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It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

- Jacob Weisberg
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Jacob Weisberg
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Abandoning traditions of responsibility and civility won the GOP control of both houses of Congress in 1994. Rejecting any compromise brought Republicans the perks and power of majority control for the first time in 40 years. Thus did the politics of total resistance become their path of least resistance.

Southern conservatives care about government's moral stance but don't mind when it spends freely on behalf of their constituents. Western conservatives, by contrast, are soft-libertarians who want government out of people's way on principle.

To describe the world Michael Jackson has created around himself as a childhood fantasy isn't quite accurate. Thanks to wealth and celebrity, he has been able to live as a superannuated child. With the help of plastic surgery and dramatic affectation, he has made himself look and sound pre-pubescent.

Middle-class Americans really don't want to hear about sacrifices or trade-offs - except as flattering descriptions about how ready we, as a people, are, or used to be, to accept them.

Only when legislators judge that the risk of continuing to support Trump outweighs the risk of abandoning him will they begin to jump ship.

In authoritarian societies, cultural institutions tend to become ideological proxies - think of the National Ballet in Cuba or the East German gymnastics team.

You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change.

I don't think Kanye West can support his view that George W. Bush just doesn't care about black people. But it's a demonstrable matter of fact that Bush doesn't care much about black votes. And that, in the end, may amount to the same thing.

To describe Peter Thiel as simply a libertarian wildly understates the case. His belief system is based on unapologetic selfishness and economic Darwinism.

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It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.