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Brief · November 7, 2011
The Foundation

"I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles." --Thomas Jefferson
Opinion in Brief
Intra-party fight

"Somewhere around 2004 the Republican Party broke in a new way. The GOP had been riven before -- Taft-Eisenhower, Goldwater-Establishment, Reagan-Ford -- and always healed back. But the split that grew after 2004 was different. Trust broke, and in a time not of peace and prosperity but of crisis. Which made the impact deeper. What is called the tea party is the rightward part of the conservative base. They became angry that they had trusted the Republican establishment during a Republican presidency, only to see that establishment run up huge debt, launch foreign wars, contribute to the surveillance state, and refuse to control America's borders. What made the anger deeper is that they were angry at themselves. They felt complicit: They had not rebelled, they had trusted the party: 'They're the GOP establishment, they must know what they're doing.' What the conservative base had learned by 2008 is: Don't trust the Republican party. Don't trust its establishments. ... The Republicans' challenge now: holding together, and breaking 20th-century stereotypes. They should distance themselves from government even as they prove they can govern, and not only oppose but propose. They should put themselves apart from the rigged, piggish insider life of Washington. And try not to look nuts while they're doing it." --columnist Peggy Noonan
Political Futures

"[R]ight now, the 'anybody but Mitt' crowd to me looks like a mix of Perry fans who can't believe any conservative could seriously support those jokers Cain and Bachmann, Cain fans who can't believe anybody could back that loser Perry and that loon Bachmann, Bachmann fans who can't believe everybody's jumped off the bandwagon of the one true conservative fighter, Newt fans who can't believe everybody makes such a big deal about his marital difficulties, and so on. I'm not sure anybody has much of a second choice right now, much less a potential consensus choice. I exaggerate slightly, but right now, it doesn't seem as if many primary voters see many of the options as 'pretty good.' The field is simply 'their guy' versus a bunch of laughingstocks who deserve to be booed off the stage." --National Review's Jim Geraghty

What is your view of the Republican field?

Faith & Family

"Economic envy may cloak itself in rhetoric about 'inequality' or 'egalitarianism' or 'redistribution of wealth,' but its oldest name is covetousness. That is the sin enjoined by the last of the Ten Commandments: 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's.' At first blush it may seem odd that God would ban a mere desire. After all, the other nine commandments concern behavior: idolatry, theft, perjury, and so on. But as a matter of moral and social hygiene, the Tenth Commandment is indispensable. Covetousness -- particularly when it takes the form of class hatred -- is the root of innumerable other evils. From the belief that you don't have enough because others have too much, it isn't that great a stretch to the belief that those who have too much should be forced to make do with less. It shouldn't be surprising when a movement obsessed with what rich capitalists earn rather than with what they produce starts treating other people's property and persons with contempt. Occupy Wall Street preaches that the '1 percent' got rich by exploiting the '99 percent.' The Tea Party believes that with greater freedom and less government, we could all be more prosperous and productive. One is rooted in envy, the other in self-respect. What distinguishes them, you might say, is the culture of the Tenth Commandment. That distinction is showing up in many ways, not least in the latest police reports." --columnist Jeff Jacoby