If there is one clear distinction between western constitutional systems and the various dictatorships and theocracies around the globe, it is the formers’ emphasis on process. Indeed, we might justifiably characterize our Bill of Rights as a restatement of your mother’s admonition that how you do something is just as important as what you choose to do. ?The ends do not justify the means? is a fundamental American precept.
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Author Archives: Sheila
Politics and the Pendulum
Twenty-two years ago, I was a Republican candidate for Congress. I was pro-choice, pro-gay-rights, pro-free market economics, pro-civil liberties. When I lost, the commentators were unanimous in their judgments: I was simply “too conservative.”
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Gambling for Sport
Every public policy dispute begins with one simple question: what is the role of government? How much control over our lives must we cede to the state? What is the proper distinction between public?defined as the area properly subject to legal regulation?and private?defined as those decisions and behaviors that government should not control?
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CommentsLabels
This mania for labeling people so that we don?t have to engage with them on the validity of their ideas has accelerated during the past few years. Perhaps it is talk radio, with its tendency to reduce everything to name-calling sound-bites.
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The Other Face of Federalism
When Joe Kernan announced that he would not run for governor, there was much speculation about the ?real? reasons for his change of heart. I haven?t talked to Joe, but I think I know why he didn?t want to be our next governor: he passed the IQ test.
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