Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Tips for Preventing a Dem Wimp-Out

The 108th Congress sworn in this week is the most conservative since the 1929 Congress that helped Herbert Hoover guide the United States into the Great Depression.

Fight back against GOP class warfare

Offer an alternative foreign policy

Don't let Bill Frist privatize Medicare

Challenge more than just judicial appointments

As the 108th Congress convenes, Democrats must either mount an effective challenge to him, or they will find themselves in an even worse position when the 109th convenes.

Empires Always Serve the Rulers, Not the Ruled

Britain left a world perhaps better educated and possibly more prosperous in parts. But it was also a world in which tribal or religious divisions were suppressed but not removed and in which institutions were imposed from without.

You could say the same for the Cold War. It froze conflicts but it did not remove them. When it ended, the underlying world re-emerged with all its old complexity and tensions. It needs help. It needs understanding. What it does not need is a new Empire.

Empires are only good for the rulers of the Empire. The associated client states get a particularly bad deal.

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