Tea Partiers: The (Distorted, Screaming) Face of Conservatism

This is one of those things you just have to see to believe. Chances are you've seen it posted elsewhere, but it bears replaying over and over and over again. Here's the face of conservatism today, for ya — mocking and screaming at a man with Parkinson's disease.

The New McCarthyism

Today, Joe McCarthy's heirs are more slick and glib than he ever was, yet their fundamental methods are the same. When Elizabeth Cheney, William Kristol and their media friends slander Justice Department attorneys as the "al-Qaida 7" and malign the "Department of Jihad," they are engaging in the smear tactics that became synonymous with McCarthy. What is different now is the cynical hypocrisy of the new McCarthyites, who know that the flimsy accusations they level against Democrats in the Obama administration could just as easily be turned on Republicans who served President Bush.

Tea Partiers: The (Distorted, Screaming) Face of Conservatism

This is one of those things you just have to see to believe. Chances are you've seen it posted elsewhere, but it bears replaying over and over and over again. Here's the face of conservatism today, for ya — mocking and screaming at a man with Parkinson's disease.

Conservatives in Denial Over Health Care Reform

Republicans are in denial. They're desperate to convince Democrats that passing comprehensive health care reform legislation will be the worst possible move they could make. It is time for everyone to recognise that for all the spin, misinformation and outright lies, Democrats intend to band together in an almost unprecedented display of party unity to pass this legislation. If they do, setting aside the benefits of reducing the deficit, giving 31 million Americans health coverage and lowering costs, their decision will have major political consequences.

Glenn Beck: Conservatism's Snake Oil Salesman, Pt. 1

(Or "CPAC: Sideshow and Snake Oil, Pt. 2")

The circus sideshow that was CPAC folded its tent and left Washington weeks ago. However, its apparent ringmaster and chief snake oil salesman still sweats, struts, and sobs across the "stage" of conservative media — that medicine show never stops rolling and never stops hawking its "solutions" to Americans who are in desperate need of something to ease their economic aches and pains, and heal their political maladies.

And like the medicine shows of old, Glenn Beck — and others like him — peddle magical "miracle cures" that either poison directly by filling the body politic with toxic bile, or indirectly by distracting us from actual solutions, and aren't intended to "cure what ails us" so much as to make us think that we feel better even as the illness progresses. Case in point is Beck's latest attack on the very idea of social justice.

Will Health Care Reform Kill the Tea Party?

During the Tea Party protests on Capitol Hill this week, conservative activists warned that if Congress manages to pass health care legislation, their movement would become more formidable than ever. But far from fueling the tea partiers' cause, a sweeping new health care law could suck the air right out of their movement. Many tea party activists have a lot to gain from reform — because their ranks are dominated by aging baby boomers. This makes the movement's opposition to the health care bill one of its most enduring paradoxes.

Does Flying a Plane Into a Building Make You a Hero or a Terrorist?

Here's a question I bet you thought didn't need to be asked in a post-9/11 America: Does flying a plane into a building make you a terrorist or a hero?

Let's break this down.

Chief Whiner

To listen to John Roberts, you'd think that mobs of pitchfork-waving Democrats had accosted a handful of trembling justices and demanded that they reverse themselves on the spot — or else. Speaking to law students at the University of Alabama, Roberts said anyone is free to criticize the court. Except, apparently, not to the justices' faces.

The Quiet Revolution

These days, liberals don’t know whether to feel betrayed by or merely disappointed with Barack Obama. From health care reform and the public option to Afghanistan, and Wall Street, Obama has thoroughly let down his party’s left flank. Yet there is one extremely consequential area where Obama has done just about everything a liberal could ask for — but done it so quietly that almost no one, including most liberals, has noticed. In doing so, he is resuscitating an entire philosophy of government with roots in the Progressive era of the early twentieth century. Taken as a whole, it is arguably the most significant accomplishment of his first year in office.

Conservatives in Denial Over Health Care Reform

Republicans are in denial. They're desperate to convince Democrats that passing comprehensive health care reform legislation will be the worst possible move they could make. It is time for everyone to recognise that for all the spin, misinformation and outright lies, Democrats intend to band together in an almost unprecedented display of party unity to pass this legislation. If they do, setting aside the benefits of reducing the deficit, giving 31 million Americans health coverage and lowering costs, their decision will have major political consequences.