Obama is Politics as Usual

A normal voting experience for an Amherst student seems to be a case of ordering “the usual.” Even when we open our ballots to unfamiliar candidates, we still order the usual political Happy Meal with all the little (D)s. We probably look right past the (L)s, the (C)s, the (G)s, and non-aligned, only stopping to gag slightly over Romney, Ryan and other (R)s on the menu. In a world of options, we see only two, and even then still only pick the same. Sometimes, party affiliation becomes the only

Is Government Broken? No, but Washington Is

Last week, both parties saw angry defections on the 2011 budget vote, citing all sorts of reasons. The defections by Republicans on the large budget threatened to throw Washington back into debate over an eighth temporary spending measure in a row, something the President threatened to veto. Luckily, they were able to compromise and Washington narrowly avoided a second shutdown. Looking forward, Washington has two more hurdles to overcome: the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget, and time is ticki

Democracy at War With Liberalism

So we all clearly notice the academic distinction between liberal democracies and illiberal democracies. Why do we care? Libyans or Egyptians or the American colonists did not die for the right to scribble on paper slips in an election between corrupt government A and corrupt government B. They also did not die to support a popular dictator who believed in national self-determination (think China or Cuba). They all died for a guarantee of their human rights — individual self-determination. A dem