Compare and Contrast

Two Vice Presidential running mates go to different shops. One encounter seems normal and friendly and the other is just weird and awkward. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quotable

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action...Words are used to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests." Gore Vidal, Imperial America, 2004
Read more

The GOP's authoritarian turn - more graphics from V-Dem

Image
I wanted to follow up on a previous post about the authoritarian turn that the GOP has taken this century. Both of the following graphics I obtained from a working paper (no longer online, regrettably) by V-Dem in 2020. I seriously doubt the trends have changed. The Guardian had a good summary of the findings. For our purposes I am using the term authoritarianism and illiberalism as synonyms.  This first figure shows two dimensions: economic left/right and illiberalism (authoritarianism). Both dimensions start at 0 and end at 1. A party espousing economic conservatism would appear closer to 1 on the economic dimension. A party espousing authoritarian approach to governing will be closer to 1 on the Illiberalism dimension. Notice that Venezuela's ruling party actually scores a perfect 1 on illiberalism. The GOP appears in orange print and the Democratic Party appears in blue print. Other governing political parties appear in gray, and we get a baseline idea of where autocracies te...
Read more

Good news if true (Foxtrot Delta Tango edition)

T om Sullivan has a post that looks at what might have been a silent protest by those military personnel tasked with marching in the parade old Donald Trump demanded take place last weekend. One measure of this regime's ability to end democracy once and for all is if Trump has the military on board. He might not after all.
Read more