Category archive: Progressivism
Smells Like Hypocrisy
By Chuck Roger • December 15th, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér Ideology can be and often is a terrible thing. Emotionally-invested dogmatists of all stripes share at least one common behavioral flaw, the propensity to be absolutely sure that whatever the ideology deems true must be true. After reading my article, “The Latest Education Fad Inverts Justice” (June 21, 2011), a government employee [...]
What Will Happen When the People Realize that the Constitution Is No More?
By Chuck Roger • September 29th, 2011 12:00 am
by Chuck Rogér What can we expect when a majority of Americans finally comes to terms with a disgusting reality that H.L. Mencken exposed 71 years ago? In an article titled “The Suicide of Democracy,”1 Mencken wrote: In an ideal democracy, [the citizen] learns, property is at the disposal, not of its owners, but of [...]
Ruling Class Alchemy
By Chuck Roger • September 27th, 2011 12:00 am
by Chuck Rogér Routing other people’s money through the government alchemy machine is supposed to somehow magnify national wealth and income, while leaving it in the pockets of those who earned it is somehow a drag. This priceless statement by economist/historian Lawrence Reed accurately encapsulates the attitude of big-government money launderers. The most visible of [...]
Win the Meme War or Lose the Culture—Part II
By Chuck Roger • August 23rd, 2011 12:00 am
Today’s post is the second of a two-part series which incorporates one reader’s thoughts in response to ”Did American Military Overinvolvement Hasten Europe’s Cultural Decay?” which ran on American Thinker and on Clear Thinking. The reader offered a fascinating perspective, to which I added my ideas and interpretations. Again, as a reminder, my coauthor wishes to remain anonymous. Enjoy. For Part [...]
Cobalt Blue Arrogance
By Chuck Roger • August 3rd, 2011 12:00 am
Originally at American Thinker By Chuck Rogér From a state capitol that basks under surreally blue skies comes a consummate example of progressive smugness. In an installment of his Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper column pretentiously titled, “Understanding Your World,” former U.S. Foreign Service officer and Time magazine correspondent William Stewart writes: Let us be [...]
Progressives’ Faulty Conception of ‘Progress’
By Chuck Roger • August 2nd, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér Why do today’s liberals refer to themselves as “progressive?” For a possible answer, let’s lift a quote from one of my favorite libertarians and fellow Cajun, George Mason economist Don Boudreaux. In describing liberals’ (and some conservatives’) opposition to free trade, Boudreaux offers observations on which we may build in order to [...]
Food Totalitarians on Parade – Part Deux
By Chuck Roger • July 29th, 2011 12:00 am
Originally at American Thinker By Chuck Rogér Well that didn’t take long. Yesterday, in a post discussing a New York Times op-ed that called for heavy taxation on “unhealthy” foods, I asked, “How long before some starry-eyed but angry-faced Democrat proposes legislation to force ‘healthy food’ advertising?” Now The Daily Caller reports that food producers [...]
Food Totalitarians on Parade
By Chuck Roger • July 28th, 2011 12:00 am
Originally at American Thinker By Chuck Rogér Within the last few years, we have been treated to attempts by government to control our food intake with regulatory “nudges” and legislative edicts. Sugar, salt, trans-fats, fats in general, fast foods, and school lunches are just a few ingredients and food types which have come under assault [...]
Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part V: Soaking the rich
By Chuck Roger • July 13th, 2011 12:00 am
The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, please enjoy this re-post of the “Dissecting progressive arrogance” series. More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, II, III, IV, VI, VII By Chuck Rogér Behold the progressive wise man who claims that confiscating rich people’s money is justified because [...]
Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part IV
By Chuck Roger • July 12th, 2011 12:00 am
The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, please enjoy this re-post of the “Dissecting progressive arrogance” series. More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, II, III, V, VI, VII By Chuck Rogér Today we return to the well of progressive wisdom known as Clive Crook, Financial Times columnist. [...]
Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part III: Howard Dean
By Chuck Roger • July 11th, 2011 12:00 am
The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, please enjoy this re-post of the “Dissecting progressive arrogance” series. More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, II, IV, V, VI, VII By Chuck Rogér Asked why Democrat candidates aren’t talking about Obamacare during the current election cycle, Howard Dean [...]
Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part II
By Chuck Roger • July 8th, 2011 12:00 am
The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, please enjoy this re-post of the “Dissecting progressive arrogance” series. More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, III, IV, V, VI, VII By Chuck Rogér Yesterday, we examined part of a Financial Times piece and found progressive arrogance only [...]
Belief in rubbish
By Chuck Roger • July 6th, 2011 12:00 am
The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, here’s an oldie originally posted December 16, 2009. By Chuck Rogér America is besieged from within, our libertarian values under attack from “progressives” in government, education, and media. Do we focus on the attack and do what [...]
Charles Schumer’s Call for Government Censorship
By Chuck Roger • May 20th, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrat Senator Charles Schumer badgered witnesses from Apple and Google to comply with his demand to censor cellphone software that the Senator considers objectionable because those apps warn users of DUI checkpoints. Schumer’s official demand is that “Apple, Android, Blackberry, and others… remove smart-phone apps that [...]
Progressive Fallacy Number 667: Wealth Redistribution Creates Societal ‘Harmony’
By Chuck Roger • April 4th, 2011 12:00 am
Originally in American Thinker, March 30, 2011 By Chuck Rogér Is wealth envy a serious problem in a technologically advanced country like America? Economist Tyler Cowen observes that economic indignation is mostly felt toward: …the guy down the hall who got a bigger raise … [or toward] the husband of your wife’s sister, because the [...]
Knocking the Constitution: an exercise in enlightened, academic arrogance
By Chuck Roger • February 2nd, 2011 12:30 am
Calling the U.S. Constitution “The Commandments” may seem like something that an overly enthusiastic, strict interpretationist might do. And that’s exactly what Harvard history professor Jill Lepore implies in an article in The New Yorker, titled “The Commandments.” Lepore makes much of the allegedly shoddy treatment dealt the actual document in the decades after ratification. [...]
A business owner’s treatise on government heavy-handedness and union excess
By Chuck Roger • January 24th, 2011 12:30 am
Clear Thinking blog reader and business owner Don Ross recently received an email complaint from a customer. Don’s reply comprises a solid condemnation of Washington’s explosive invasion into our private lives. Don graciously granted me permission to post that reply following a summary of the customer’s concerns. The customer expressed disappointment at finding political commentary [...]
