Link Roundup, 10/11/2018
A political orphan’s guide to current events.
How Conservative Women Protect Rapists
Many of the unlikeliest foot soldiers against women’s rights are conservative women bitterly oppressed by this system. Most will happily battle their sisters to gain the tiniest additional scraps rather than join with them to overturn the table and benefit everyone.
What It Means to ‘Believe Women’: The Kavanaugh Choice
Believing women does not mean setting aside critical thought. It means confronting our own inconvenience.
The Fire or the Arsonist?
We can retreat from the demands of this age, hiding beyond excuses about civility or institutions, or we can engage aggressively and build a new order.
Fukuyama is Wrong About “Identity Politics”
In the defining conflict of our time, pluralism will win, or America will lose.
Time to Do Something
You can do this. Offering significant assistance to a campaign requires no political expertise and might not even require you to step outside your door.
What’s “Next” After Liberal Democracy
Monarchies still exist, they just don’t matter. This is likely the fate of democratic institutions as Next takes shape.
Social Democracy Won’t Save Liberal Democracy
A pivot toward social democracy might form a bridge to a post-Trump world, a rhetorical rally point to organize short-term resistance to fascism, but it is unlikely to offer any long term solution to the weaknesses eroding liberal democracy.
Three and a Half Kinds of Power
Before throwing our weight behind one bold plan or another, it would be wise to revisit first principles. In politics, that starts by winding back to the most fundamental questions of all. What is power? And how does it work?
Markets Produce Excellent Failures
If you want to ruin the power of businesses to innovate and succeed, just insulate them from competition and protect them from failure. Likewise, if you want to see public institutions adapt some of the habits and characteristics of the best private entities, expose them to forces that weed out poor performance and open up massive new channels for decision-making and experimentation.