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Aftershocks from The Bulwark's recent publication of a 12,000-word hit job on a right-wing think tank "What the Hell Happened to the Claremont Institute?" continue to rock the conservative intellectual world. The latest tremor has been felt at Powerline, where Reagan biographer Steven Hayward provocatively asks, "What the Hell Happened to Bill Kristol?" Kristol, you see, is a founder and leading force behind The Bulwark (where I participate in a weekly podcast). If he was willing to publish an extended polemic against a leading institution of the intellectual right, can Kristol even be considered a conservative anymore?

To which I would reply: What if Bill Kristol has been a liberal all along?

How could it be that the man who served as Dan Quayle's chief of staff, who founded and edited for two decades one of the leading conservative magazines in the country, who was a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and who was the public face for neoconservative ideology from the mid-1990s on how could this man have always been a liberal? Answering the questionrequires a brief detour into history.

Bill Kristol's father, Irving Kristol, became one of the original neocons during the 1970s. Until that point, he and his ideological compatriots had considered and called themselves Cold War liberals. But by the time of George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972, they'd become convinced that the Democrats were heading left on foreign policy, crime, and cultural questions. That led them to begin allying with Republicans. By the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the partisan shift was complete.

This new alliance with conservatives persisted even after the Democrats had tracked back to the center during the mid-1990s. Why? Inertia, mostly. The neocons had grown used to working with and reaching compromises with conservatives in order to advance the things that mattered most to them. And for Irving's son Bill, what mattered most was developing a "neo-Reaganite foreign policy" for the post-Cold War world. This would be a foreign policy in which the U.S. used its unmatched military might and geopolitical preeminence to challenge tyrants and spread liberal democracy around the globe.

During the administration of George W. Bush, that sounded conservative. But since Donald Trump's hostile takeover of the Republican Party? Not so much. With the GOP expressing open hostility to democracy promotion abroad (and even at home), Kristol has now undertaken his father's rightward migration in reverse.

But does that signal a fundamental change? Or merely a pragmatic response to altered circumstances? I'd say the latter. Bill Kristol has always been a hawkish, idealistic liberal. What's changed is which party is best suited to serve as that disposition's natural home.

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Were the neocons liberals all along? - The Week Magazine

DALLAS, TX If being "woke" is such a good thing, why do people hate it so much?

As loosely defined, woke refers to a state of conscious awareness about injustice, particularly of the racial variety.

Revolving around that, though, is a constellation of ideas about how to conduct oneself in public discourse and signifiers to let those nearby know that you've reached a state of enlightenment.

For example, say the woke, the term "slaves" is considered antiquated when referring to those people deprived of their freedom before Juneteenth. "Enslaved people" is now the operative term.

When someone pointed out that former First Lady Michelle Obama has recently used the term "slaves," woke people will tell you that such things are permissible if you're the part of the minority who such a word might "trigger."

People who don't conform to heterosexual norms may therefore describe themselves as "queer." But calling someone queer, or "a queer" is absolutely triggering.

The only way for a person to know even if they're trying to stay abreast of current jargon is to apologize immediately if you've triggered someone, and hope that you can always remember that non-binary people prefer the pronouns "them" and "they," even though historically those words were only used in the plural.

And that's as it should be. Everyone deserves the right to be referred to in terms that they believe afford them basic dignity. But everyday language hasn't seen such upheaval since African-Americans let it be known at the end of the '60s that they'd rather be known as Black than those terms in use before the civil rights movement got underway.

In Texas today, Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to punish social media for censoring completely unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories online while at the same time making sure no traces of Critical Race Theory (which, although never actually taught, only highlights verifiable historical events) creep into the school curriculum. Both are targets in his current special session agenda.

And here's the real problem: Policing people's speech does not change their beliefs, and we've been through this before when the Berkeley Free Speech Movement sprang up in the wake of the communist witch hunts of the 1950s.

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In that moment, liberals decided that silencing opposing viewpoints was antithetical to rigorous debate, and after multiple protests and arrests pressing for free speech, the faculty at Berkeley voted overwhelmingly to support their students.

The working theory was that it was anyone's right as an American to say whatever they wanted, and someone else could challenge those opinions while receiving the same amount of respect and time to do so.

Now, with QAnon and hives of conspiracy theorists breeding in online isolation, there's freedom to claim that Democrats are pedophiles and a secret cabal of liberals are conspiring to take over the country. But, because membership in these online groups is tightly controlled, there's no public square to challenge such absurdities before they take hold, and these sites become hothouses that allow malignant extremism to flourish unchecked by facts.

Woke liberals have come to believe that if you shame people for using the wrong terminology, that will somehow change a bigot's thought patterns. They don't. They simply drive people underground into the company of those who welcome such nonsense, and their hothouse gets just that much hotter.

During the Free Speech era, you could be a rabid segregationist like Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a militant Muslim minister like Malcolm X, a radical Yippie like Abbie Hoffman or an American Nazi like George Lincoln Rockwell, and you got a chance to run your mouth in public without being muzzled or told you'd "triggered" someone.

Ideas could stood or fell on their own merits. Now, thanks to the internet, we only talk to people we already agree with, or people who hide what they think in fear of being called out for their biases. And as the saying goes, "If two people are in a room, and they share the same ideas, one of them is unnecessary."

The great blues guitarist Buddy Guy put it very well when he talked about having moved from Mississippi to Chicago in search of fame and fortune at the dawn of the civil rights era. In describing how urban racism differed from the rural variety he grew up with, Guy said, "I look at it like rattlesnakes."

He explained, "there's poisonous snakes everywhere, but a rattlesnake will make a noise to let you know to get the hell out of the way. Other poisonous snakes show up in other places where you don't expect to find them, and they don't warn you. They show you."

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Liberals Began The 60s Pushing Free Speech. Now Theyre Woke - Patch.com

In an election-style campaign stop in B.C., Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Ottawa is going to triple the number of parents and grandparents Canadians can sponsor to Canada in 2021 to 30,000.

Flanked by two Liberal colleagues in Surrey, where South Asians make up almost 60 per cent of the population, the Ontario MP made an in-person appearance at a community centre to praise the importance of family reunification, a big issue for newcomer communities.

Mendicino was quick to remind the audience how the Liberals have raised the annual quota of the parents and grandparents program which allows Canadians and permanent residents to sponsor their parents to the country since it took over from the Conservative government in 2015, when the intake was capped at 5,000 a year.

We are going to welcome under it to a record level of 30,000. Lets not gloss over that fact, in 2015, when we took reigns over from the last Conservative government, they were at just 5,000. We are now at six times that rate under this program, he said.

And worse, they put a two-year pause on the parent and grandparent program when there wasnt even a pandemic.

So my message to the community is: continue to see the parent and grandparent program as an opportunity to reunite with your loved ones, to reunite with your families. This is a government that believes in you, believes in family reunification, and we will deliver on these commitments.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government scaled back its 2020 intake under the program to 10,000, half the level in the previous year. Now, with speculation that an election call is coming, the Liberals are promising to reverse that.

Every immigrant that I go to, this is what Im hearing, Parents and grandparents play a major role in the success of new immigrants, said Sukh Dhaliwal, MP for SurreyNewton, citing other immigrant-friendly policies his party has rolled out since coming into power.

Through a random draw, the immigration department will select 30,000 applicants from a pool of potential sponsors who have already submitted an expression of interest to sponsor their parents and grandparents from abroad to be permanent residents in Canada.

Selected individuals will be invited to submit the full applications over two weeks, starting the week of Sept. 20, through a new digital platform created to speed up and simplify the process.

Citing the financial challenges faced by Canadians during the pandemic, Mendicino said sponsors income requirement for the 2020 tax year will be reduced. For instance, to bring in two people, a sponsor only needed to make $32,270 last year, down from $41,007 in 2019.

Incomes from regular employment insurance benefits and temporary COVID-19 benefits such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit will be counted toward their 2020 income.

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Liberals promise to boost number of parents and grandparents sponsored to Canada - StCatharinesStandard.ca

Todays announcement that light rail construction works would cause four years of traffic congestion and unusable roads has dismayed some commentators.

Canberrans have been misled, said Liberal MLA Mark Parton, Shadow Minister for Transport. Labor and the Greens have been selling this project to us for a decade. But today was the first day that we were told that were going to be in a traffic gridlock four or five years day and night.

Theyve been working on this for at least 10 years, and today is the day they tell Canberrans theyre going to have to rejig their lives for four years.

He was concerned the government had not said when the work on the light rail started or when it finished.

Thats for one of two reasons. Either the government doesnt know, or they do know and theyve decided that particular aspect of this story is unpalatable to tell us at this stage.

Graham Catt, president of the Canberra Business Chamber, was concerned about the construction works effect on Civic.

The works will undoubtedly have a major impact on trade, customers, and employees, he predicted.

Commercial property owners values and returns would decrease. Those who recently signed a lease may find themselves struggling to pay the rent.

Some small businesses may have no choice but to relocate, either temporarily or permanently, in order to keep trading. For some, this may not be an option, and a long period of disruption like this may well lead to closure, Mr Catt said.

Mr Parton feared that businesses would close in the city because of the disruption, and criticised the ACT Government for not supporting them.

Businesses in the city whove gone through COVID and faced an enormous stress will face enormous stress from this, he said. [Transport minister Chris Steel] was asked on ABC Radio [this morning] about compensation. And he very clearly said: there will be no compensation. He basically said that they would help businesses by telling them what was going on.

Now, Im not sure thats going to help them. Its like the death row prisoner going to face the firing squad, and theyre saying: Look, dont worry, were going to tell you how many shooters there are, and what calibre the bullets are. So what have you got to complain about?

Several Gungahlin businesses closed while Stage 1 of light rail was built, the ABC reported in 2019.

Mr Steel suggested that to avoid traffic, Canberrans should rethink their routine, commuting earlier or later, or taking different routes into Civic and the Parliamentary Triangle.

Mr Parton scorned Mr Steels suggestion Canberrans could travel to work earlier.

The reality is that thousands of Canberrans dont have the capacity to do that. They cant do it.

Or that peak hour traffic could use Parkes Way rather than Commonwealth Avenue.

Have you seen Parkes Way at 8.15 in the morning? There is no way that you can channel thousands more cars there.

Or that Canberrans should avoid Civic.

Well, if you work in the city, thats where youre going.

Mr Catt said that some larger organisations would be able to stagger working hours and use other strategies to adapt. Hybrid models combining working from the office with working remotely are far more common now than they were a year ago, and this will assist in managing the impact.

But this was far more difficult for small businesses to achieve.

For those who provide goods and services in the affected areas, changes to working hours by large organisations will have direct impact on customer numbers and also on costs. Keeping a caf open later to look after office workers who now work later can mean additional operating costs such as penalty rates.

The ACT Government said it would keep business leaders informed so they could make decisions ahead of time.

Planning is critical for businesses, and effective planning requires information, Mr Catt agreed. Good communication, and an open dialogue with all types and sizes of impacted businesses is going to be absolutely vital over the months and years ahead.

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Liberals and Business Chamber concerns over light rail works - Canberra Weekly

A sitting Penrith Councillor has quit the Liberal Party ahead of the September elections, declaring there is no place for party politics in local government.

Councillor Brian Cartwright, who was elected during the 2018 by-election, recently left the party blaming factional politics for his exit.

I dont believe there should be any party politics in local government, I dont think thats necessarily good for the community, he said.

But theres absolutely no place for factional politics at any time, and thats what were finding at the moment backroom deals, potential branch stacking, its not good for anybody and I just dont want to be a part of that.

While he was not naive to the world of politics, Cr Cartwright claimed factions within the party over the last few months, which saw him blindsided and dumped from Councillor Mark Davies ticket, had taken their toll.

Weve got Council, State, Federal elections all coming up in the next 12 to 18 months or so, so theyre playing the long game, theyre trying to position their pieces on the board so they can get control of the branches and the conferences so then they can determine who gets pre-selection, he said.

So if they can control pre-selection, then they can control who the candidates are going to be for all the upcoming elections.

They dont care if there are sitting Councillors or sitting State or Federal members, these people theyll burn the village just to achieve their own objectives regardless of the damage they cause along the way.

Cr Cartwright, who has also opted not to contest the September 4 election as an independent, suggested reforms were needed across the board.

However, when the Weekender approached the Office of Local Government for comment, it dodged the question, saying it was a matter entirely for the Liberal Party.

When asked if he denied any sort of drama behind the scenes, Cr Davies said: Theres always the rough and tumble of politics.

Thats just the nature of it, but when someone doesnt end up getting a guernsey on your ticket and they expected to, obviously hes not happy, I understand that, but thats politics, its not my decision on everything, he said.

Ive been on Council for 17 years so far, and I think Brians been on for two years, so I think Ive got a longer track record of getting along with my colleagues than what he does.

Cr Davies revealed he had withdrawn his nomination to challenge fellow Liberal Melissa McIntosh for the seat of Lindsay, and said his political aspirations were to get elected in September.

Labor veteran Councillor Greg Davies, who flagged earlier this year that he would not contest the elections on a Labor Party ticket, said that decision had nothing to do with his political allegiance but rather uncertainly about whether he would run at all.

Theres no dramas in the [Labor] Party, he said.

I hadnt made my mind up by pre-selections.

He disagreed with the notion of removing party politics from local government, suggesting it would create difficulties in decision making.

It is unclear who the Liberal Party will endorse to replace Cr Cartwrights position, with Cr Davies saying it was yet to be confirmed.

Cr Cartwright said he did not go public to lecture the Liberal Party on how to do its job, but said it was important the public was aware of the issues.

Its just to raise awareness within the community about whats happening in the upcoming elections, he said.

The Weekender understands the Liberal Party will finalise its candidates for the election in the coming weeks.

Alena Higgins is the Weekenders Senior News Reporter, primarily covering courts and Council issues.

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Councillor quits Liberals, says party politics rife ahead of Local Government Election in September The Western Weekender - The Western Weekender