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THE SCHOOL OF WASHINGTON

Cat e r ing to the Kem pt, the Unkem pt & the Urbane

a non-affiliated, non-profit magazine all rights reserved - TheSchoolofWashington.org


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- A Letter from the Editor -

Dear Friends, The group of students who created this publication did so out of a love of thought. What better way for university students to express ideas than through the written word, through a university magazine. The role of the university is to engender such thought in its students. Yet we spend only half of university learning from our professors. We spend the other half learning from our peers (especially when some of us miss half the classes). As students of the George Washington University, we find ourselves immersed in a city of ideas. We come to this city with open minds, and as we watch the powerful currents of politics and their philosophical origins, we begin to form ideas of our own. This world of ideas is exciting, yet can be overwhelming. Washington serves as a gateway to our modern civilization, thus as impressionable students we must think clearly in order to really reap its plethora of knowledge. We must assert order in this swirl of activity. We must be reasonable. Our publication seeks to share our reasonable conclusions through our experiences in this city of ideas, in all its facets. As Washington touches every aspect of life with it thoughts, so do we in our publication seek to do them all justice. We cover politics, business, cultural philosophy, fashion, entertainment reviews, career advice, short stories, and GW news. Our magazine is truly a school of thought, and we seek to share what we have learned with our fellows. We aim to deepen understanding through reading and writing, and as such our writing tends to the analytical. People always ask what young people think because what we think matters. Thus we provide a forum for GW students to express their thoughts. More than that, by nature of being a publication, we give other students a chance to see what their peers are indeed thinking. Someone told me that no one cares what college students think of foreign policy. I posit that their fellow students care. We are a magazine by students, for students. We make that invaluable exchange of learning, of growing character woven into the tapestry of Washington, a reality. In our small way, then, we cast our hat into the ring, and pay homage to a teaching and learning exchange so fundamental to university. Knowledge is a treasure to be shared, not hoarded. Now is the time to share.

Very Sincerely, Peter A. Horan Founding Editor-in-Chief

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- Table of Contents Business & Finance


Pre-gaming to Stock Market Success ..................................................................................... 5 An Interview with Steve Joachim, President of the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authoritys) Transparency Services ................................... 5 The How-Tos of Investment Accounts .................................................................................. 8 Exhumed: The Graveyard by Marek Hlasko ........................................................................... 8 The Allegory of the Intravenous: A Critique of Pleasure as Purpose ....................................... 10 Recovering Politics ................................................................................................................ 11 Monthly Fashion Review: Female Fall Fashion ...................................................................... 13 Cultural Review Morocco and Islam: Case In Point............................................................ 13 Claudias College Cookbook: Croque Monsieur & Balsamic Salad......................................... 15

Lyceum: Critical Discourse

Culture & Arts

Politics & Policy

The Tea Party isnt Conservative ............................................................................................ 16 The Second Mexican-American War: Drugs .......................................................................... 17 A Very Hungry Beast ............................................................................................................. 17

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- Disclaimer The individual and differing views presented by the individual writers of this organization do not speak for the writers of this organization as a whole. This organization seeks to promote and endorse thought by students, not a specific agenda or standpoint.

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B u si n e ss & Fi n a n ce
Pre-gaming to Stock Market Success
ownership equity at a given point in time. As my accounting professor taught me, it is a snapshot of the company. The Income Statement is the second basic financial statement, By Jonathan Cohen displaying how much revenue a Business and Finance Editor company earned over a specific time period (usually for a year or Money management and some portion of a year). An Income experimenting in the stock market Statement also shows the costs and can be a nerve-racking experience for expenses associated with earning that revenue. The literal bottom line those who havent done it before. of the statement usually shows the A recent survey by Capital One companys net earnings or losses. This found that by graduation, nearly half tells you how much the company of college seniors arent confident in earned or lost over the period. their ability to manage their finances. However, financial education The third basic statement is the increased confidence levels up to 81 Statement of Retained Earnings, which explains the changes in a percent! companys retained earnings over the Formal classroom education, such as reporting period. The last statement is taking a basic accounting or finance the Statement of Cash Flows, which course, will help anyone looking reports on a companys cash flow to become more financially savvy. activities, particularly its operating, One must remember that buying investing and financing activities. stock in a company is really buying a The Statement of Cash Flows tells piece of a company. Would you buy you how much cash you had at the something without understanding its beginning of a given time period, how basic finances? An accounting course much you have at the end of that time can teach you about the four basic period, then combines information financial statements: the Balance from the Income Statement and Sheet, the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet in order to provide Statement of Retained Earnings, and you with a breakdown of how all that the Statement of Cash Flows. We money came and went. use these statements to evaluate the success and profitability of any given A basic finance course can teach you the many different financial metrics company. that matter for a company. For The Balance Sheet reports on a example, FCF is the Free Cash Flow, companys assets, liabilities and which is the sum of the Operating Cash Flow, Financing Cash Flow, and Investment Cash Flow, and is a good metric for seeing how much money a company must use when it sees fit to do so. Another metric one can learn about is the P/E ratio, or the Price to Earnings Ratio. We define this as the price of one share of a company divided by its earnings per share, which are net earnings or profit divided by the total number of shares issued. Although classroom education is vital to becoming more financial savvy, learning the ropes of the stock market can be achieved online. People can experience Wall Street without the risk by playing various different stock games online. These games allow the aspiring stock broker to access stock quotes and compete against other players for major profits. Potential earnings arent merely fictitious, though. Many sites have prizes given out each month to the player who earns the highest percentage gain. Gambling on the stock market can be hard to stomach for those who have already watched their earnings decrease during the recession. Along with taking the right courses, practicing money management in a simulated environment can help educate and prepare students for that leap of faith into the financial market.

An Interview with Steve Joachim


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By Peter A. Horan Editor-in-Chief Conducted in New York Office, Summer 2010. Steve Joachim is the

President of the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authoritys) Transparency Services


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Horan: Where did you start your career? How did you arrive at your current job? Joachim: I started thinking about my career when I was in graduate school. I got a Political Science MA from Duquesne University, and Urban and Public Affairs (Management) MS from Carnegie Mellon University. Half of my courses were in the business school. I wanted to do either business consulting or government. I was a math major as an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon University, and a pretty average student. I really didnt know what I wanted to do. My first job after grad school was in the New York State Office of Court Administration. I used management techniques to improve court system efficiency. Its not a bad place to start. The public sector exposed me to a wide variety of issues quickly, especially serving as excellent management experience. I want to impress upon you and your young undergraduate peers that the first job is not your permanent career job. Trial and error is very important early in your professional experience. Try to get as diverse a work experience base as possible. There is so much available to do, especially in the financial services sector. You need to get out there and not be afraid to try new or different jobs. I moved up hierarchy at the court office quickly in 3 years. I finished as Principal Management Analyst (#2 person in department). From there I went to a consulting firm in DC for the following three years. Each stage I figured out more of what I wanted to do, which in my case was wanting to run a company. Consulting was an excellent blend of
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public and private sector, but I was exhausted by the 100 hour weeks. So I responded to a New York Times advertisement for the Bankers Trusts internal consulting group. They were a commercial banking group, and I didnt understand at first a business where money was the selling product (such as loans). I had no previous experience with finance. In the 1970s finance was considered a very vague, sort of musty and old-fashioned profession. It hadnt regained its glamour yet, as it did in the 1980s. This consulting job acquainted me with finance, which was invaluable in the long-run. However, it was not fun being an internal consultant: you have to live with your client. So then I went to Merrill Lynch. A friend set up a call between me and John Frawley, the man who ran Institutional Marketing for Merrill at the time. They were then developing their institutional sales focus, and needed to build up a sales organization with good client relations. He wanted me to head the organization. Our call was more cinematic than Hollywood. I said: Its a very attractive offer. Id like to think about it. Frawley: Whats to think about? Me: Well I would like to talk it over with my wife this weekend, and perhaps you can put it in writing. Frawley: I do million dollar deals over the phone every week. I dont need to put this in writing. My word is my bond. Let me know what your answer is by Monday.

indeed their bond, so I on Monday I went to work at Merrill Lynch. I stayed there for 15 years. In that time, I rose to run Institutional Marketing, serve as Chief Operations Officer for Equities, headed Merrill Lynchs trading operations on all American stock exchange floors as well as Equity Markets Technology Department. Trading for Merrill was a great experience. In the late 90s I went off with a former Merrill Lynch colleague who had founded a .com start-up tech company called Parallel. They built a variety of Wall Street technology products, and worked with early versions of Microsoft office and excel before they were vogue. I worked there four years as COO and Chief Strategist. We did an average $50 million of business per year. In the early 2000s, though, the tech bubble started to burst, and our company began to do poorly. The remnants were purchased by Dell. It was a great experience, and I would love to do it again before I retire. Horan: What do you do here at FINRA, and why is it important?

Joachim: Well let me tell you how I came to FINRA. An old recruiter friend called me up, and asked me to have breakfast with Doug Shullman, who was then head of NASD. I said, Why? I dont want to work for a regulator. At the time NASD was selling NASDAQ, and was taking I thought about it, and the gravity people on. Eventually I agreed. At of making a career-shaking decision breakfast, Shullman told me about based on the word of someone I two technology products NASD was didnt know worried me. The fact that working on as part of the NASD/ he said his word is his bond, though, NASDAQ split: ADF and TRACE. in all seriousness, made a deep ADF (Alternative Display Facility) impression on me. I wanted to work displayed quotes and transaction at a place where a persons word was information for equity free of charge.
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When I heard about TRACE (Trade Reporting And Compliance Engine), I knew it was going to revolutionize the way bond trading is done. As you know, bonds dont trade on exchanges: they are all Over-TheCounter securities, and dont benefit from exchange NBBOs the way equity does. That means investors dont have access to national best pricing standards. Pricing can be all over the place with bonds, and that can hurt investors. TRACE captures and disseminates fixed-income transaction information, which gives investors a benchmark price to consult from a reliable source. So in November 2001 I took charge of TRACE and ADF under the new Transparency Services. Like many others here at FINRA, I was happy for an opportunity to help the market and have fun, apart from just making money as I previously did. By now in 2010, our Transparency Services has had a very positive market impact. Spreads have been narrowed (narrows inefficiencies in price fluctuation/difference), which means that investors are more confidant in getting the best market prices, which in turn increases liquidity (ease and amount of transactions completed in market). We are now also able to get a better idea of the shape of the fixedincome market. Horan: What is the future of Wall Street, and where do you think the most active financial sectors will be in 10 years? Joachim: Im bullish on the future. There will always be a need for financial intermediaries to leverage capital transactions. And now there is more capital in more markets than ever before. It will not be as it was in the past 30 years, though. The pace of financial engineering will slow such
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as derivative construction which fuelled growth in last 10 years. Thats what all this new regulation is aimed at. Compensation is also changing, but not as drastically as people think. Remember that Wall Street has always behaved in cyclical motion: in ebbs and flows, booms and busts.

attempt to suppress it, and by doing so suppress economic growth. But Capitalism does have some negative consequences, like anything else. Finance is the movement of funds. You also had finance in Communism and Socialism. Its not synonymous with Capitalism. I dont think of finance and Capitalism as synonymous or In Wall Street I include hedge funds. even paired. There will be tighter regulation of trading. Theres a lot of pressure on Horan: Are you worried about Chinas reducing high frequency trading, and rise to fiscal power? Do you think it putting limits on HFT advantage. will surpass the US, or is its growth High frequency trading takes unsustainable? advantage of inefficiencies in market. We are aiming to make the market Joachim: It is good for the world more efficient. The less inefficient to have a rising China. In the 80, the market, the less advantage HF everyone said that Japan was going to traders, arbitragers and hedge fund trump the US as the next great world guys, have over others. power. Now its China. So the forecast is always hyperbolized. But we are in The Street moves quickly, so its very a process of international economic hard to forecast even five years down development that is gradually the road. The reality with Wall Street globalizing the world. The US is is, if I knew which sector was going to still the absolutely greatest economic be hot soon, I would be there making power. This is not diminished by billions of dollars. But as I said, its globalism. US political dominance is very hard to forecast. diminished by globalism, though. Horan: What would you say to They could be the next ultimate people who pronounce Capitalism or world power, but they have so many Finance immoral? problems that anything could go wrong and the growth would cease. Joachim: When people say that, Even now Chinese labor wages are its an exaggeration, like cops that rising. Cheap labor was their big say all humans are evil. All humans advantage, but as they accrue wealth, are evil in some way, but not in workers want more. So this advantage totality. Capitalism has proven itself is unsustainable. Also if the Chinese very resilient, in part because it Army feels threatened by expansion reflects human nature better than of Capitalism, it may strike out any other system. People want to adversely. better themselves and their living conditions. Thats not bad, its natural. What China does have is Capitalism harnesses this drive. There infrastructure. It benefits from a longis also nothing on the horizon visibly term, centralized government that better. Socialism and Communism, builds and maintains infrastructure as far as I am concerned, are failed for the long-term. Indias big problem systems because they dont harness is its inability to develop, or even the entrepreneurial drive. They update, its infrastructure. Roads,
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power plants, and ports are essential to economic success. I worry that US political will, which is as short-term as its elections, will soon severely cripple our own economy through neglect of infrastructure. Considering

our highways were largely built in the 1950s I think this is a very immanent problem. Even then, Eisenhower was only able to accomplish their building because America feared a Soviet invasion, and roads were insurance companies charge higher fees and have extra costs compared to brokerage houses. This is because, in todays market, investment firms mimic banks, banks mimic investments firms, and insurance companies try to do it all. This results in higher fees and poor service for the average investor.

needed to move troops across country. We should not have to require the incentive of a Soviet invasion to build highways.

The How-Tos of Investment Accounts


By Jonathan Cohen Business and Finance Editor I Want to Buy Stock, but Where? Investment firms, brokerage houses, banks and insurance companies these are just a few of the places that allow you to open an investment account today. An investment account is where you buy stocks, mutual funds, or bonds. Some common examples include IRAs, individual brokerage accounts and custodial accounts. Choosing the right company can be difficult and knowing where to start your search is even harder. Which Company do I Choose? The first decision youll need to make is what type of company is right for you. My experience has been that investment firms, banks and

The deals are usually short-lived, while your account will stay with the company for many years.

Website Analysis Was it easy to reach a phone representative, and was the phone representative helpful? What is the minimum account balance required? What are fees involved? is there a set Thats why it is probably best to invest up fee, a maintenance free, or a fee through a brokerage house like TD per trade? Are there any extra costs Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity involved, or are there any special or Vanguard. But even selecting the deals? right brokerage house can be difficult with so many different service After you figure out where you want platforms to choose from. to open your investment account, all you have to do now is spend less Research money on your GWorld, do research To make the process easier, here are a to figure it out what you want to few basic questions that you can use to invest it in, and youre good to go. research the leading brokerage houses deals? and select the company that meets your needs best. What you should be After you figure out where you want looking for is the one that provides to open your investment account, the best service, lowest fees and easiest all you have to do now is spend less access to useful information. Dont money on your GWorld, do research be overly influenced by special deals to figure it out what you want to the brokerage houses may offer today. invest it in, and youre good to go.

Lyce u m: C r i ti c a l D i sco u r se
Exhumed: The Graveyard by Marek Hlasko
By Maxwell Anthony Critical Discourse Editor
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If the achievements of ones life bear a direct relationship to the manner in which he or she is commemorated post mortem, then the appreciation awarded to Marek Hlasko is undeserved. Rather, the author of The Graveyard deserves far more appreciation that currently

given. Hlasko was born in 1934 in Warsaw. He was five years old when his father died, seven when the Nazis invaded Poland, and twelve at the time of the fraudulent Three Times Yes Referendum of 1946. Understandably, his life was marked by depression and alcoholism. After
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working various menial jobs, he published a collection of short stories in 1956, which was followed by his first novel The Eighth Day of the Week the following year. Fragments of his novel The Graveyard were published in 1957, one year after the Poznan Riots and Polish October. In 1958 he moved to Paris where his unhappy insobriety won him international fame as a destroyer of bars and convention. In that same year, the complete text of The Graveyard was published in the esteemed journal Kultura. Consequently, he was attacked, with some unintended hilarity, in the Warsaw party newspaper as a disciple of George Orwell, that classical master of antiCommunist pamphleteering. His books were burned in various Polish towns, and he was denounced by the Literaturnaya Gazet. When asked at this time if he was a communist, he replied, There is no such thing as a communist. Unable to return to Poland, Hlasko moved to Israel, an uncomfortable experience that provided material for a series of novels. By 1965 he had moved to America, spent nearly a year in prison and psychiatric hospitals, and attempted suicide twice. In 1969, after drunkenly causing the death of his friend Krzysztof Komeda at Roman Polanskis apartment in Los Angeles, Hlaslko returned to Germany and committed suicide by ingesting a mixture of alcohol and drugs. Responding to his critics in 1958 he wrote, it was not I who made the Warsaw in which the greatest treasure of the poor was a bottle of vodka; it was not I who made the Warsaw in which a girl was cheaper than a bottle of vodkait was that Warsaw that made me. Comprehension of
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that Warsaw, however, is beneficial not only for knowledge of the early Peoples Republic of Poland, but also for an understanding of totalitarianisms protean and sinister characteristics, illuminated by an examination of The Graveyard.

would have acted as they did. One is reminded of Parsons in 1984 who, in pathetic abjection, states: Of course Im guilty! cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. You dont think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you? You know what Im going to say The novel begins with Franciszek to them when I go up before the Kowalski, a Party member, tribunal? Thank you, Im going to former fighter in the communist say, thank you for saving me before it underground and father of two adult was too late. children, meeting a partisan friend from the war. The two go out to a bar In 1944 George Orwell, describing and spend the night getting drunk. the relationship between publishers After separating in the morning, and the Ministry of Information Kowalski attempts to walk home but is (later fictionalized in 1984 as the arrested for disturbing the peace. The Ministry of Truth), observed that police insist that, in his drunkenness, circus dogs jump when the trainer Kowalski made comments against the cracks his whip, but the really well Party. Like Parsons in 1984, Kowalski trained dog is the one that turns his is a true believer, and as such is somersault when there is no whip. It forced into the dilemma of neither seems the most pernicious incursion being able to accept that he spoke that totalitarianism can have against against the Party nor being able to an individuals freedom is not overt question the authority of the police. martial force or the simple presence Attempting to vindicate himself to and use of the trainers whip; rather, it the Party secretary he states, They is the debasing of a persons integrity have a record at the police station, to the point that not only will he obey you understand. Everything is written the demands of his master but that down, every word. There cant be any he will find pleasure in assisting with mistake. I must really have shouted the discipline. It is for this reason that those things. Rather than leave the George Orwell concludes 1984 with issue alone, Kowalski demands an the sentences: He had won a victory investigation into the police so that over himself. He loved Big Brother. his name may be cleared. This effort The awful depravity and triumph of at vindication, however, results in his totalitarianism is when the victim of expulsion from the Party, which, in oppression ceases to rebel and assists turn, causes his son to leave home in his own punishment. Its certainly and his daughter to commit suicide. bad enough that people are locked up in prison unjustly, but its clearly more It is in this state of confused ruin disturbing when the prisoners are that Kowalskis intellectual thralldom the ones locking themselves in. The presents itself. Fired from his factory repulsiveness of the latter scenario job, he is said to be proud of his is, for example, what marks Randle party, of the men who had expelled McMurphys irreversible opposition him; he was proud of their logic, to Nurse Ratcheds authority in inflexibility and purity. He was proud One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest. of his son. And he thought happily While he pretended his way into her that had he been in their place he custody, patients like Billy are free to
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check themselves out whenever they like, but dont. Additionally, with unwarranted love of arbitrary authority must come the intellectual desecration of ones autonomy; producing a mind that is, to use Czeslaw Miloszs term, captive. While Winston Smith was made to love Big Brother, Franciszek Kowalski was already convinced of his subservience to the state. It is by a discussion with another former partisan that Kowalski realizes, we wanted to take the road to life, and weve come to a graveyard. This realization of Stalinisms moribund impact is made especially clear when Kowalski visits the man who saved his life during the war. (Although the novel was written years after Stalins death, evidence of the cult of personality pervade the text) Having been arrested and detained in a prison camp for two years, the former commander is in most respects a corpse. Not only is he physically withered, he is mentally depleted to the extent that he claims, This is the ultimate purpose: not to think of yourself in victory. Every conqueror must first kill himself. In a profoundly frail effort the man begins to sing The Internationale but is interrupted by his own tears; here I could not but pause and wonder for how many people and under what exhausting circumstances did that paean of servile masses and new

foundations dimly echo. It is only by realizing the voluntarily self-effacing consequence of appealing to authority rather than to a personal sense of justice that Kowalski is able to reclaim the courage he demonstrated in the war fighting Nazism and admit his dissatisfaction with society. Drunk and enthralled by the theatricality of a May Day parade, he reencounters one of the police officers who arrested him. The police officer tells him, Youre the biggest fool Ive ever metYou didnt say a thing, and that why we let you goThe moment somebody turns up at the police station, weve got to scare him no matter who he is. Perhaps this revelation, better than any other in the book, demonstrates the sadism and caprice that pervades any totalitarian system. It is remarked by one of the prisoners that each of us somehow thinks he is innocent. But then a moment comes when others begin to have power over him, and then our thoughts dont matter, and only what they think about us matters. While a person may be confident in himself, his guilt is judged by a lie, which the authority happily knows to be untrue. This deliberate cruelty infects, by definition, everything under totalitarianism. For example, Polish media propagated the story in 1968 that the forces of the Warsaw Pact were entering Czechoslovakia If brief consideration is paid to the Once there was a cave where people lived. From the great hall of the cave was visible the one entrance in, where shone the light of day down a long and distant passage. In the cave stood millions of bed-frames and an accompanying intravenous with each. People agreed, long ago, that the only purpose in mens lives was the pursuit

to repel a West German invasion a totalitarian state must involve itself in lies of all magnitudes and consequently must be trivial and trite such that, as one prisoner tells Kowalski, you will never laugh again. Worse still is this deliberate and dumb cruelty, when mixed with Parsons grateful subjugation, provides the fuel for the perpetuation of the totalitarian lie. Kowalski says in a somewhat fantastical oration: Youll always find someone who understands too much and who will have to die for it. And even if he doesnt understand, it will always be necessary to find someone or other, to denounce him and accuse him for nothing, and to no purpose; a man who will be tracked down and tormented, and who in the end will be caught and put to death; who will be ordered to sing a hymn in honor of his killers. In addition to his use of language and capabilities as a writer, it is the profundity of Hlaskos observations into the master-slave relationship inherent to totalitarianism that makes The Graveyard worth mentioning in the same breath as Orwells, Huxleys, or even Koestlers works. While not a work of dystopian fiction, it exposes the same cruel glimmers of turpitude contained in Room 101, or, for that matter, Camp 22, which is the far more regrettable reality. of pleasure, and only pleasure. So enlightened, they left the light of day, and came down to the cave to live. Two types of people lived in the cave: Intravenous Users and Intravenous Tenders. The latter cared for the former, and the former greatly outnumbered the latter. Previously, when people lived hard lives in the light of day, the Intravenous Users
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The Allegory of the Intravenous: A Critique of Pleasure as Purpose


By Peter A. Horan Editor-in-Chief Based on Platos Allegory of the Cave
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had been the poor majority, while the Intravenous Tenders constituted the rich minority. Everyone knew that pleasure was the only thing that mattered in life, the only thing people lived for. The majority resented the minority for being able to enjoy pleasure with their money. The majority demanded that they too enjoy pleasures. They were sick of working. The rich minority were deeply guilty: why should they get to live so, while so many others had nothing? It was wrong, it was immoral. The rich announced that everyone could be happy. All would live for pleasure together. They would leave the harsh light of day, and venture into the great cave. The rich, out of a noble beneficence, had purchased and set up the softest feather beds for each person to lie in. Everyone would stay in their beds. In addition to a bed, each person was attached to an intravenous. Each intravenous injected a fabulous mix developed by the greatest scientists. It included everything a human being needed or wanted: food, water, and a pleasure-inducing drug, similar to ecstasy. What more could anyone desire? There the Intravenous Users lay, alive. The Intravenous Tenders

ensured the intravenous never ran out of the miraculous mix. They, of course, were not attached to an intravenous, nor did they lie in beds. They were needed to care for the majority. It was only fair. This state of affairs continued for years. One day, a charismatic Intravenous Tender suggested a brilliant idea to enhance the pleasure of the Intravenous Users. The Intravenous Tenders only wanted to help the Intravenous Users, and gathered excitedly around this charismatic leader to hear what he had to say. He suggested that the Intravenous Tenders have subjected Intravenous Users unjustly to the unpleasant exertion of waking up! Not only that, but then the Intravenous Users have to get tiered enough to fall asleep! What an effort, what an outrage! Why not put a sleeping agent in the intravenous mix so they remain asleep? The Intravenous Tenders felt deeply guilty they had not thought of this before. Who were they to subject so many people, the majority, to the evil effort of waking up and going to sleep? So they inserted the agent, and the Intravenous Users slept soundly, day and night. sentiment, within the soul of this writer, to allow any discussion of our society and its politics to devolve into a jeremiad. I find solidarity in this predicament with other Christian and traditionalist thinkers of the modern age; Chesterton, (T.S) Eliot, and the like. The comfort of that solidarity demonstrates, to me at least, that the sentiment is not altogether an incorrect one. While difficult to illuminate a sentiment in language, this sentiment does I believe stem from reaction, specifically a reaction to the modern notion that a novel phenomenon is by

Some years later, another charismatic leader emerged from the Intravenous Tenders. He, like his predecessor, proposed another daringly progressive idea to enhance the happiness of the Intravenous Users. The Intravenous Tenders, always excited to do the right thing, gathered around yet again. His voice boomed over the Intravenous Tenders: The purpose of life is pleasure. Effort opposes pleasure. Why do we so cruelly subject the Intravenous Users to the effort of living? Why do we force their hearts to beat, their lungs to breathe? They are now asleep. They will not feel anything if we take them off the intravenous. Let us end their torment. The ultimate pleasure is death. The purpose of life is death! Thus the Intravenous Tenders granted the deepest wish of the Intravenous Users. In dying, the Intravenous Users lived. The Intravenous Tenders, now alone, went back out into the hard light of day to live. Who cares?

Recovering Politics
By Joseph R. Naron Yeoman-at-Large It is all a parody of never-never land, just as the national society is a parody of the human society. -T. Adorno & M. Horkheimer; The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception There is an almost debilitating
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definition progressive, that novelty (especially in politics) is preferable to tradition. Alexis De Tocqueville shares in this disposition, lamenting the result of the French Revolution in his introduction to Democracy in America: I search my memories in vain, and I find nothing that should evoke more sadness and more pity than what is passing before our eyes; it seems that in our day the natural bond that unites opinions to tastes and actions to beliefs has been broken; the sympathy that has been noticeable
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in all times between the sentiments and ideas of men appears destroyed; one would say that all laws of moral analogy have been abolished. De Tocquevilles lamentation is that of a liberal witnessing the tragedy of a liberal revolution, its novel and progressive ideals turning to passion and violence. The sadness evoked by the outcome of the Revolution becomes more intense for De Tocqueville in light of its American antecedent, whose permanent legacy was its republic and not the Revolution itself. The sentiment which I attempt to describe then is both a reaction to the cult of novelty as well as the sadness felt when a society betrays its brilliant potential, seeking innovation at the cost of its foundation. In our modern American case, the liberal state and mass politics have subverted the very freedom which the liberal state was designed to protect. Only through wresting the ancient ideas of freedom and politics from modern perversion can we begin to entertain talk of redemption. Renewal, in the words of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, is only fruitful when it goes hand in hand with tradition. We do not have to search very far for an empirical account of the failure of the liberal state vis--vis society. The liberal state promotes debt-based consumption against societys long term interests. It creates incentives for men to live on the basis of wealth rather than production. Most damnably, it emasculates the political agency of its citizens through a deceptive democracy allowing only left and right varieties of liberalism to engage in the public realm. All of this is based on the false notion
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that the state exists to incubate the freedom of its citizens, a freedom discovered by reason alone in an ahistorical state of nature. Liberalism, then, creates what philosopher Charles Taylor refers to as atomism, the classical idea of man as a social animal is replaced by an idea of man as naturally selfsufficient, most pure when removed from society. The liberal state is an opiate in a way, falsely comforting us by subsuming politics, allowing us to focus solely on our material well being. Taylors atomism is revealed here as a metaphor for a state destroying society. The liberal ideology commands that the state defend rights on an individual basis, action in pursuit of desirous selfinterest being axiomatic, the state existing only so far as it can provide a space for the satiation of insatiable desire. As material want grows, so too must the state, given the reality of scare resources to meet increasing demands. When nature can no longer satisfy material want, and individuals begin making demands on society and the state, the state must become more powerful to protect individuals from one another. Society thus goes the way of politics and is constituted not by men but economic actors atoms to be isolated by the state. The tragedy of modern society lies in its divorce from the political realm, which has been demonstrated to be an extension of the market economy rather than its moral limitation.

ancient Greeks, the political realm was one of spiritual development. Freedom existed by virtue of being a citizen of the political realm, man was free to form an opinion about the governance of society and to have moral opinions exposed to the light of philosophical discourse. As implied by the idea of philosophy, political discourse is a discourse of wisdom in order to determine what is good for society, not merely a means by which problems of necessity and wealth distribution are solved. It is only through entertaining moral opinions in the political sphere that a hierarchy of values and ultimately virtue can be discovered. Whereas our democracy is one of voting in favor of the party which can best serve my individual desires, Greek democracy was authentically deliberative a sphere in which individual interest can be sublimated and the moral direction of a naturally limited body politic determined. The modern obligation of the society and its state to provide was alien, the burden being instead on free citizens to engage. It is a much more natural notion that values and rights are discovered in a deliberative society, that it is in society men reach their potential and not in some artificial state of nature where the state defends them from necessity and from one another.

The recovery of politics, which is required for the continuation of a just and free society, is a renewal The transformation of politics of its traditional and ancient logic. from a realm of moral discourse This idea was not foreign to the into a realm of economic action is foundation of our republic. John the crucial distinction between the Adams correctly recognized that the ancient tradition and the modern principle end of government was to idea of politics. I rely heavily upon regulate a passion for distinction. the thought of Hannah Arendt for Men can only achieve distinction elaborating this distinction. For the through expressing virtue in a public
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space, a virtue defined by morality and not economics. In discussing the passion for distinction Adams speaks of, we can recognize the tension within the soul between

base interest and the greater good, and the failure of modern politics to recognize this tension. The liberal state can only lead to further atomization and the desecration of

humanity. By insisting upon radical political freedom, by the known rules of ancient liberty, we can restore balance and virtue to our politics.

Cu l t u re & Ar ts
Monthly Fashion Review: Female Fall Fashion
By Lily Colley Culture and Arts Editor a generation of men was sent to Korea. Today the trend is defined by cargo pants, heeled utility-boots, gold and studded jewelry, green military jackets, striped tops and feathered/ furred/scaly accessories. illustrated by Christian Louboutins python (short an square-heeled!) boots and Chanels quilted leather and faux-fur handbag. Designer Michael Kors collection most effectively featured a combination of these two uniquely feminine trends; military chic and 50s secretary. The sexy secretary look was best achieved by designers Dries van Noten, Miu Miu, Chloe, Jill Sanders, Celine, Fendi, Alberta Faretti, Ralph Lauren and Prada. The accessory of the season may be Miu Mius silvertoned pump withmetal details and Chloes Aurore top-handle duffel. Today, girls are charged with balancing the two conflicting personalities. In my opinion, Rag and Bone best demonstrates this delicate balance between feminine mystique and masculine strength.

Conversely, the second trend reflects a different side of 50s fashion that & of the more traditional woman. At GW, girls have channeled this Claudia Powell runway look by wearing dainty, Copy Editor muted silhouettes of grey, beige, and white. This 50s secretary style is Washington, DC As the fall semester characterized by full-length skirts, began it became clear that two trends thin-belted cardigans, square heels, made their way to campus. The 50s simple retro purses, high necklines, are back, but todays girl is challenged gold accents, faux fur collars, and with balancing two personalities structured jackets. This Mad Meninspired fashion trend represents the along with two trends. feminine Yin of the decade. Military Chic was seen all over with girls wearing solid green, black and Korean-military style is best gold; it is layered and utilitarian. It is exemplified through the designs the Yang (Korean soldier) to the Yin of Balmain, Burberry, Bluemarine, (U.S. housewife) of the 50s female Chanel, Roberto Cavalli, Givenchy clich. During this influential decade and Lanvin. This trend is best

Cultural Review Morocco and Islam: Case In Point

become one of the largest problems facing the world. This medieval religion is intended to influence all sectors of its societies and dictates to its followers everything from dress to diet to judicial systems. The By Lily Colley extreme fragmentation that exists, Culture and Arts Editor not only between governments, but also between individuals about the The role of religion in Islamic relevance of Muslim traditions in countries and the assimilation of the Middle East today, has lead to a Islamic Law into our modern era has complex predicament. With nearly
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2.5 billion Muslims living around the world, almost everyone knows at the very least of the Five Pillars of Islam and the story of Mohammed. Still, few Westerners understand the intricacies associated with this shame-based religion. While I in no way claim to be an authority on the subject, during my recent travels to the Nation of Morocco in the northwest of Africa, I observed firsthand the powerful influence this
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religion exerts upon its adherents.

can help shed light on the controlling nature of Islam. Ironically, the The country of Morocco is by no stringent expectations of the religion means a strict, traditional Muslim itself results in child abandonment state. In fact, it is one of the most and later social rejection. liberal Muslim nations in the world. This is partially due to its geographic The majority of orphans in the Lella location at the crossroads of Europe, Meryem Orphanage are not in fact Africa and the Middle East, the orphans by definition. Rather, they exposure to which resulted in tolerant are illegitimate or disabled children. population. The country also owes its Muslim society is traditionally maleliberality to a relatively progressive dominant. Even today, womens rights royal family, which has systematically are far from guaranteed despite recent separated church from state. Yet laws implemented by the Moroccan despite the fact that, for the most Government. This manifests itself part, Islamic Law has been separated most clearly when an un-wed women from the halls of government, many becomes pregnant. The transgression long-standing social stigmas retain a is punishable by Islamic Law, brings firm grip upon countrys population. shame upon the family, and is always considered the womans fault. In During my journey through Morocco Morocco, after recent legislation, I spent five days a week doing social women have the right to child support work at the Lalla Meryem Orphanage if they can prove paternity. In reality, in central Rabat. More specifically I this is almost never accomplished. cared for the disabled population. Even if financial support is procured, This humanitarian shelter was the her own family and that of her childs initiative of a past princess of Morocco father shun the woman. As a result and is the only such shelter in the many mothers who find themselves city. It is funded privately and staffed in this situation (even in the case of by patient individuals who work rape) are forced to hide themselves tirelessly to get all of the children during pregnancy and abandon their into foster homes. This shelter is far children after birth. from perfect and, personally, the most shocking element was that the A child born with disabilities consists majority of residing children were of the second excuse for child there indirectly because of Islamic abandonment. In Islam, disabled social stigmas. children are seen as a punishment from Allah over a past transgression One of the dominant factors within and also bring shame upon the Muslim society is the importance of family. As a result, parents desert their family lineage, relationships, respect children after birth and claim they and pride. This fact influences almost died during childbirth to avoid the all aspects of an individuals existence. social stigmas and struggles associated The intricate social expectations with raising a disabled child. The associated with family matters have situation gets increasingly depressing been created over decades and can because unlike the healthy illegitimate only be truly understood through children, which are often adopted, complete immersion. Yet certain disabled children almost never find micro-examples, which I experienced homes. These children spend their while working with the orphanage, entire lives within orphanage walls
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without love or adequate care for their unique medical conditions. Tragically, the disabled population at the shelter only survives on average to the age of 26. The grim reality: because of inherent tendencies in Islam, many more children suffer than should. Even after the children are adopted into Muslim families, the pain persists. The practice of kafala is a tradition within the religion where a child, once adopted, is prohibited from assuming the step-fathers name. This practice is rooted in the undying respect that Muslims have for lineage and helps to maintain the purity of family heritage. The adopted children, therefore, often experience social alienation and extreme insecurity without a lineage to identify with, be proud of or pass on. These deep-rooted social anomalies have been growing since the development of Islam and have become ingrained, shared semirituals. While an interloper can never truly understand a Muslim perspective, I do believe that empathy is the first step towards concord. As the Muslim world continues to quarrel from within, political and social issues will take time to reconcile with our civilized modern era. Muslims internationally, because of modernization, will be forced by their own peers to reexamine the stringent role played by religion in daily life. The hope is that a reexamination will eventually solve large-scale political problems like Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also trickledown to solve small-scale social problems. No excuse suffices nor justifies preventing helpless children from spending their lives with love and family, least of all the excuse of dishonor. Indeed, the greatest
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honor in this world lays in uplifting the helpless, aiding the weak, and Further reading about Moroccan defending the good, despite regional adoption: societal oppression.

http://bylands.dur.ac.uk/~ngb/ elpais/2004/06/07/page3.pdf

Claudias College Cookbook Croque Monsieur & Balsamic Salad


Makes 4 Sandwiches & Side Salads Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 35 minutes Budget: $40 Ingredients: SANDWICH 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for bread 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups whole milk cup grated Gruyere cheese, plus 8 slices cup grated Parmesan cheese 8 thick slices rustic bread 12 slices ham Dijon mustard, for bread SALAD 4 cups Arugala leaves, rinsed and dried (mixed greens or spinach can substitute) 4 ounces goat cheese cup dried cranberries cup walnuts cup olive oil 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard At the beginning of the 20th century, the burgeoning middle class of Paris was just beginning to embrace caf culture. It was a place to gather for food and drink that soon became a neighborhood essential. The Croque Monsieur, a French twist on the classic American grilled cheese, was first popularized at such cafs. Simple yet hearty, this sandwich is ideal for cooking in a dorm or apartment kitchen. Complement your Crispy Mister with a flavorful side salad - tangy goat cheese and sweet dried cranberries make for a well-rounded meal. Mixing up your own Balsamic-Dijon dressing enhances the homemade comfort-food feeling. Bon Apetit!
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Directions: Sandwich Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Add milk and bring to a simmer. Cook, whisking frequently, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add grated cheeses. Whisk until melted and smooth. Butter bread and arrange half the slices, buttered side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Top each with 2 slices Gruyere and 3 slices ham. Spread mustard onto unbuttered sides of remaining bread. Place on top of ham, buttered side up. Preheat broiler. Heat a grill pan or skillet over medium heat. Cook each sandwich until golden brown and cheese melts, about 5 minutes per side. Return to baking sheet. Spoon 1/3 cup sauce over top of each sandwich. Broil until tops are bubbling and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Directions: Salad Combine Arugala, goat cheese, dried cranberries, and walnuts in a large bowl. Set aside and prepare dressing. Combine balsamic vinaigrette and Dijon mustard in a bowl and whisk with a fork. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Drizzle Balsamic-Dijon dressing over Arugala mixture to taste. Fast Food Facts After the two countries battled it out this summer, the E.U. ultimately decided that Switzerland was the official country of origin of Gruyere cheese not France. Dijon, a city famous for its mustard, is the historical capital of the province of Burgundy, France. Top your sandwich with a lightly fried egg (sunny side up) and youve made a Croque Madame!
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Pol i ti c s & Pol i c y


The Tea Party Isnt Conservative
By Chris Leveroni Columnist As I watched the slow-moving, maptoting, flag-adorned Tea Partiers mill about Foggy Bottom several weeks ago, I wondered what exactly had led them to Lincolns feet. The fact that this question even occurred to me should be enough to distinguish it from the most famous Washington gathering of August 28th. Nonetheless, it takes something powerful to move 500,000 Americans to stand in the summer heat--or, in some cases, sleep next to the Reflecting Pool. To listen to or read the media on this, one would guess that the Tea Party is a Libertarian backlash against government spending. Theyre upset about deficits; theyre upset about spending. They want smaller government and more liberty. Democrats have increased domestic spending, people are angry about it, case closed. most embodied their desire for limited government. Their answer was, of course, the inimitable Ronald Reagan a man who raised taxes multiple times and tripled the national debt. If nothing else does, their own words should demonstrate the lie in the notion that the Tea Party is really about spending what we dont have. Maybe then, its just about spending generally. They may just feel that, no matter whether were taxed sufficiently, government is spending too much money. Two thirds of the spending in the current budget-a little over $2 trillion--consists of Medicare, Social Security, and Defense spending. Where are the calls for trimming spending on these things? Ron Paul aside, the movement is silent. Rights Act which mandated private businesses serve African-Americans were unconstitutional now opposes the rights of private citizens to build and worship as they please. It is fitting then that Dr. Paul, in accepting the Republican nomination in Kentucky, claimed to be carrying a message from the Tea Party I can think of no better representative for their incoherence and hypocrisy. Today, Glenn Beck said, America turns back to God. Finally we come to what the Tea Party is really about. I dont mean to suggest that it is merely the Religious Right reconstituted. After all, how many disciples of Pat Robertson would show up to a rally run by a Mormon? What I do mean is that the Tea Party itself has taken on a religious feel. They hold campmeetings, they win converts, they want to remake the world. However, what most accompanies the Tea Party is a quasi-religious certainty. Many of them are certain that lower taxes are better, certain that the government is wasting their money, certain that Barack Obama is a Muslim. This Manichean certainty is the foundation of the Tea Party. Theyre right, youre wrong; theyre good, youre evil. It is this fact that makes them so dangerous. And it is this fact that would have made Abraham Lincoln so disappointed in the movement he presided over last weekend. Lincolns faith was about humility before Gods unknowable will. As he said in his Second Inaugural Address, The Almighty has his own purposes. Apparently while our greatest
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Among the red, white, and blue chorus on the Mall one could occasionally see a hint of yellow, that former flag which warns oppressors Dont Tread on Me. Seeing that, one might think the Tea Party is about constitutionalism. However, the same people who darkened our door this weekend were in New York the week before to protest the The only problem: it isnt true. building of an Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground The Tea Party isnt really about the Zero. This proposed building is to deficit. After all, this country has been be privately funded, built on private running massive deficits for decades, property, by private American the most massive during Republican citizens. Could there be a clearer case administrations. Where were these for any supporter of private property people when George Bush ran nearly rights? trillion dollar deficits? To turn the irony into an anvil, Last Spring on Chris Matthewss Kentucky Senate candidate, Rand Hardball two leading Tea Partiers Paul who earlier this year suggested were asked which American President that those parts of the 1964 Civil
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president could not divine the will of God, Glenn Beck can.

man who is suspicious of dogma and donning a black trucker hat with gold rapid change--he is the man who lettering. Team God it said. doubts. All of this is transgressed by This spirit is antithetical to the Tea Partys religious character. There have always been people in conservative philosophy. The America who thought God was on conservative is one who stands in Sitting on my usual perch the their side. Too many of them spent front of the ideologue or the idealist Monroe benches on G I observed a that weekend on the National Mall. and asks Are you sure? He is the woman inching her way toward Tonic

The Second MexicanAmerican War: Drugs


By Sam Theodosopolous Managing Editor The Associated Press reported earlier this summer that a shootout in northern Mexico between soldiers and suspected drug cartel gunmen killed two children and wounded five of their relatives caught in the crossfire. This is of course, just the latest string of civilian deaths in that country as a result of the drug war. Unfortunately, innocent people have increasingly been caught in the crossfire of Mexicos gang battles, from waitresses killed in bar shootings to doctors ducking for cover as gunmen burst into emergency rooms to finish off rivals. American citizens often have a surreal view of the nation as calm waters, sandy beaches, and vacation spots such as Cancun and Acapulco often comes to mind. Reality differs somewhat. Many places in Mexico are imploding with strife because of the influence of criminal organizations.

heavily on adjudicating conflict by spending trillions of dollars in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, which results in the neglect of the expanding turmoil in our own backyard. Our foreign policy interest should be concentrated concentrically with the most attention paid to nations that are closest geographically, have vital economic ties, hold natural resources and have historical importance. Countries like Haiti to Venezuela must draw greater attention. However, Mexico is of paramount concern because Mexican problems become American problems at our porous border. While immigrants pour from the Mexican border for economic reasons now, those numbers will multiply exponentially if Mexicans are fleeing for safety.

entire United States, not only those communities close to the border. Therefore, it is imperative that the United States consider spending more of its largess on neighbors instead of a collection of countries thousands of miles away, where there may be no traction. It is time the United States step up its efforts in order to deal with this problem, as the current Meridia Initiative is insufficient considering the situation. What is needed is a policy that focuses on the source. Just education, law enforcement and treatment will not end trafficking if illegal drugs are abundantly available. Drugs must be eradicated in the fields where they grow, and stopped in transshipment so they cant make it to the drug lords. A model should be the same vigorous help the United States gave to Columbia, which resulted in downfall of the Cali and Medellin cartels and debilitated the FARC narco-guerrillas. If the United Stated does not reassess and change course with the Mexico immediately, costs will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and thousands of lives will be lost or ruined.

The sovereignty of the Mexican government is falling into the hands of drug lords and corrupted officials. The highly financed cartels, with a market share estimated at $40 billion annually, will continue to use creativity and dark-side capitalism to smuggle drugs into the United States and battle the legitimate Mexican government. The destabilization of Current U.S. foreign policy focuses Mexico would cause problems for the

A Very Hungry Beast


By Harris Davidson Senior Liberal Editor

Washington is a town where everyone seems to forget the past quite easily. Our elected officials up on the Hill love to promote old ideas that have failed in the past and present

them as the solution to our current problems. Re-branding old theories and strategies that didnt work the first time around is something of a favored political past time.
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Currently the old, disproved theory that seems to be making a comeback is the mythical theory of Reaganomics. Republicans have always been fond of lowering taxes for the wealthy and letting the supposed savings trickle down to those in the lower economic rungs, but the calls for a new round of supply side economics seem to have grown louder in recent months. Part of it has to do with the fact that the G.O.P. is willing to do anything to oppose President Obama. While the President wants to repeal the Bush tax cuts that drastically lowered taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and is also willing to approve another stimulus, which is the proven way to get out of a recession, the Republicans want to do just the opposite. They want to keep the Bush tax cuts in place and they want to decrease federal spending, all in the name of reducing the deficit. They are hoping that if we just continue with the policies that didnt work in the 1980s and didnt work in the 2000s that we will somehow manage to make them work now. While the Republicans will openly support Reaganomics, what they wont tell you is that their policies are really about something else. Just as supply side economics in the 1980s was never about reducing the deficit, its current incarnation isnt either. What the G.O.P, and the policy creators who help them craft their ideas are really trying to do is Starve the Beast. The strategy of starving the beast is quite simple on paper: it involves accumulating a massive deficit to the point where parts of the federal bureaucracy need to be reduced or
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cut. The trickery is that instead of simply reducing the bureaucracy, there must first be massive tax cuts put in place in order to restrict the amount of money the government has to spend. The logic continues: if the government cant take in enough money, then it will be forced to cut programs, specifically social programs, like Medicare and Social Security. Conservative thinkers such as the Grover Norquist and the Kristols have argued that starving the beast is the only way the public would find it acceptable to cut those vital programs. They argue that it is impossible to gather enough public support to get rid of something that so many people use and rely on, so the only way to do so it to remove the funding.

passed in the beginning of his first term. Of course, with the help of a little history, we remember the mistakes of the past and see why starve the beast didnt work. So why does it seem that conservatives are playing this game again, continuing to push polices that were disproved 20 years ago?

Part of it has to do with the fact that we have a massive federal deficit and the G.O.P. isnt willing to do anything that will help the country if it means that President Obama will look good in the process. The President has stated that he is willing to cut federal spending and even offered to sit down with Republican leaders over the summer to draw up a plan. Obama and his team of advisors would much rather repeal the Bush tax cuts that While this plan might sound like got us into this mess to begin with an ingenious conservative model for and approve more stimulus money, getting rid of large parts of unfavorable but the Republicans in the Senate bureaucracy, it must be remembered would never vote yes on either of that this plan only sounds good on those things. paper. In the 1980s Reagan and his economic team of David Stockman So why havent the Republicans taken and Lee Atwater tried to implement to the airwaves with their plans to this same plan, but they never got reduce social programs? When it to the point where they were able comes down to it, Republicans just to start reducing social welfare dont have the moxie to cut out parts programs. Despite Dick Cheneys of the federal spending that are crucial pronouncement some 20 years later to the majority of Americans, even if that, Reagan proved deficits dont it would enhance their political goals. matter, the exact opposite of that Just like what happened in the 1980s, conclusion is what caused starve the proposing cuts to Medicare and Social beast to fail. Security isnt something the G.O.P. is willing to do. The problem comes down to the fact that the public enjoys its social President Obamas economic advisor welfare programs too much to ever Christina Romer has said that there is let politicians get rid of them. For no support for the hypothesis that tax President Reagan this meant, instead cuts restrain government spending; of cutting Medicare and Social indeed, the findings suggest that tax Security as was planned, he actually cuts may actually increase spending. had to increase spending and wound So while average Americans continue up repealing some of the tax cuts he to struggle in the midst of a recession
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and the President and those on the G.O.P. is content with keeping their left continue to argue for another roadblock of the Senate intact and stimulus package, it seems that the continuing to allow a large group

of Americans to suffer economically. Chalk up another win for the Gipper.

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