Republican members of Congress—nigh lockstep supporters of the Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, and the PATRIOT Act when their party controlled the executive branch—profess to have rediscovered the Constitution during the first two years of the Age of Obama. Those of us who were not swept away by the Francophobia of 2003 might say …
Continue reading “Bringing It All Back Home”
“The United States has the reverse Midas touch – everything we touch turns to crap.” – Military historian Bill Lind, talking on American foreign policy to a standing-room-only crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Something unusual has happened at the annual CPAC confab in Washington. It’s looking less and less like the …
Continue reading “Old Guard Moving Aside at CPAC”
Vlahos: the war machine vs. growing antiwar conservatism
The response to my column on Rand Paul has been generally favorable, much to my surprise: generally people who belong to a political movement tend to rally around their tribal leaders if and when they’re attacked, but apparently libertarians are the exception to this general rule. That’s because they’re better than that. Most of the …
Continue reading “Our Vitriol, and Theirs”
Everywhere you looked at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington this year, there was Lady Liberty, an eagle soaring, a patriot with fife and drum and a tri-cornered hat. Freedom – everyone and everything declared – was under assault. According to the three-day schedule, it was under attack by socialists, unions, the taxman, …
Continue reading “CPAC Sends Founding Fathers Spinning”
Antiwar sentiment was a major issue for the first time at this year’s giant CPAC meeting in Washington. Thousands of young conservatives attended, some 5,000, and for the first time, Ron Paul was voted the favorite presidential candidate with 31% of the vote. His speech about how governments use wars to take over dictatorial power …
Continue reading “CPAC and the Wars” 
