Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Mark Sappenfield
“Some 236 years ago, it would seem that James Madison foresaw this moment. Election Day in the United States has arrived, and the great question that lies ahead is one he spent no small amount of time attempting to answer. How does a nation with democratic principles prevent the winners from walking all over the losers? Madison’s answer was a masterstroke of realpolitik. In political factions, he saw the human tendency to be whipped into groups of passion and ill will toward others. And in the clash of faction on faction, he saw checks and counterbalances. Many American voters say they’re anxious about who wins. What happens to the losing side? James Madison thought deeply about that question, and we the nation has learned more since. Yet as Americans go to the voting booth today, I wonder: Is there really no moral element?” (11/05/24)
“The question is troubling: does achieving high status in politics and government indicate, or even require, low virtue? Not necessarily. But there are reasons to think that high status signals low virtue, as was suggested by the Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith.” (11/05/24)
“Everybody knows housing unaffordability and home sticker prices peaked at all-time highs in 2023, even higher than the peak of the 2007 real estate bubble in real terms. Both sticker prices and median mortgage payments for homes remain today at among the most unaffordable levels in U.S. history. The free market has failed American homebuyers by not building enough homes Americans are willing and eager to buy, the official narrative goes. … the popular narrative is flat-out wrong. And I’ll demonstrate that with hard numbers.” (11/05/24)
“You can say a lot of bad things about the 2024 presidential campaign, which mercifully ends today. … It was, in many ways, a campaign to be ashamed of. But you must admit, there was one thing good about it: Campaign 2024 was remarkably brief. Originally, it looked like it was going to be a lot longer. … But the real campaign — the one we’re voting on today — began only when Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. It lasted a refreshingly brief 107 days. And, whatever the outcome, campaign 2024 proved that campaigns don’t have to drag on for months and months. One hundred days is all you need. After 100 days, we’re sick of them, anyway.” (11/05/24)
“Will Rogers said, ‘Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to somebody else.’ Kamala Harris'[s] presidential campaign can attest to the truism after the vice president appeared on ‘Saturday Night Live’ three days before the presidential election. Make no mistake, there is nothing funny about an apparent violation of federal law by NBC and ‘SNL.’ With Harris and Trump locked in a close race, the appearance was a bonanza for the campaign. It also was presumptively unlawful.” [editor’s note: Unless Trump asked for his equal time and was denied it, it wasn’t unlawful, “presumptively” or otherwise. Turley continues to beclown himself – TLK] (11/04/24)
