I grew up in bluest of the blue New York. My hometown congressional district is part suburban Long Island (but generally Jewish and Asian) and part-Queens. Republicans were in the minority. I come from a long-line of Democratic voters, no one in my family has been Republican ever.
However, if you are young and grew up in a heavily Republican area and in a heavily Republican family, you are probably going to come out as a Republican.
The GOP is a bit too gerrymandered to be sailing away to irrelevance.
There are probably dozens of heavily gerrymandered Congressional seats in the GOP's favor. These are districts where Congresscritters can only be defeated by a challenge from the right, not the left. Hence, the election of ultra-right congresscritters who say absurd things on TV. These things are not absurd in their very-safe districts.
Plus they do control more governorships than the Democratic Party as Aaron David pointed out.
There could be a chance that they are becoming irrelevant for people our age and younger (anyone born after 1975 or so) but I think there are plenty of late-Gen Xers and Millenialls who are Republican and just as conservative in the Fox News kind of way. Only time will tell.
The saddest part of this treaty debacle is that the UN was basically approving of US law. The treaty is a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I think Posner was opposed for more than the views outlied here. He was also opposed for his views against the Civil Rights Act and how he thought that racism was bad but there still needs to be a right to discriminate. He did not seem to think that the rights of minorities to fully participate in economic and civic life probably should trump the rights of bigots both legally and morally.
Bork's confirmation was not so much Fort Sumter but Shiloh, the first battle when we realized things we going to be ugly and ugly for a long time. The modern culture already started in the 1960s-70s with the rise of the hippies and the silent/moral majority. The Supreme Court had already filed decisions in Miller v. California, Roe v. Wade, Falwell v. Hustler by the time Bork was nominated. Rehinquist (who was just as noxious as Bork) survived two Senate confirmation hearings. Scalia survived his.
"There is a very large sub-culture of Americans concerned about civil unrest in the context of a natural disaster or a failure of the government. I think the latter is unlikely in our lifetimes but the former is very real."
I have noticed that many concealed carry types do seem to have a Mad Max mentality. In which, they think we are one step away from Science Fiction Warlord Universe or already living in it.
Bullshit. The United States is not Somalia or Afghanistan. We have a very active and effective government and civilian society. There have also been a lot of very serious natural disasters in which society did not collapse. Hurricane Sandy comes to mind from this year alone.
If people think like you described above, they are selling their fellow country people short.
You might be right that there will be no meaningful action done in the wake of the tragedy. I am not sure whether this is because you are taking the stance that there can be no such thing, you think the NRA will eventually rise up and quash any attempt at tighter gun control, the right will stop any legislation aimed at more access to mental health, or all of this.
However, I hope you are wrong. You might be right: Everyone seems frozen in their place on their positions. We need to see how people without strong opinions react to the tragedy. If this does not change the conversation, I am not sure what will.
Recent Supreme Court decisions like Heller and McDonald do not help though.
Details will emerge. How many tragedies do we need before we start having frank discussions on prevention, on access to mental health. We should not be fatalists for these kinds of events? They should not be seen as inevitable and unpreventable.
Perhaps this is my absolute secular-liberalism speaking. Perhaps it also me being defensive because undergrad me could not get a date if my life depended on it. I think Kim's point doesn't really apply to the world anymore. It seems almost quaint. Without appealing to any traditionalist values (or at least religious ones) can you explain to me why the Mormons do it the right way? Or am I just being too much the New York-San Francisco urban, professional liberal here? Keep in mind I was raised as secular as secular can be while still having a Bar Mitzvah and going to once-monthly Hebrew school until 12th grade. I did not grow up in an area where people attended religious services on a regular basis except the one family across the street that was Orthodox (Jewish, not Greek or Russian.)
My mom was an early Feminist. She went to college in the mid-60s and said she was always shocked and baffled by the women who openly said they were looking for their "MRS" degree. She also seemed baffled that the women would fall for the guys who would talk big about being able to provide the biggest suburban house. She thought how could any 20 year old guy say that with a straight face?
College students are still kids. They might be legal adults but to my eyes they are still young and learning their way through the world. There is nothing wrong with people having some time to explore. Most people enter college without knowing what their future careers will be and leave in the same state. Doesn't research show that marriages last longer when the couples marry later and are more settled in their careers and done with 20-something strum und drang?
2. Get into a good college/university (Ivy or Equivalent)
3. Study hard
4. Work a bit or go to a good grad school (grad school needed to happen eventually). 20s are for exploring and having some fun/wild oats as well.
5. Get establishedess in your career
6. Now you can get married and have kids instead of having kids when you are in grad school and living in a three floor walk-up in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn or Jersey City.
I wasn't saying that there is anything wrong with getting married young. I was just more pissed at Kim for implying strongly if it does not happen by 23, it is probably not going to happen.
Well I feel somewhat offended. Thanks for damning me to a life of being a lonely bachelor. Do you want to send me some applications for Internet brides from Russia?
Considering I did not get my first kiss and did not have sex until I was out of college and it took a few more years after that to start dating reguarly...let's just say I am a late bloomer.
"1) many of the people who were predisposed to marry already have by that point. A lot of people find chemistry in college — and by the time they’re out, they get married."
I don't think this is true. I know some people who married their college sweethearts or at least I think I do. Most people in my circles seem to massively regret at least one of their college dating choices and chalk it up to hormones, the need for experimentation and discovery, and know admit to doing each other a lot of pain. I know more people who met their spouses in grad school. One of my professors at law school said I was not the type of person to meet their spouse at the school. Take that for what you will, I have no idea what she meant.
Number 2 is true and there is some truth to 3-5 but I think a lot of it can be traced to the on-line dating problem. On-line dating gives the illusion or the possibility of countless options especially in large cities. Hence there is always the feeling of "I can do better" or so I heard and not wanting to invest energy in merely a good date. I.e. a date has to be amazing off the bat or it goes nowhere. This leads to a lot of loneliness.
My mom did not get married until she was 33. Plenty of people do get married later in life.
The question is what will The Great Recession teach us. My friends seem to be split among the doing very well and the doing not-so well with some in the middle but not much.
I grew up in a suburb where almost every parent had a college education or higher. We were all told to get college educations or higher. Deferred gratification was the lesson. Maybe someone like your friend looks like they are doing well at 25 but it is better to be in grad school at 25 and do really well at 45, 55, 60, etc.
There is no moral judgment here. Different strokes for different folks. This is just what many people in my generation (or at least my generation and socio-economic status) were taught while growing up.
BTW, I and I suspect many people with similar backgrounds were firmly trained by my parents not to have kids until we were well settled into our careers.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Sailing Away to Irrelevance, Epilogue: In Which the GOP is Finally and Inevitably Made Irrelevant”
I concur. It seems to me that Tod's joining the GOP is an attempt to revive the old moderate block.
"
Right. I am not surprised.
I grew up in bluest of the blue New York. My hometown congressional district is part suburban Long Island (but generally Jewish and Asian) and part-Queens. Republicans were in the minority. I come from a long-line of Democratic voters, no one in my family has been Republican ever.
However, if you are young and grew up in a heavily Republican area and in a heavily Republican family, you are probably going to come out as a Republican.
"
The GOP is a bit too gerrymandered to be sailing away to irrelevance.
There are probably dozens of heavily gerrymandered Congressional seats in the GOP's favor. These are districts where Congresscritters can only be defeated by a challenge from the right, not the left. Hence, the election of ultra-right congresscritters who say absurd things on TV. These things are not absurd in their very-safe districts.
Plus they do control more governorships than the Democratic Party as Aaron David pointed out.
There could be a chance that they are becoming irrelevant for people our age and younger (anyone born after 1975 or so) but I think there are plenty of late-Gen Xers and Millenialls who are Republican and just as conservative in the Fox News kind of way. Only time will tell.
The saddest part of this treaty debacle is that the UN was basically approving of US law. The treaty is a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
On “The First Contemporary Culture Warrior”
One obituary rued that the Saturday Night Massacre was largely absent from mentions of his biography.
I was alive during his confirmation process but not during Watergate. Not that Borking was one of my memories from being alive back then.
"
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
A copy editor in a pear tree
"
I am not so sure about your last sentence but otherwise spot-on.
"
Interesting essay.
I think Posner was opposed for more than the views outlied here. He was also opposed for his views against the Civil Rights Act and how he thought that racism was bad but there still needs to be a right to discriminate. He did not seem to think that the rights of minorities to fully participate in economic and civic life probably should trump the rights of bigots both legally and morally.
Bork's confirmation was not so much Fort Sumter but Shiloh, the first battle when we realized things we going to be ugly and ugly for a long time. The modern culture already started in the 1960s-70s with the rise of the hippies and the silent/moral majority. The Supreme Court had already filed decisions in Miller v. California, Roe v. Wade, Falwell v. Hustler by the time Bork was nominated. Rehinquist (who was just as noxious as Bork) survived two Senate confirmation hearings. Scalia survived his.
On “Today”
I still don't understand the whole Kim dynamic in this community.
"
Here are some issues or questions that I have:
1. Do you think that urban/suburban residents have different needs when it comes to gun policy than rural or exurban residents?
2. If yes, what are the differences and is there an equitable way to create a policy that meets the needs and desires of both groups?
3. Are you personally concerned or freaked out by any of the attitudes of the gun lobby? If yes, what are they?
On “Where Do We Go From Here?”
Mike,
"There is a very large sub-culture of Americans concerned about civil unrest in the context of a natural disaster or a failure of the government. I think the latter is unlikely in our lifetimes but the former is very real."
I have noticed that many concealed carry types do seem to have a Mad Max mentality. In which, they think we are one step away from Science Fiction Warlord Universe or already living in it.
Bullshit. The United States is not Somalia or Afghanistan. We have a very active and effective government and civilian society. There have also been a lot of very serious natural disasters in which society did not collapse. Hurricane Sandy comes to mind from this year alone.
If people think like you described above, they are selling their fellow country people short.
On “Before the Gate of Hell”
The struggle carries on.....
This is what every member of the left needs to take into their hearts. The left knows defeat but we never stop dreaming for the better world.
"
You might be right that there will be no meaningful action done in the wake of the tragedy. I am not sure whether this is because you are taking the stance that there can be no such thing, you think the NRA will eventually rise up and quash any attempt at tighter gun control, the right will stop any legislation aimed at more access to mental health, or all of this.
However, I hope you are wrong. You might be right: Everyone seems frozen in their place on their positions. We need to see how people without strong opinions react to the tragedy. If this does not change the conversation, I am not sure what will.
Recent Supreme Court decisions like Heller and McDonald do not help though.
On “Thoughts and Prayers”
This song seems appropriate today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ga_M5Zdn4
"
This is absolutely heartbreaking news.
Details will emerge. How many tragedies do we need before we start having frank discussions on prevention, on access to mental health. We should not be fatalists for these kinds of events? They should not be seen as inevitable and unpreventable.
On “Playa’ In the Hoooouse!!! : Lady Killer’s Guide to Picking Up Women at Bars”
I am not married and avoid watching guys behave like this by not going to meat bars or clubs.
On “When to Get Married, Revisited”
Perhaps this is my absolute secular-liberalism speaking. Perhaps it also me being defensive because undergrad me could not get a date if my life depended on it. I think Kim's point doesn't really apply to the world anymore. It seems almost quaint. Without appealing to any traditionalist values (or at least religious ones) can you explain to me why the Mormons do it the right way? Or am I just being too much the New York-San Francisco urban, professional liberal here? Keep in mind I was raised as secular as secular can be while still having a Bar Mitzvah and going to once-monthly Hebrew school until 12th grade. I did not grow up in an area where people attended religious services on a regular basis except the one family across the street that was Orthodox (Jewish, not Greek or Russian.)
My mom was an early Feminist. She went to college in the mid-60s and said she was always shocked and baffled by the women who openly said they were looking for their "MRS" degree. She also seemed baffled that the women would fall for the guys who would talk big about being able to provide the biggest suburban house. She thought how could any 20 year old guy say that with a straight face?
College students are still kids. They might be legal adults but to my eyes they are still young and learning their way through the world. There is nothing wrong with people having some time to explore. Most people enter college without knowing what their future careers will be and leave in the same state. Doesn't research show that marriages last longer when the couples marry later and are more settled in their careers and done with 20-something strum und drang?
"
Well things don't always happen when they should.
"
It was more of this order:
1. Study hard
2. Get into a good college/university (Ivy or Equivalent)
3. Study hard
4. Work a bit or go to a good grad school (grad school needed to happen eventually). 20s are for exploring and having some fun/wild oats as well.
5. Get establishedess in your career
6. Now you can get married and have kids instead of having kids when you are in grad school and living in a three floor walk-up in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn or Jersey City.
"
I wasn't saying that there is anything wrong with getting married young. I was just more pissed at Kim for implying strongly if it does not happen by 23, it is probably not going to happen.
"
It was more meant to make you feel old ;)
"
Well I feel somewhat offended. Thanks for damning me to a life of being a lonely bachelor. Do you want to send me some applications for Internet brides from Russia?
Considering I did not get my first kiss and did not have sex until I was out of college and it took a few more years after that to start dating reguarly...let's just say I am a late bloomer.
"1) many of the people who were predisposed to marry already have by that point. A lot of people find chemistry in college — and by the time they’re out, they get married."
I don't think this is true. I know some people who married their college sweethearts or at least I think I do. Most people in my circles seem to massively regret at least one of their college dating choices and chalk it up to hormones, the need for experimentation and discovery, and know admit to doing each other a lot of pain. I know more people who met their spouses in grad school. One of my professors at law school said I was not the type of person to meet their spouse at the school. Take that for what you will, I have no idea what she meant.
Number 2 is true and there is some truth to 3-5 but I think a lot of it can be traced to the on-line dating problem. On-line dating gives the illusion or the possibility of countless options especially in large cities. Hence there is always the feeling of "I can do better" or so I heard and not wanting to invest energy in merely a good date. I.e. a date has to be amazing off the bat or it goes nowhere. This leads to a lot of loneliness.
My mom did not get married until she was 33. Plenty of people do get married later in life.
"
"There are times it bothers me that my youngest won’t be out of college until I’m almost 60"
Don't forget about grad school.
"
The question is what will The Great Recession teach us. My friends seem to be split among the doing very well and the doing not-so well with some in the middle but not much.
"
I think those days are gone.
I grew up in a suburb where almost every parent had a college education or higher. We were all told to get college educations or higher. Deferred gratification was the lesson. Maybe someone like your friend looks like they are doing well at 25 but it is better to be in grad school at 25 and do really well at 45, 55, 60, etc.
There is no moral judgment here. Different strokes for different folks. This is just what many people in my generation (or at least my generation and socio-economic status) were taught while growing up.
"
BTW, I and I suspect many people with similar backgrounds were firmly trained by my parents not to have kids until we were well settled into our careers.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.