Will takes a look at the potential fight over New York’s 19th Congressional District:
‘But Gibson thinks “MVB” — he refers to Van Buren as if he were a neighborhood chum — deserves to be a tea party favorite because he was Andrew Jackson’s sidekick in slaying theBank of the United States, which they considered an instrument for people who practiced the vice nowadays called crony capitalism.’
Chris Gibson’s the Republican incumbent, and Sean Eldridge, married to Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook and owner of the New Republic, is the Democratic challenger.
‘But when progressives say there is “too much money in politics,” etc., conservatives should remain relaxed. Everyone, including Eldridge, should have the right to do what he or she wants with his or her money. Besides, Eldridge will use his money to disseminate his political speech, which conservatives should be confident will do Gibson much more good than harm.’
A lot of hot-button issues and trends in our society come to the fore in such a race: Same-sex marriage, cosmopolitanism, tech money, urban vs. rural, family, ideology, ideas, ‘values’ etc.
Libertarian editor of Reason Matt Welch took a look at the change of ownership at the New Republic under Hughes, and the move further Leftward:
‘The great irony is that The New Republic is repudiating contrarian neoliberalism precisely when we need it most. Obama proposes in his State of the Union address to jack up the minimum wage to $9 an hour, and instead of surveying the vast skeptical academic literature, or asking (pace Charles Peters) whether such liberal gestures are “more about preserving their own gains than about helping those in need,” TNR columnist Timothy Noah declares, “Raise the Minimum Wage! And make it higher than what Obama just proposed.”
Adam Kirsch, Simon Blackburn, Martha Nussbaum, John Gray. Here are a few links on this site to the New Republic: Leon Wieseltier At The New Republic: ‘A Darwinist Mob Goes After a Serious Philosopher’…Adam Kirsch At The New Republic: ‘Art Over Biology’