Author Archives: David Hume

Catholic Republicans are more liberal than Protestant Republicans

The post below, Why are Catholics Democrats?, has prompted a great deal of discussion. Some of it quite interesting, though I disagree with the general thrust of the commentary. What I disagree with is that there is something fundamental about … Continue reading

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Why are Catholics Democrats?

Norman Podhortez just came out with a book, Why Are Jews Liberals?. It seems that this as intellectually interesting as writing a book, “Why are blacks Democrats?”, would be. You can tick off specific reasons, but in ethnic terms American … Continue reading

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The ends of liberty

In Reason, Are Property Rights Enough? Should libertarians care about cultural values? A reason debate. If politics are dispositions, then at the end of the day they still have to “point” to the “Good Life.” The norms that one’s ideology … Continue reading

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Protestants like Israel; Midwesterners not so much

At The American Scene there’s a post about WASPs and their relationship to Israel. Of course, that begs the question, what do you mean by WASP? WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but that is a plain and broad-church definition which … Continue reading

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Religious freedon in 2009

The US State Department has released International Religious Freedom Report 2009. Here the list of countries where “violations of religious freedom have been noteworthy.” Afghanistan Azerbaijan Brunei Burma China Cuba Egypt Eritrea Fiji India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Laos Malaysia … Continue reading

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The shoe on the other foot

Arnold Kling recently mentioned he was reading Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. A little over halfway through the book, I am struck again by the historical contingency of particular foreign & social policy outlooks. For … Continue reading

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Capitalism’s lost social capital

A few years ago Francis Fukuyama wrote Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity. The short of it is that modern economies tend to be “high trust,” you can rely on more than simply your family to get … Continue reading

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It’s not always better in Europe (?)

Matt Yglesias makes an observation that many colored people I have known have made (including family members): There’s often a kind of conventional idea on the left that the United States is an unusually racist society. And I think there’s … Continue reading

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Attitudes toward immigration

Below, Art says: Of course the Republican and conservative segment of the population is strongly anti-immigration … They are strongly anti-illegal immigration. Most conservatives favor legal immigration, particularly skilled immigrants. This is not really true, depending on how you interpret … Continue reading

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How the states align on liberalism & conservatism

Economic, social, and foreign policy congressional conservatism by state, 2008.

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