For a person who hates politics, I sure can’t get enough of it. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, call your office. But my excuse for staring obsessively at things like the Republican National Convention is that government is important especially when it’s done badly. And right now its general air of dreary malevolence is a big part of the problem. Click here to read the rest.
Political conventions are strange tribal gatherings whose frequent emotional outbursts, frenzied responses to obscure issues and peculiar sense of embattled joy might prove upsetting to normal people. But for all their weirdness they are important tools of self-government because, at them, party insiders show you who they think they are. Click here to read the rest.
We are all environmentalists now. So why aren't activists happy the RCMP is watching for terrorists infiltrating their organizations? Click here to read more.
In recent weeks, the gloves have come off in the U.S. presidential election, revealing — nasty attack ads? Vacuity? Dishonesty? Or just more gloves? Compare 2012’s gentle hints about inability to understand the private sector or reluctance to pay high taxes with this blast at the Democratic candidate in 1828: “General Jackson’s mother was a common prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterward married a mulatto with whom she had many children, of whom Gen. Jackson is one.”