On December 2d, IUPUI hosted the first annual Bulen Symposium. It was a remarkable gathering of nationally recognized scholars, journalists and practitioners of the political arts. The purpose of the day-long conference was to examine the health of America’s two major political parties, but one could be forgiven for wondering…
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Category Archives: Random Blogging
Morals or Moralism?
A clergyman friend of mine is bemused by America’s fixation with what he calls "genital morality," our seeming incapacity to discuss morals in any but a sexual context, with the result that sexual misconduct ( a la Clinton and Burton) becomes evidence of (drum roll here, please) the Moral Decline of Western Civilization….
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Is the Party Over ?
November 2d was difficult for Republicans who came of age politically under L. Keith Bulen. I still remember a speech he made to our fledgling Neighborhood Finance Committee, where he thundered that we must never forget a cardinal rule: "Good government is good politics."…
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Relearning Old Lessons
The election has come and gone, and Republicans and Democrats alike are expressing amazement that a Democrat is the new Mayor in "Republican" Indianapolis. How did it happen, and what does it mean?…
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Moralizing Government
Twenty years ago, social scientist Theodore Lowi wrote a much-quoted book called The End of Liberalism. A few months ago, the University of Oklahoma Press issued his most recent book, The End of the Republican Era. The title is a play on…
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