Ferguson? Paul Waldman wonders. Jonathan Martin reviews The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). John Quiggin on Reagan and the Great Man in history. From Salon, Heather Parton on why Right-wing “populism” is a joke: Here's what it really means when they speak to “the American worker”; and Michael Lind on the Right’s phony reformers: Why “reformicons” really stand for crony capitalism. Michael Brendan Dougherty on how the Tea Party became as corrupt as the Beltway it loathes. Norm Ornstein on the existential battle for the soul of the GOP. Who won the Republican civil war? It depends what winning means. A puckish new brand of right-wing radical subverts the postmodern power machine each day over Twitter and RSS for fun and praxis — it’s a real hoot to watch: Andrea Castillo on a gentle introduction to neoreaction.