conservative ideology

Environmental Protection and Conservative Values

Tom Friedman had an interesting column yeserday about conservatism and the environment.  As he points out, the current wave of anti-environmentalism is out of line with Republican traditions: “Teddy Roosevelt bequeathed us national parks, Richard Nixon the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, Ronald Reagan the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer …

CONTINUE READING

Eyes Closed, Minds Shut Tight

According to a recent article in the American Sociological Review, rejection of science is on the rise: Just over 34 percent of conservatives had confidence in science as an institution in 2010, representing a long-term decline from 48 percent in 1974, according to a paper being published today in American Sociological Review. That represents a …

CONTINUE READING

The Bain-ality of Romney’s Capitalism

Trying to be fair and balanced, Dan says that we should be at least a little heartened by Bain Capital’s environmental posture.  I try to be fair, but in modern politics that rarely means being balanced (cue joke here), and I am somewhat less impressed. Look, I like recycling as much as the next guy …

CONTINUE READING

Do Law Schools Discriminate Against Conservatives?

Teresa R. Wagner, a conservative Republican who applied for a faculty job at Iowa and was turned down, thinks so: Ms. Wagner, who graduated from the law school in 1993 and had taught at the George Mason University School of Law, was not hired. She sued, alleging discrimination because of her political beliefs. Late last …

CONTINUE READING

Hey Conservatives! Let’s Make a Deal on Keystone XL!

The always-thoughtful Jared Bernstein has a, well, thoughtful take on Keystone XL.  It might be called the view of a Realist Progressive Economist.  Bernstein’s point is that given the global demand for oil, and the Canadian government’s commitment to getting it out of the ground and selling it (much stronger now that the Tories have …

CONTINUE READING

GOP Postmodernism Continues Apace

It’s bad enough that Republicans have declared war on science, and war on facts: now they are declaring war on math.  Newt Gingrich says that the Congressional Budget Office should be abolished, mainly it will tell him things that he doesn’t like.  As Brian Beutler of TPM notes, any attempt to repeal health care reform …

CONTINUE READING

More On the Republican Anti-Fact Shield

So after I posted my tantrum about George Will the other day, I felt a little guilty.  Maybe I had been too hard on The Tory Bowtie.  After all, maybe his putting “facts” in scare quotes was just a slip. Then I saw this piece on the Washington Post editorial page by Republican pollster Ed Rogers, …

CONTINUE READING

(What Remains Of) The Conservative Mind Melts Down

Once upon a time, George Will had a reputation as the thinking person’s conservative.  No more.  He’s not only a climate denier, but a couple of weeks ago he smeared Elizabeth Warren with a kind of red-baiting that I haven’t seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now he’s at it again, sort of.  …

CONTINUE READING

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Conservative White Men? Ask the Ol’ Perfesser

Dave Roberts wants to know. Roberts alludes to a recent survey showing that conservative white men are the most likely group to be climate deniers.  (We can put this in the “knock-me-over-with-a-feather” department, although it would be interesting to see how this works with conservative white women).  More interestingly, the study (with assistance from Roberts) …

CONTINUE READING

More Garbage Conservative Constitutional Theory

James Joyner is one of the few conservatives who actually try to come up with intellectually coherent policy positions, and he often does.  So maybe we should give him a pass when he blows it. But wow, is this one a doozy.  The EPA has decided to begin to issue greenhouse gas regulations, as it …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING