Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

politics

  • Democracy Thrives on Immediacy

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    4 min read

    One of our oldest sayings is “time heals all wounds”. That regardless of what has happened, a scab will form eventually. Of course, we have misguided expectations. We hear the word heal and we assume all will go back to normal. But there is no “normal”. There is progress and there is stasis, but no normal.…

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  • Ideologies Do Not Win

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    3 min read

    I hate to lose. I know you hate to lose. Losing sucks. When our surrogates lose, we feel like we lose. When our surrogates win, we feel like we’ve won. And we make a dangerous decision about these wins and losses: that it is ideologies that win and lose on election day. It couldn’t be…

    6

  • Obama’s Stand Means More Than You Think

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    5 min read

    You’ve no doubt read enough about what President Barack Obama’s public statement about gay marriage means. That is so last week. But as I’ve been catching up on my podcasts, I’ve discovered an important element missing from the coverage. What it means to the metanarrative of American politics. The Negative Much of the obvious response…

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  • The Freeloafer Economy

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    2 min read

    In an article I read this morning (but can no longer track down), one of the people interviewed spoke of “eliminating spending”. Not cutting spending or reducing spending, but eliminating spending. As in all. It occurred to me that this is the most obtuse, and natural, of directions for the debate to go, because it is based on…

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  • An Overly Simplistic Description of Race in America

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    3 min read

    Considering all the overblown rhetoric about how post-racial we’re supposed to be, I thought a short description of how post-racial we actually are, and how post-racial we could be, might be useful. Our society is post-racial We actually do live in a post-racial society, if by society we actually mean culture. The pervading culture is…

    1

  • Ethics in the Zombie Apocalypse

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    4 min read

    [SPOILER ALERT: This post contains Season 2 spoilers of The Walking Dead. I’m not kidding. Seriously important ones. If you have any interest in enjoying this show, stop reading, bookmark this page, and come back later. Otherwise, read away. Chris and Emily, you are absolved.] The second season of The Walking Dead revealed the most important ethical quandry…

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