After I became a Christian in 1973, I lost interest in politics for a while. Partly, I was learning about new dimensions of reality above and below the earthly that were fascinating. But also, the view that I was getting […]
Democrats
Tim Draper’s Latest ‘Three Californias’ Plan is not Acceptable
Tim Draper, the Silicon Valley tycoon who gave us the ‘Six Californias’ plan a couple of years ago, has come up now with a ‘Three Californias’ plan. It is not acceptable in its current form. The main point of dividing […]
Jesus Did Not Teach Universal ‘Acceptance, Tolerance, and Inclusion’
We are often told today that Jesus taught radical ‘acceptance, tolerance, and inclusion’. Well, he did open the door to many the Pharisees thought beyond hope, and on the other hand he excluded many of the Pharisees themselves. Let’s start with […]
Suggestions for the Democratic Party, Part 2: The Housing Issue
I just put out a post on the weaknesses and inconsistencies of the Democratic Party, and then realized that I had omitted one issue that is close to our heart here at Blue Kennel. I refer to, of course, the […]
Several Suggestions for the Democratic Party of California
The Democratic Party of California has reason for complacency. It is the only state level political party of significance. It unites the majority communities of color with the creative class portion of the still powerful non-Hispanic white minority. The tensions in […]
California’s Trump-like Moment, 22 Years Before Trump: The Adventures of Pete Wilson
The United States on the whole has seen a rather sudden pivot, or so it seemed, of ‘conservatism’ from a coalition of religious or moral conservatives, economic conservatives [the latter were split into ever lower taxes fiscal ‘conservatives’, and deficit […]
Michael Lind: Can You Restrict Immigration Without Alienating Recent Immigrants?
Michael Lind is one of the most perceptive political and social observers of our time. He ‘scooped’ the Trump revolution, as I have said, before Trump even declared himself a candidate. And he has continued to be as perceptive. But […]
An Addendum to the Manifesto: My Youth as a Deficit Hawk – Howard Ahmanson
It occurred to me that during the first period in my life that I was a conservative, which was in my youth, I was motivated mainly by deficit hawkery. I was ten in the year that Nixon ran against Kennedy, […]
The Religious Right Failed to See What Was Coming
We have repeated Francis Schaeffer’s warning about ‘personal peace and affluence’ often at Blue Kennel, but it’s time to do it again. He declared, back about 1970, that the ‘Silent Majority’, a term Nixon had begun to use, was composed […]
Richard Nixon: A Precedent for Donald Trump?
It occurred to me that a possible precedent for Donald Trump might be none other than Richard Nixon. Now I think that Nixon was a far more intelligent man than Trump, and, for all his sins, a person of superior […]