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" Many people - especially those people who earn livings by convincing editors and bookers that rich and influential strangers consider their thoughts and opinions interesting - have ideas about who should or should not run for president. "

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" The late Christopher Hitchens had the professional contrarian's fixation on attacking sacred cows, and rather soon after his cancer diagnosis, he became one himself. "

Alex Pareene

Sacred

Cancer

Cows

" I grew up in a politically aware household: very civically-minded, good Minnesota liberals. "

" John Boehner was and is an unprincipled ward-heeler who simply couldn't weather the transition of the Republican Party from a corporatist party with a sizable conservative base to a purely conservative party. "

" American politicians are responsive almost solely to the interests and desires of their rich constituents and interest groups that primarily represent big business. "

" Sen. Rand Paul is a Different Kind of Republican. He will drag the party, kicking and screaming, toward a new kind of conservatism that appeals more to today's youth, who embrace liberty and are skeptical of foreign intervention. "

" Obviously no one wants to give members of Congress a lot of money, because they barely do anything, and many of them are terrible, but a Congress that is made up of rich-but-not-super-rich people is going to be more corruptible than a Congress of really rich people. "

" In our system of government, an opposition party doesn't have the ability to pass legislation, but it has the ability to massively screw things up. "

Alex Pareene

Party

Government

" I don't want to be totally repetitive and doing the same thing over and over again for the rest of my life. I don't want to do that at all. "

" Political battles are won when the rich favor them. "

" Modern political speechwriting is not a high-minded pursuit for brilliant talents. "

" The State of the Union is less written than it is designed, structured and organized around applause prompts and camera cues. "

" The Right likes to think that intellectuals and academics like Allan Bloom and Dinesh D'Souza spurred the explosive growth of movement conservatism in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was actually mostly Rush Limbaugh. "

" In some future America, there could be a plausible Michael Bloomberg path to the Democratic nomination. I would love to read a column by a smart person actually attempting to persuade me of this, using evidence. "

" I think humor can be an effective way of getting the point across, but there are definitely times where I just write very earnestly. "

" The Pentagon budget, like all government spending, is an expression of priorities. "

Alex Pareene

Government

Priorities

" I guess if you want me to stop writing horrible, mean takedowns of everyone, give me a really, really cushy columnist gig. "

" It's easy for the thought-leader and executive classes to embrace a 'do what you love and love what you do' philosophy when they are wealthy enough to work hard only voluntarily, and when their jobs grant them status. "

" Vaccines don't cause autism. Vaccines, instead, prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction. "

" Most of us don't think forwarding a racist joke or speaking in an insulting 'comedic' accent is appropriate at the workplace. Unfortunately, for those raised in the toxic culture of conservatism, the sort of mentality that leads government employees to do those things is widespread. "

" Vaccine conspiracies, like so much modern cult conspiracy culture, perpetuates itself and lives on indefinitely thanks to the community-building and archiving of the Internet. "

" Please don't begin to believe that the American political establishment is anything but a corrupt puppet of oligarchy. "

" Many on the professional Right owe their livelihoods to a large and growing network of nonprofit donor-funded groups and for-profit consulting and direct marketing companies hired by those groups. "

" Is there something psychologically wrong with David Gregory? No, besides the usual superhuman vanity of a television professional. He is just not a great host of a news talk show! "

" Conservatives don't want to read good, smart books. They mostly want to read Fox and talk radio hosts writing about presidents. "