[Note: A shorter modified version of this post appeared as a Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe,May 14, 2016] The road to 270 electoral votes on the map shows an advantage to a generic Democrat over a generic Republican, mainly because Democrats have the edge in former swing states where the minority population is growing fast. Of…
Author: Brian R. Merrick
Former Massachusetts District Court judge and Visiting Scholar in the History Department at Suffolk University, free-lance writer, residing in Cape Cod, Mass. and Cape Coral, Florida
GOP on the Brink
Boston Herald Letter, May 4, 2016 George Will’s advice to conservatives, distressed at the prospect of Donald Trump’s nomination, is not plainly stated but clear: Elect Hillary Clinton (“Damage control order of day if Trump gets nod,” May 1). Meanwhile, he condemns the Republican Party to the fate of the Whigs by declaring that “collaborationists…
Academic Freedom and Political Correctness
Wall Street Journal, Letter, April 15, 2016 Ed. Note: This published letter was in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial (“Punished for Blogging at Marquette,” Review & Outlook, April 2, 2016) about a tenured professor at Marquette who was suspended without pay and faces dismissal for blogging that a colleague was “using a tactic typical…
Conventional Wisdom by Chairman Joe
A prominent businessman, formerly a Democrat, becomes a leading candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination with great public support but the nearly universal enmity of the Republican political establishment. The party regulars, while comprising a majority of the convention delegates, are unable to agree on a candidate, keeping their forces divided. The Chairman of the…
1,237 is not “some random number”
Boston Herald letter, March 22, 2016 Adriana Cohen is wrong to insist that the Republicans are somehow cheating if Donald Trump goes to their convention with the most votes and delegates but short of a majority of either and loses the nomination (“Party can kiss me goodbye if front-runner shown the door,” March 20). To…
Sanders and Trump
Cape Cod Times letter, March 16, 2016. Columnist Cynthia Stead is on to something, noting that many Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders voters have the other as a second choice (“Voters disdain government, politicians,” March 10). What they have in common is disgust at the preoccupation of politicians of both parties with catering to big…
Confirm Judge Merrick Brian Garland
Cape Coral FL, March 16, 2016 The Republican majority in the United States Senate should confirm the nomination of Judge Merrick Brian Garland to the Supreme Court. Not because of the name, although for some reason I find it appealing. I set out the smart move for Obama here on February 29 in Replacing Scalia….
“The Paranoid Style in American Politics” and Donald Trump
Cape Coral, FL, March 14, 2016 Everyone of a certain age who took history or political science classes in the mid-1960’s had an assigned reading list which included “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” a book by Professor Richard Hofstadter, named after its title essay which was originally an article in the November, 1964 issue…
Scalia’s Posthumous Critics
Boston Globe Letter, February 29, 2016 On the day of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral, the Globe published four letters about him, all critical (“The Scalia way,’’ Readers’ Forum, Feb. 20). They objected to the policy consequences of his decisions, alleged that he applied religious beliefs to his decisions and failed to interpret the…
Replacing Scalia
February 29, 2016 Justice Scalia the giant cannot be replaced. Justice Scalia, the member of a sharply divided court will have to be. In the last half century the courts – the Supreme Court in particular – have become the forum of choice for partisan minorities of both the right and, especially, the left to…
Justice Scalia – An American Originalist
As with the loss of many charismatic public leaders, especially those with an outsize, engaging personality, the sudden death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13 leaves a great sense of individual loss in many of us who were not personally acquainted A brilliant and clear thinker, Judge Scalia expressed himself but…
Letters: The President’s Pick
Boston Herald letter, February 22, 2016 Justice Antonin Scalia, the Originalist, would have been horrified by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s assertion that “the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice” (“Battle is on for Scalia’s replacement,” Feb. 17). The Constitution provides that a president, elected by electors, shall…
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