Liberal political Philosophy

Liberal political Philosophy

Everything is Political Just as I began my college teaching career thirty years ago, the whole academy seemed to have accepted as axiomatic the assertion that “Everything is Political.” This self-evident universal truth (curiously, my relativistic colleagues have quite a few absolutes) came to be uttered frequently in response to complaints from a few…

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Natural rights doctrine

Natural rights doctrine

A number of times throughout history, tyranny has stimulated breakthrough thinking about liberty. This was certainly the case in England with the mid-seventeenth-century era of repression, rebellion, and civil war. There was a tremendous outpouring of political pamphlets and tracts. By far the most influential writings emerged from the pen of scholar…

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Liberal thinkers

Liberal thinkers

As a news junkie, I often find myself seeking out political discussions and debates on the various news networks. I like listening to the exchange of viewpoints and the impassioned sparring over serious topics from seasoned analysts. The roundtable and panel formats are my favorite. They’re much more interesting to me than the hyper-partisan, red meat…

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Liberal view on immigration

Liberal view on immigration

My colleague Andrea Nill notes that this is a fairly costly endeavor: U.S. government investigators have indicated that it will cost taxpayers $6.5 billion over the next 20 years to maintain the fencing already in place and the Congressional Research Service estimated in 2007 that building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles…

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Define political map

Define political map

Maps in simple terms represent a geographical area in a way that enables people to find places and/or to better understand the features of a particular destination. Two of the most common forms are political and physical maps. POLITICAL MAP Political maps are designed to show governmental boundaries of countries, states and counties. They can also indicate…

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Political views on immigration

Political views on immigration

Republicans are as likely as Democrats to say enactment of immigration bill is very important. Only about half of Republicans (50%) say it is extremely or very important that the president and Congress pass significant new immigration legislation this year. But that is little different from the shares of Democrats (53%) or independents (46%) who view…

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Liberal political views

Liberal political views

Jews are among the most strongly liberal, Democratic groups in U.S. politics. There are more than twice as many self-identified Jewish liberals as conservatives, while among the general public, this balance is nearly reversed. In addition, about seven-in-ten Jews identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. Jews are more supportive of President…

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Define Politically

Define Politically

While listing UC Berkley as the most politically active, and Columbia as second are obvious choices, other schools seem to have been selected for the famous politicians and power moguls they produced, and not because of a history of student activism. American University and George Washington University were listed as third and fifth, but they are known…

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Etymology of politics

Etymology of politics

What do “political” and “politics” mean to you? Can you identify yourself with one of these two common statements? “I don’t get involved in politics. What could I do, anyway? Politics are the job of politicians. That’s what we vote and pay them for.” Even people who’ve never been “interested in politics” their whole life have lately joined the discussion…

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Religious Liberalism

Religious Liberalism

Stereotyping is a two-way street: as religious persons are often stereotyped for their beliefs, so anti-religious individuals are often stereotyped as having simplistic views. Those who genuinely believe there is conflict between religion and science may be seen as close-minded, particularly in an environment like StFX which is sympathetic to its Catholic…

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American political spectrum

American political spectrum

This’s week’s lecture for my class on the history and geography of current global events focused on the crisis in Venezuela, the slides from which are available at the link posted below. I framed this situation in terms of Latin America’s “democratic revolution” of the late 20th century followed by its electoral turn to the left (the so-called pink…

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