Ideology

While demographics play an important role in assessing voting trends ( "Party's future is bleak, thanks to demographics," Dec. 10), Ron Smith's assertion that Maryland is bluer because it is has large populations of African-Americans and federal workers is sheer fallacy. Were this the case, red states with large African-American populations such as Mississippi and Alabama, and Virginia with its equally large pool of federal employees, would be obvious areas of Democratic strength.

In a widely watched case on the Eastern Shore, federal judge William Nickerson ruled Thursday that Alan and Kristin Hudson's Berlin farm was not in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. The plaintiffs, the Waterkeeper Alliance led by controversial environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had hoped to establish that big food processors, in this case Perdue Inc., could be held liable for the alleged pollution sins of "contract growers" like the Hudson...

ALTHOUGH THE experts have been proclaiming the ''end of ideology'' for several decades now, something that looks suspiciously like -- yes -- a new political ideology is exploding in our midst and gaining converts with a speed that Marx and Engels would have envied.It is cyberism, the creed of information. The cyberists are not organizing any new political parties -- indeed, a certain contempt for conventional politics is one of the articles of the new faith -- but they show a lot more energy and enthusiasm than you are likely to find among the politically committed of the traditional left and right.

Mitt Romney was a bad candidate facing a president saddled with a bad economy, but he could have won if he hadn't been critical of President Obama's auto bailout plan. All he had to say was that the auto rescue was the right path and that he hoped it would work. He also should have taken the issue of rape, pregnancy and abortion off the table. All he had to do was insert language in the party's anti-abortion platform calling for exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- It hasn't been as far back as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but it sure seems that long since we've had a great debate about ideas. Today's politicians seem too caught up in hanging on to power (Republicans) or getting it back (Democrats) to care much about which ideas are better than others. There was a time when people actually debated such things, but in a day of focus groups, polling, fundraisers, blogs, talk radio and hyperventilating cable TV hosts, ideas and ideology seem in short supply.

MOSCOW -- A published report said yesterday that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev appears ready to dump the Marxist-Leninist ideology that has reigned here as Communism for 73 years.The liberal Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Independent Newspaper) reported that Mr. Gorbachev will advocate replacing Communist doctrine with a hazily defined form of "social democracy" when he meets the policy-making Central Committee of the Communist Party Thursday.Such a proposal probably would spark a stormy debate with hard-liners that could jeopardize the future of the party.

THE END OF EQUALITY.Mickey Kaus.New Republic Books/Basic Books.282 pages. $25. As the race for president heats up, there's a hunger for change, for big, meaningful ideas. There's a sense, hard to define but easy to recognize, that something important has gone wrong with the quality of American life. The spirit and expectations of its citizens seem diminished. Discussions of the monthly unemployment rate or the trade gap with Japan aren't going to do much for this malaise, this sense that coping and survival are all most Americans can hope for. It goes beyond the sluggish economy.

BEIJING -- Only a little more than a year ago, when Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin oversaw the fall of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, he was hated and distrusted in official circles here.But in a summit meeting this week, Chinese leaders and Mr. Yeltsin will lay aside their sharp ideological differences.During Mr. Yeltsin's three-day visit to China beginning Thursday, pragmatic common interests -- trade expansion, border stability and weapons deals between the two nations -- will take precedence.

WASHINGTON - As the Senate prepares to scrutinize President Bush's first wave of nominees to the federal courts, one of the questions facing it is how much, if at all, the ideology of the candidates should influence the Senate's vote. Presidents typically place great weight on the ideology of their nominees, choosing people who share their views on hotly disputed issues and on matters of judicial philosophy. Bush has been particularly open on this point and is expected to send the Senate a list of nominees today reflecting his desire for a more conservative federal bench.

Last week, Dan Rather rocked the television world by announcing that in March he would step down as CBS Evening News managing editor and anchorman, thereby ending the longest tenure as chief news presenter in history. On Wednesday, Tom Brokaw will sign off as anchorman and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News, television's most popular newscast, after 21 years in that job. A report also is expected to be released this week about a 60 Minutes II story focusing on President Bush's military service that was presented on air by Rather and was based upon documents of questionable authenticity.

The realities of the 2012 presidential campaign season: 23 million unemployed or underemployed Americans, soaring gas prices, mounting debt, a controversial national health care law about to take effect, unrest overseas, and a fiscal cliff looming. Historical precedent — since FDR, no president has been reelected with unemployment hovering around or above 8 percent — and polling showing most people felt the country was on the wrong track pointed to a "change election cycle" and a resounding Mitt Romney victory.

In the search for answers in the wake of the shootings in Aurora, Colo., authorities have made one curious conclusion about the suspect, James Holmes. The FBI has made clear that Mr. Holmes has no ties to terrorism. This is flat wrong - he is a terrorist. And this label matters. According to the police, Mr. Holmes - armed with an assault rifle and other guns, and ensconced in battle armor - indiscriminately and emotionlessly shot at moviegoers, some of whom were children, and some of whom were trying to escape.

Remember in March, when former senator Rick Santorum got a lot of grief for saying that Mitt Romney was the "worst Republican" in the country to challenge President Barack Obama on health care reform? Well, turns out he was right. That was evident Wednesday when former governor Romney decided he couldn't leave well enough alone and, in a CBS television interview, declared Mr. Obama's individual health care insurance mandate was a tax. That directly contradicted what his campaign had been saying on the subject for two days and left the Republican in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why his own version of health care reform in Massachusetts, which also carried a mandate and a similar penalty, was somehow not a tax. The candidate's logic is, to put it kindly, nuanced.

Across the country, the youth vote is down. Registration is low. Voter enthusiasm for Republican candidates has been lackluster. Unless that candidate's name is Ron Paul. The 76-year-old U.S. representative from Texas has energized — and gained —young voters at a time many people under 30 are turned off to politics. Paul's reputation for attracting young voters is so pronounced that supporters say it's sometimes rare to see older adults at his rallies. Many times, the folks in the loud cheering sections at his events are called simply "the kids.

It is refreshing that Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot opposes an increase in the state's debt ceiling ("Franchot: Maryland can't keep borrowing and spending," Jan. 4). The impassioned "loyalty oath" to the Democratic Party contained in his letter to The Sun is illustrative of the dysfunction that is American politics and the cause of its political gridlock: A need in people to take sides and stubbornly, at times blindly, perpetuate this awful two-party system by avowing support for everything on their party's agenda.

I am only about 2,000 news cycles behind with this post. But I was working on another project since Monday and did not have time to write about the GOP candidates debate hosted by CNN and the Tea Party Express. I thought I would get over it, but I continue to be troubled by the criticism CNN received in some quarters for partnering with the Tea Party to bring this debate to a prime time audience. I am troubled by the ideological nature of the criticism, as well as the hypocrisy and less than stellar reporting that characterized some of it. Look, I am not going to go on and on with my explanation as to why CNN should have been commended rather than criticized for partnering with the Tea Party, but let me just offer a piece of it. One of the primary roles of the media is to bring citizens reliable information that they can use to make informed choices in their lives, and didn't CNN (with the help of the Tea Party)

A plethora of contemporary political phenomena that may otherwise seem only bizarre — the various "pledges" not to compromise, the rejection of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, the denial of evolution and climate change — begin to make sense once one recognizes that the historical analogy used to describe the movement responsible for them is inaccurate. Don't think 1774, 1776 and the Boston Tea Party. Think 1832, 1860 and nullification. Historically, nullification meant the sheer refusal of a state government to accept and abide by national legislation — specifically, in 1832, a tariff law with which South Carolina was unwilling to comply.

PARIS -- The Clinton administration enters its own and the century's final year with a foreign policy record of few major accomplishments, and serious miscalculations.On the positive side are the intervention to end the war in Bosnia, a weighty contribution to peace in Ireland (both prompted by domestic political pressures), measures to stabilize Macedonia, the (insecure) Kosovo cease-fire and mediation in the Cyprus affair.The failures include Russia, an Iraq policy that has steadily worsened the Middle Eastern situation, a destructive failure of nerve and political courage in dealing with Israel and Palestinian peace, a business and trade-driven China policy that has foolishly and perhaps fatefully damaged U.S. relations with Japan, a politically hyped African initiative without substance, which has already vanished, and an implicitly hegemonic approach to Europe, NATO expansion and NATO policy redefinition, which may produce a trans-Atlantic crisis as early as this spring.

A plethora of contemporary political phenomena that may otherwise seem only bizarre — the various "pledges" not to compromise, the rejection of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, the denial of evolution and climate change — begin to make sense once one recognizes that the historical analogy used to describe the movement responsible for them is inaccurate. Don't think 1774, 1776 and the Boston Tea Party. Think 1832, 1860 and nullification. Historically, nullification meant the sheer refusal of a state government to accept and abide by national legislation — specifically, in 1832, a tariff law with which South Carolina was unwilling to comply.

I heard someone use the term "moderate Republican" the other day, and I looked around for Mac Mathias. Of course, the great Maryland senator departed this life in January 2010, at the age of 87. He had retired in 1987, having served in Congress for 25 years. Once upon a time, Senator Mathias was aligned with something called the "influential liberal wing of the Republican Party," a phrase you could never conjure today without first doing some herb - and, even then, it would have to be really good stuff.