The past few days have seen the emergence of what can be called the "Conservative Crack Up Thesis." In the latest New Republic, everyone's least favorite contrarian Andrew Sullivan offers "Crisis of Faith: How Fundamentalism is Splitting the GOP." Simultaneously, University of Oregon professor Garrett Epps delivered "Conservatives in Conflict." And yours truly has written […]

On Sunday, April 24th, Senate Majority Leader Bill First will join James Dobson, Tony Perkins and assorted members of the conservative American Taliban for "Justice Sunday." This made-for-TV event is part of the Right's ongoing war against Senate Democrats' use of the filibuster to block a handful of Bush judicial nominees. As Frist prepares to […]

With the Family Research Council's "Justice Sunday" coming on April 24th, FRC head Tony Perkins has earned a charter membership to the American Taliban. Perkins has led the Family Research Council since 2003, after previously founding the Louisiana Family Forum to fight the "increasing influence of the homosexual community on public policy issues" and authoring […]

As Malcolm Gladwell might put it, the Tom Delay saga may have reached a "tipping point." Across the House, the Senate and even the White House, Delay is under a withering assault from his erstwhile Republican allies. Many in the GOP, including the leadership, increasingly view Delay's judicial jihad and ethics imbroglio as threatening the […]

Once again, the conservative punditocracy and blogosphere is learning the painful lesson that the truth does not necessarily set you free. From Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere, the regiments of right-wing venom were all wrong about the much-hyped "GOP Schiavo talking points memo." Over the past 10 days, they […]

In recent days, criticism has unfairly rained down on House majority leader Tom Delay for supposedly comparing himself to Jesus. As Delay put it in his own defense, "people hate the messenger. That's why they killed Christ." On this Easter Sunday, it is worth noting that the similarities between Jesus and Tom Delay are striking: […]

As the Terri Schiavo tragedy continues, we've learned that most Americans believe that these complex, deeply private end-of-life decisions should be made by families, not the government. What we've also learned that is that one of the Americans who apparently feels that way is none other than Tom Delay. The Los Angeles Times reports that […]

The political clash over the tragedy of Terri Schiavo is highlighting once again the Achilles Heel of the conservative movement. Dormant for two presidential elections, the yawning chasm between economic and social conservatives is reemerging, and with it, a serious threat to the Republicans' majority status. As we've noted before, the ascendancy of the Right […]

Three critical points have been almost entirely absent from the media's discussion of the Terri Schiavo affair. I've written about two and others in the blogosphere have done a great job addressing the third: 1. Moral Arguments Favoring the End of Life Support A thorough discussion of the very strong moral arguments in favor of […]

Perrspectives is pleased to announced the expansion of its Resource Center. It offers Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes one-stop shopping for political news, polls, columnists, blogs, publications, think tanks, and other organizations. Perrspectives' Resources also include extensive online sources for budget, demographic, economic and electoral data. New additions include: Expanded library of demographic […]