Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

Douthat Chatter and Frum Chatter are as twin expressions of the self-destroying elan of the American Republican Party. Although, Frum Chatter, in this instance, opts for a shift of focus to his proclaimed victory of British Conservative governance, and the … Continue reading →

Read this essay by Daniel Pipes on what I can only call a kind of  Sophisticated Xenophobia, on the question of the Syrian Refugee,  that he argues must be- the title expresses his singular idea: ‘Let Refugees Remain in Their … Continue reading →

I posted a comment on a Financial Times essay by John McDermott, this morning. And asked as part of it, Where are the Eisenhower Republicans?, to speak out against the Republican Nihilist.  As I was driving to the gym this … Continue reading →

Why is the Republican Party headed straight to a permanent status as the party of daft plutocratic apologists, and craven imperial war mongers?(It almost sounds like a description of the New Democrats) But watch Mr. Bill Kristol, on ‘The Powerhouse … Continue reading →

Mr. Douthat continues in his rhetorical mood of fabulism, that he expressed in his essay Call Me Vlad , with his latest entry titled Good Populism, Bad Populism. In sum Mr. D. presents the argument that the Republican Nihilists are … Continue reading →

What a wonderful stew of Conservative chatter ,that only Mr. Douthat can throw together, and still maintain any notion of the coherent, as he puts his various ingredients into the pot. He then applies intellectual heat, of a kind, to … Continue reading →

Is it a surprise that Mr. Ross Douthat begins his New York Times essay of August 3, 2013 titled Return of the Jesus Wars with the titles of American movies as reference points? The Da Vinci Code, The Gospel of … Continue reading →

Mr. Brooks latest essay at the New York Times titled ‘The Neocon Revival’  is what one always expects from him. A kind of political fiction that reflects a carefully managed set of assertions and quotations, that renders the notion of … Continue reading →

To read Mr. Douthat’s essay of July 27,2013 is to encounter a comic pastiche of a philosophical commentary: on the subject of self-understanding as integral to  self-definition, confining itself to the contemporary American  Republican Party. But Mr. D. cannot resist … Continue reading →