CRB: Progressively worse
The Claremont Review of Books has just published its new (Spring) issue. I reviewed the issue in galley to pick out pieces to roll out for Power Line readers this week (subscribe here for $19.95 and get online access thrown in for free). The issue weighs in at 114 pages. It took me a little longer than usual to get through the issue, which actually arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes late last week. I picked two essays and two reviews that I thought readers should find of interest.
First up is William Voegeli’s essay “Progressively Worse.” Subhead: “Activist government’s crisis of competence.” Bill is author of
Brexit is best understood as a narrow majority of the British people asserting that their national identity was more important than their European identity. But I do think it will have to be resolved one way or another. Europe cannot endure, permanently half national and half supra-national - William Voegeli pointed out in an conversation with Lénárd Sándor, researcher of the National University of Public Service.
William VOEGELI is senior editor of the Claremont Review of Booksand author of two books: Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State (Encounter, 2010); and The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion (Broadside, 2014). After receiving a doctorate in political science from Loyola University in Chicago he was a program officer for the John M. Olin Foundation. In 2016 Voegeli was the William E. Simon Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
The Raven .the record of history is absolutely crystal clear that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
- Milton Friedman on the Phil Donahue show .What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven -F.A. Hayek -
The Road to Serfdom
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people,
CRB: “You’re fired!”
We continue our preview of the new (Winter) issue of the Claremont Review of Books with the third of four essays on the outcome of the election (on Friday we will have a fifth, on the Electoral College). Today we turn to the contribution of CRB senior editor William Voegeli. Bill’s contribution to the issue’s essays on the election is “You’re fired!” Subhead: “Understanding Trump’s defeat.” Here is his opening paragraph:
Baseball hall-of-famer Vernon “Lefty” Gomez often said, “I’d rather be lucky than good.” The Occam’s Razor interpretation of the 2020 presidential election is that President Donald Trump was neither lucky nor good enough a politician to secure a second term. His bad luck, in particular, was compounded. The worst pandemic in a century beset the country on his watch, causing a public health crisis that, in turn, generated severe economic and social dislocations. And it did so over the eight months preceding Elect
About Whataboutism : When turnabout is never fair play
By William Voegeli City Journal
Published Jan. 13, 2021
Eric Schulzke: Daydreaming may be the next childhood psychiatric target
Kathryn Moody: Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis?
Meghan Streit: Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help
The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal
Jonathan Tobin: Care about the Jewish state s future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry
Alan M. Dershowitz: Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza
Katie Nielsen: As a mother, I m all I need to be