The bitter partisan politics reflected in the invocation of the “nuclear option” in the ratification of the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump reflects the unraveling of machinery of U.S. governance with political parties embedded … Continue reading →
The U.S. Tax system is a tangled web of laws and regulations. Some serve US citizens, while others increasingly serve the selfish interests of powerful groups and government officials at the expense of a growing economy and thriving Middle Class. … Continue reading →
Not-for-profit corporations have long been used as a vehicle to evade taxes rather than to primarily serve as a charity or a public service. From TV evangelists and hospital directors building lavishly furnished buildings to the wealthy establishing non-profits to … Continue reading →
On April 25, 2012, I proposed a new election system to ensure that political candidates were qualified and that special interests did not control the outcome of elections–two of the major problems that result from the process in which votes … Continue reading →
In the preface to the 1960 edition of Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: The central thesis was, and is, that the Liberal Movement, both religious and secular, seemed to be unconscious of the basic difference between … Continue reading →
The 2016 Presidential Election has raised a number of good policy ideas for the improvement of the United States society and government. Unfortunately, there is no single candidate that endorses all of the best ideas, and, even more unfortunately, every … Continue reading →
In many policy discussions about the “achievement gap” between whites and minorities in public schools, racism and insufficient public funding of schools are frequently given as the primary reason for the gap. But is blaming race or schools getting to … Continue reading →
Oppression is Bad, but Anarchy is Worse “Were people given a choice between a functioning dictatorship and a failing or failed state, the dictatorship would often be seen as the lesser evil.”[1] The Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 was given … Continue reading →
The United States was established to be “a government of the people” and, in Abraham Lincoln’s day, that was still largely true. However, today individual citizens have very little influence over legislation or government expenditures in the United States. Political … Continue reading →
Quotation marks are put around “middle class” because it is a concept variously defined by politicians who mean very different things. When a Democrat refers to “middle class,” it tends to refer to wage or income level. If you listen … Continue reading →
