CRB: The Democrats’ dilemma

The new (Fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books is in the mail. Thanks to our friends at the Claremont Institute, I have read the new issue in galley to select three days’ worth of pieces to be submitted for the consideration of Power Line readers. (We have three pieces on the Founders in store tomorrow.) As always, wanting to do right by the magazine and by our readers, I had a hard time choosing. You, however, can do your own choosing for $19.95 a year by clicking on the link above and accessing subscription services. At that price the CRB affords the most cost-effective political education available in the United States of America. I enjoy everything in the magazine, including the advertisements. Subscribe by clicking on Subscription Services at the link and get immediate online access thrown in for free.

The essays of William Voegelei have become a staple of the magazine. In the new issue Bill takes up four recent books on the future of the Democrats. His essay is a venture in practical politics, on which Bill is one of my favorite writers. See, for example, his brilliant books Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State and The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion.

Bill introduces his current essay with the observation that both major parties are in trouble. “As each party’s incapacities and contradictions become more pronounced,” he writes, “our partisan duopoly is experiencing an acute crisis. Republicans and Democrats are now engaged in an unprecedented form of conflict: Mutual Assured Self-Destruction.” Bill does not ignore the ordeal of the Republicans, but he focuses on the Democrats in his essay “The Democrats’ dilemma.” Highly recommended.

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