Does our and Obama’s Paralysis on Global Warming come from American Exceptionalism? William Espinosa, Informed Comment, June 6, 2014
The problem, I would suggest, goes deeper than the fossil fuel industry or the dysfunction of American politics. The phenomenon of climate change, I believe, challenges some core collective beliefs, provoking deeper anxieties. Consciously and unconsciously, fear drags on our intentions and clouds our thinking. “Fear is the mind-killer,” the Bene-Gesserit warned in Dune. To name a few now-in-doubt precepts:
1. Nations are sovereign within their borders.
2. The United States is an exceptional nation that can always prevail.
3. The US way of life is benign and benefits the world.
4. Consumption is the measure of economic growth and health.
5. God gave humans natural resources for enterprising individuals to exploit.
Frontier values and opportunities still endure.
At least on Earth, climate change threatens to make this last forever untrue and nine billion people can’t become American-type consumers. The United States can’t solve the climate problem at the nation-state level. Our activities have caused harm way beyond our borders and we need everyone’s help—even those whom we have harmed. “We are all Bangladeshi’s now,” as someone memorably put it.
NRA’s constitutional fraud: The truth behind the “right to bear arms”, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, June 2, 2014
This argument is set forth by gun proliferation advocates as if it has been understood this way from the beginning of the republic. Indeed, “fundamental right to bear arms” is often spat at gun regulation advocates as if they have heard it from the mouths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson themselves. But what none of them seem to acknowledge (or, more likely, know) is that this particular legal interpretation of the Second Amendment was validated by the Supreme Court all the way back in … 2008. That’s right. It was only six years ago that the Supreme Court ruled (in a 5-4 decision with the conservatives in the majority, naturally) that there was a “right to bear arms” as these people insist has been true for over two centuries. And even then it isn’t nearly as expansive as these folks like to pretend.
4 Inconvenient Facts Conservatives Conveniently Ignore, Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet, June 4, 2014
With conservative commentators dogpiling President Obama for bringing home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, many are scratching their heads in confusion. After all, didn’t conservatives used to pride themselves on their devotion to making sure that every POW possible was returned home safely? Isn’t the POW/MIA flag a favorite to hang right under the American flag in many red states? Wasn’t it one of the few issues they had where they actually seemed righteous and generous, instead of stingy bordering on malicious?
The sudden rewriting of everything we’ve known the right to stand for may seem odd, but, in fact, rewriting history is standard operating procedure on the right.
