Trump, the King of Fools
Far too much has been said already. Too much ink spilled. Too much bandwidth used. Too much oxygen burned. Too much mental energy expended. Too much opportunity cost spent. Too much time wasted of the brief lives of mortals in arguing the painfully obvious, only to have such uranium-clad reasoning fail to move the slobbering mass of imbeciles who still support him, and who are still numerous enough within the electorate to threaten the world and the republic with a second disastrous term of Donald Trump. That so many people in what appears to be a persistent vegetative state are capable of walking upright to the polls is quite an astounding fact indeed, and one that must be reckoned with.
On Rationality, Correctness, and Expertise
The confusion between rational justification and truth or correctness is common enough in public discourse that it need be noted that beliefs that are rationally justified sometimes turn out untrue, and beliefs without rational justification occasionally turn out to be true. Similarly, the most rational decision is not guaranteed to be the correct decision, and not all decisions that turn out to have been correct were rational decisions. Where this confusion becomes most pernicious is when members of the public run afoul of it when determining what to believe and in whom to place their trust.
Liberalism: What it is and Why it Matters
Liberalism has often been considered the most successful political ideology in modern history, coinciding with vast and measurable improvements in human welfare, but recently new threats have arisen in the form of various anti-liberal populist and nationalist movements, which have gained some notable victories in liberal democracies in Europe and America. At the same time, some who self-apply the label ‘liberal’ have at times advocated decidedly illiberal ideas and policies, making the job of those who would defend liberalism from its critics that much more onerous. In the wake of these upheavals, we liberals must cogently recapitulate the core principles of our philosophy and contextualize its role in contemporary society in order to defend it both from the external and internal challenges it faces.
Rethinking the Electoral College
The Electoral College has become a point of contention in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate, with several candidates calling for its repeal in favor of a national popular vote for the office of the presidency. This has spurred a renewed interest nationally in the Electoral College, its merits and demerits, and whether it should be scrapped, modified, or left alone. As one might expect, given recent electoral history, most of the support for repeal is coming primarily from Democrats and the left, with support for keeping the system as is coming from Republicans and the right. One might be tempted to write the whole disagreement off as bad-faith partisanship, but there are deeper philosophical questions at stake here, as well as conflicting interests that are not in themselves partisan. In order to decide this matter wisely as a nation, we must consider and evaluate the arguments adduced on both sides of the debate.