So what’s going on? When Carbone and Cahn wrote their 2010 book, Red Families v. Blue Families, they described the blue state model of parenting as the kind where people defer child rearing until “both partners reach maturity and financial independence.” Red families have a different model—they promote abstinence until marriage and are pro-life, and so people get married younger, and there are higher rates of teen pregnancy among red families. There used to be sympathy for young parents who were struggling to get by in the “red” model.
Blue families have long preached and practiced “responsible parenting,” which is that you shouldn’t have children you can’t afford. But the shift is that red families are now also on the “responsible parenting” bandwagon.
...
The problem here is that wages have stagnated, and Millennials—the people who are starting to have kids now—are having trouble finding jobs that enable them to support themselves, much less families, despite being the most educated generation ever...
Less than half of U.S. kids today live in a ‘traditional’ family →
Americans are delaying marriage, and more may be foregoing the institution altogether. At the same time, the share of children born outside of marriage now stands at 41%, up from just 5% in 1960.
Voter ID laws fix a fake problem by creating a real one →
Voter fraud has been studied extensively for decades, with no evidence of widespread fraud on the part of individuals. Voter ID laws are meant to stop that kind of fraud. Instead, they lead to fewer (predominantly poorer) people voting, undermining the democratic nature of elections.
Blue Lives Matter →
To challenge the police is to challenge the American people, and the problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that we are majoritarian pigs. When the police are brutalized by people, we are outraged because we are brutalized. By the same turn, when the police brutalize people, we are forgiving because ultimately we are really just forgiving ourselves. Power, decoupled from responsibility, is what we seek...
...To the extent that this weekend's murders obscure the legacy of Eric Garner, it will not be due to the failure of protests, nor even chance. The citizen who needs to look away generally finds a reason.
I wonder if there is some price attached to this looking away. When the elected mayor of my city arrived at the hospital, the police officers who presumably serve at the public's leisure turned away in a display that should chill the blood of any interested citizen. The police are not the only embodiment of democratic society. And one does not have to work hard to imagine a future when the agents of our will, the agents whom we created, are in fact our masters. On that day one can expect that the tactics intended for the ghettos will enjoy wider usage.
Battered and Blue →
Given the dangers inherent to being a police officer—and the extent to which most cops are trying to do the best they can—it’s actually understandable that cops are a little angry with official and unofficial criticism. But they should know it comes with the territory. For all the leeway they receive, the police aren’t an inviolable force; they’re part of a public trust, accountable to elected leaders and the people who choose them. And in the same way that police have a responsibility to protect and secure the law, citizens have a responsibility to hold improper conduct to account.
Increasingly Worrisome Behavior from Our Sworn Protectors →
I am stunned by the lack of professionalism allowed among those at the top of the NYPD and its affiliates, and increasingly alarmed at an organization invested with violent, coercive force at the behest of the people, tasked with "protecting and serving", which uses such reactionary rhetoric.
What’s Conservatism Without Liberty? →
Every group has its factions. The "conservative" wing of US politics has seemed especially schizophrenic since the rise of the Tea Party, actively disrupting the coherence of GOP policymaking. Of course, this isn't helped by the entrenched two-party system, which lumps disparate elements together.
This is a good piece on the inconsistencies and tensions within the Republican party, and touches on the recent conservative in-fighting with regards to police power. I'd quote this entire article...
However, Rubin is right about stark differences between libertarians and many more conventionally conservative Republicans—there is a significant and perhaps even irreconcilable philosophical contradiction developing on the right.
But it is not between libertarians and conservatives. If looking for the most accurate and useful term to analyze this conservative dilemma, the opposite of libertarianism is not conservatism, but authoritarianism, and the current tension is between libertarians and authoritarians.
Libertarians distrust government. So have generations of conservatives. Conservatives have also long trusted and admired certain types of government—the military, the police, the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency—believing these bodies represent law, order, and safety.
Recently, ascendant libertarian Republicans have extended their skepticism of government to state agencies that the right is accustomed to giving the benefit of the doubt.
Jeb Bush Might Have A Tea Party Problem In 2016 →
I'll try to minimize the amount of inside-the-Beltway think pieces, but a piece like this gets to the internal dynamics and history of the GOP...
Jeb Bush, who announced Tuesday that he was exploring a White House run, has been compared to Mitt Romney so often over the past week you’d think they were long-lost brothers. After all, both are mainstream candidates supported by the Republican establishment but on thinner ice with the GOP grass roots.
That’s largely true, but it’s far too simplistic. Bush and Romney have problems with different wings of the Republican primary electorate.