To punish GOP U.S. House Reps who voted for his most recent impeachment and to discourage any GOP Senators from voting to convict, trump has threatened to start his own political party. In trump’s onanistic cosmos, his is the only hand for the job.

To start a “new” political party takes more than to simply declare it exists, and, voila, it has slots on the ballot. Each States’s laws vary. Indiana recognizes two “major” political parties, the two that receive the most votes in the most…

Two towers - one red and one blue - rise to the sky and rule the land. Built by the same hands and of the same immutable substance, the towers are impregnable. No more than two towers may stand. No other structure is allowed to utilize those same hands or that same substance.

The rulers occupy the top floors of both towers and assure all the people that, if a group of them joins together, they can build their own tower, from the ground up, and thus have one of the two towers. This, of…

Bill Thompson, this is to continue my response begun yesterday:

   5) I cited "Know Nothings" for the sociological component of fear. I generalized about the attitude of the "tea party"—again, I argue, a rather vague concept—that I have seen expressed on signs at rallies or in quotes from supporters. What you see as a "limited, legal immigration process," such as that you say the "tea party" favors, I see as a wall built along our border with Mexico and draconian laws enacted that…

Thank you, Bill Thompson, for the civil response to my blog. Let me respond, point-by-point.

   1) The origins of the "tea party" may go back to rallies held in 2007. Rick Santelli ranted on CNBC about bailouts of underwater mortgage holders. As The New York Times has written,:"The tea party agenda is not well defined, though it is anti-government, anti-spending, anti-immigration and anti-compromise politics."  (9/26/10) Given that several organizations claim to be "tea party"…

   Paul Ogden has written that the so-called tea party has to re-define its message and return to its roots as a populist economic movement. He wrote yesterday that the "tea party" has been made, unfairly, a scapegoat for Mitt Romney’s loss in the November 6 election. As Paul wrote:

   "I am not saying my Tea Party friends shouldn’t be pro-life, against immigration reform, or even against same sex marriage.  Again, everyone has issues that bring them to the conservative table where…

   I did not understand why the Republican Old Guard allowed such mopes to dominate the primary elections and run-up to the 2012 presidential election. 

   If the Republican Party wants to defeat President Obama in 2012 so badly, what would be the best thing that could happen? A center-left candidate with a solid national profile runs on a well-funded third-party ticket. Such a candidate could bleed votes from the Obama campaign in key states and in the right numbers and Romney would…

   I attended and graduated from a high school that, prior to my enrollment, had a speech team, but not a debate team. A couple of weeks into my first year on the speech team, we attended a debate tournament as a favor to the coach of another school. I was hooked. I loved debate. I was on the team all through high school. The culmination was our making state finals. When I reached Depauw, I already had been in contact with the coach, Doctor Weiss, and one of the debaters. Again, I debated al…

   The deep political theorist and former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin complained, a couple of years back, about "death panels" in President Obama's health care reform package.

   First, I want to say I think the package was weak. We need national health care, not this weird hybrid first proposed by the Republicans in 1994, one in which private insurance companies play a big role. Second, the plan created no "death panels." In fact, for years private insurance companies…