Trevor Noah Interviews John Kasich On The Occasion Of His New Book Release

Trevor Noah Interviews John Kasich On The Occasion Of His New Book Release

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/pre6yg/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-john-kasich---uniting-america-in--two-paths----extended-interview

Bill Maher's Great Interview With Pocahontas... Er... Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(This Elizabeth Warren interview is an excellent companion piece to Trevor Noah's interview of John Kasich.)

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/04/bill-mahers-great-interview-with.html

Alan: This 2 part interview starts slowly but picks up steam. 

It is remarkably focused on crucial issues, chief among them Americans' self-imposed isolation in ideological silos. 

Kasich - a conservative by nature who began his career in the Reagan White House - understands that elected politicians, held captive by their gerrymandered districts, are beholden to outlier constituencies with no interest in The Common Good or The General Welfare. 

To insure re-election, these politicians must align themselves with the chest-thumping certitudes of absolutist philosophies.

I do not recall if the word "compromise" was used in Noah's interview with John Kasich but democracy will die without it.

This pending fatality is of marginal interest to theocrats who believe that their God -- The One, True God -- will vanquish their infidel foes and usher in a joyful millennium of unopposed Godly Rule. (Never mind that it didn't work out that way in the wake of The Great Flood.) 

"American Theocracy," By Kevin Phillips

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/american-theocracy-by-kevin-phillips.html

"Prohibition, Noah, Ham And The Curse Of Canaan"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011/11/daily-dose-111111-prohibition-and-curse.html

"Santorum, Savonarola And The Pending Apocalypse Of The Republican Party"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/02/santorum-savonarola-and-pending.html

If Democracy fails to work for a sufficiently long period of time, it will give way to autocracy.

However, if both major parties were filled with people as committed, level-headed and "open" as Kasich himself, America would have an even keel and be heading "in the right direction."

As it is, conservative scholar Norm Ornstein is disproportionately right when he says "Let's just say it. The Republicans are the problem." 

Conservative Norm Ornstein and Liberal Thomas Mann

"Let's Just Say It. The Republicans Are The Problem"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/lets-just-say-it-republicans-are.html

Conservative Norm Ornstein: The Media Ignore Republican Lunacy
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/conservative-norm-ornstein-media-ignore.html

Ornstein's rightness arises from the fact that most American conservatives are absolutely unbending -- rigid, brittle and prone to shatter -- certain that they can "kill off" the opposition so that only "God's Party" or "The True Values Party" will survive. 

It is delusional to believe that political polarity is any less durable that the persistence of negative and positive polarity in chemical interaction. Or, as friend Paul Schulte put it 50 years ago: "No bird can fly with just one wing" - a core truth that begs ominous questions about the popularity of eschatological ("end time") enthusiasm among conservative Christians.

"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-republicans-insane-best-pax-posts.html

"There Are Two Ways Of Lying..." Denis De Rougemont And Donald Trump

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/donald-trump-and-denise-de-rougemont.html

Ann Coulter: How "Good Germans" Are Most Mistaken Precisely When They Seem To Be Right

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/ann-coulter-how-good-germans-are-most.html

Paradoxically, the same absolute certitude that persuades conservatives of their Exceptionalism is why Democracy - if it fails - will fail.

Furthermore, "God's Party" or "The True Values Party" ---corrupted by its own "goodness" --- will be quickly undone by Pascal's Dictum and Merton's observation:

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton