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What Is Constitutional Conservatism? (National Review Online)

This fall, liberals from the president on down have begun to grasp the scope
of the political and intellectual disaster that the past three years have been
for the Left. Their various responses to the calamity have tended to have one
thing in common: immense frustration. But the different expressions of that
frustration have been deeply revealing. They should help Americans better
understand this complicated moment in our politics, and, in particular, help
conservatives frame their responses.

Liberal frustration has fallen into two general categories that seem at first
to flatly contradict each other: denunciations of democracy and appeals to
populism. In September, Peter Orszag, President Obama's former budget
director, wrote an essay in _The New Republic_ arguing that "we need less
democracy." To address our country's daunting problems, Orszag suggested, we
need to take some power away from Congress and give it to "automatic policies
and depoliticized commissions" that will be shielded from public pressure.
"Radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political
institutions by making them a bit less democratic." Two weeks later, North
Carolina's Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, made a less sophisticated stab
at the same general point, proposing ...

National Review Online

Blacklight Tango Down: DnB Oos' First Impressions & Tips For New Players (BLTD Gameplay/Commentary)