Political History

Battle For the 'Burbs

Ron Tang — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:34:00 -0400

* This article is adapted from Reihan Salam's and Ross Douthat's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

It was only four years ago that conservatives -- and a great many liberals -- were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia Democrat-turned-Bush supporter Zell Miller's 2003 memoir. Pundits brandished county-by-county maps showing blue enclaves drowning in a sea of red; they talked up the growth of GOP-leaning regions and constituencies and the daunting demographic… more

Jesse Helms Is Not Dead

Ron Tang — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:49:00 -0400

Having devoted his career to shocking and outraging American liberals, the late North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms continues to provoke them from his grave. Progressive journals and blogs are full of Helms horror stories. How he tried to make Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun cry by singing "Dixie" in the Senate elevator. How he won reelection against a black opponent by means of an ad showing the hands of a white man who had allegedly lost a job because of affirmative action. How he never repented of his segregationist past, unlike Strom Thurmond and George Wallace.

All quite true, quite horrifying… more

Patriot Games

Ron Tang — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:48:00 -0400

Last week, Barack Obama traveled to Independence, Mo., to talk about patriotism, a perennial campaign topic that has taken on added relevance this year. Mr. Obama’s earlier refusal to wear a flag lapel pin, his failure to put a hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem, his supposed Muslim lineage have all been seized upon by his opponents to make the case that Mr. Obama is somehow “not one of us.”

Unfortunately, in his remarks, Mr. Obama missed an opportunity to move beyond this nonsense. By focusing largely on his own personal definition of patriotism… more

Redemption Politics

Ron Tang — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:35:00 -0400

We all know that politics makes strange bedfellows, but how odd it must have been to have sat in on the recent meeting between Barack Obama and evangelical leaders, including Franklin Graham, the conservative minister who once called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion.” Yet there they were, Obama and the evangelicals in Chicago on June 10, searching for -- and apparently finding -- considerable common ground. In the last few weeks, Obama has announced several outreach projects (including one named after Joshua, who, unlike Moses, was able to lead his people to the promised land). For their part,… more

Obama Should Emulate FDR

Ron Tang — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:20:00 -0400

During his historic run for the White House, Barack Obama has been compared to an impressive range of Presidents. His oratory reminds some of Kennedy, his paeans to national greatness evoke Reagan and the postpartisan themes of his campaign bring to mind Bill Clinton.

But if one looks at Obama's campaign in a larger historical context, the most apt comparison may be Franklin Roosevelt. At a time when the nation was hungry for real solutions to serious national challenges, FDR understood what too few Democratic presidential contenders have since: At moments of profound discontent, the nation craves not a policymaker in… more

Ted Widmer's book in the Washington Post | 'Ark of the Liberties' Review - 'Restoring America's Ideals'

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:48:00 -0400

New America in the News:

"The United States stand at this moment at the summit of the world," Winston Churchill said in 1945. "I rejoice that this should be so. Let them act up to the level of their power and their responsibility, not for themselves but for others, for all men in all lands, and then a brighter day may dawn upon human history."

It's been a long time since American foreign policy has elicited that kind of hosanna from abroad, and a long time since Americans could comfortably affirm such an idealistic view of themselves. Ted Widmer wants to restore idealism's good name. In the spirit of an old-fashioned jeremiad, he summons his countrymen to return to their own highest standards and properly play their anointed role in the world.

Widmer takes his place alongside other recent writers who have lit the lantern of history to illuminate an increasingly menacing future. They all share a sense that America's regnant foreign policy doctrines are approaching a moment of highly consequential reckoning... LINK

Ted Widmer's book in Dallas Morning News | 'Ark of The Liberties' Review: 'America's Virtues and Missteps'

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:11:00 -0400

New America in the News:

If you think our country has engaged in shameful wars of choice, drifted from our Constitutional moorings and generally failed to live up to our self-proclaimed role as the world's guarantor of liberty, you may be right. But which century are you talking about?

According to historian Ted Widmer, a former adviser and speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, the America of lofty ideals about freedom and human rights has always had one stubborn enemy: itself.

Throughout this valuable history of the ideas that have shaped American foreign policy, Mr. Widmer reminds us that the errand into Iraq, which opponents consider a nightmarish aberration, is not without precedent in the nation's history. Our country "always had tendencies working against our best ideals," he writes. "It was never accurate to see America as the embodiment of pure virtue. . . LINK

Ted Widmer's book in L.A. Times | 'Ark of the Liberties' Book Review by Art Wilson

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:02:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...a belief in American exceptionalism and its accompanying missionary outlook -- is a recurring theme in Ted Widmer's Ark of the Liberties. "In many ways," he asserts, "we still live in Wilson's world." Whereas Wilson "is often given credit for inventing a new way of thinking about U.S. foreign policy, it is probably more accurate to say that he tapped into old feelings that had never entirely disappeared" ... Ark of the Liberties is in part a search for the roots of those Wilsonian impulses, which Widmer traces to pre-Revolutionary days, and in part a summary of the foreign-policy orientation of administrations from the country's creation to the present, often as evidenced in officials' speechifying. The gamut of American history, from George Washington's farewell address (in which he argued for a foreign policy of neutrality) to nation-building in Iraq, is on display... LINK

Looking For Liberty

Ron Tang — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:20:00 -0400

According to the film “National Treasure,” the Declaration of Independence is a document of such far-seeing sagacity that it has secret codes and treasure maps hidden in the parchment. You just have to know how to look for them. But that poses the question: which document, precisely, is the Declaration of Independence?

Most of us would answer that it’s the manuscript written on vellum, dated July 4, 1776, now displayed in a baroque case at the National Archives, where it is protected by bulletproof glass, argon gas and the 55-ton underground vault it is lowered into every night. But like everything… more

Grand New Party

Ron Tang — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:42:00 -0400

Grand New Party lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed blueprint for building the next Republican majority. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mind-set of the current Republican power structure.

In a concise examination of recent political trends, the authors show that the Democrats' cultural liberalism makes their party inherently hostile to the interests and values of the working class. But on a host of issues, today's Republican Party lacks a message that speaks to their… more