Sam Adams Alliance

By Alan Pell Crawford

The U.S. Department of Education has released Washington and Wisconsin from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind law. This brings the total of states granted waivers from the controversial federal program to 26, with 10 more states and the District of Columbia waiting in line. The New York Times regards the decision to grant these exemptions as a magnanimous act by the Obama administration; it might be more accurate to credit the states that have said, “Get me out of this.”

By Alan Pell Crawford

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka insists the pow-wow his group will hold on August 11 in Philadelphia is not an alternative to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte two weeks later, or a protest against it. Maybe not, but the decision is further evidence that important organizations like the unions that belong to the AFL-CIO don’t think there are compelling reasons to go to Charlotte. In that, they are part of a large and growing contingent of loyal Democrats—including some congressmen—who feel they have better things to do.

By Alan Pell Crawford

An expression of American optimism is the belief that our enemies will do themselves in and spare us the trouble. Republican intellectuals like to tell each other that the Democrats are committing political suicide, and vice versa.

By Alan Pell Crawford

Ira Stoll, author of the biography Samuel Adams and editor of FutureofCapitalism.com, makes a plausible argument that opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are mistaken to unleash their fury, as they have, at Chief Justice John Roberts.

There’s a lot wrong with the law, Stoll writes on Reason.com:

… it’s a huge tax increase, it’s a redistribution of wealth, it increases the size of government, it’s an overly complex exercise in central planning, it breaks Barack Obama’s campaign promises, its implementation is timed so as to avoid electoral responsibility, it’s a distraction from higher priority issues, it’s unpopular with voters, it’s bad for the economy.

By Alan Pell Crawford

The controversy over gay marriage provides the opportunity for Robert Murphy, in the American Conservative, to offer a valuable explanation of the “culture wars.” They are in part an inevitable result of the expansion of governmental power. Consider President Obama’s “evolution” on the issue:

If the federal government were a minor institution in society—charged with repelling foreign armies, negotiating treaties, and not much else, then nobody would care much what the president of the United States thought about gay marriage.

By Alan Pell Crawford

Preoccupied by John Roberts’ vote on the Affordable Care Act, Republicans probably missed something else the Chief Justice has done they won’t like: He has granted ex-Rep. William Jefferson a one-month extension to file an appeal of his 2009 conviction on bribery and money-laundering charges. Jefferson is the New Orleans politician in whose well-stocked freezer FBI agents found $90,000 in marked bills. Since May, he’s been serving a 13-year prison sentence.

By Alan Pell Crawford

Encouraging news on the convention front: Even more Democratic office-holders are saying they won’t go to Charlotte. This will further sap prestige from events that, while gussied up to look like democracy, are increasingly something out of a European court—albeit one with “American Idol” touches. Our conventions, Smithsonian says, have become

coronation ceremonies—carefully choreographed political theater in which the outcome is preordained. Every detail is accounted for, from the text of the speeches to the number of balloons dropped on the red-white-and-blue-clad delegates. The overall goal is to project an image of party unity, a ritual coming together following an often divisive primary campaign.

By Alan Pell Crawford

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill won’t be attending the Democratic convention in September. That brings the total of Democrats in Congress skipping the tiresome and costly event to eight, which includes, besides McCaskill, two other senators—Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana.

By Alan Pell Crawford

Terry Michael, a self-styled “professional Democrat” most of his life, won’t be backing Barack Obama in November. A former press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, Michael writes that despite his long political history,

I am about become an apostate. I am going to do what I think the founder of the Democratic Party, the classical liberal Thomas Jefferson, might consider doing this year. I am going to vote for former Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, now the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

By Alan Pell Crawford

The number of Democratic congressmen who say they will skip their party’s convention in September is growing, leading political partisans to the usual wrong conclusions. They say it’s a function of President Obama’s declining popularity. Maybe it is, but there just might be more than that going on here, and if so, that’s great.

“I guarantee that my time will be better spent meeting the farmers, small business owners and other people who put me here,” Kathy Hochul, who was elected to represents a district in northwestern New York in a special election on May 2011, said on Wednesday.