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The American left has a nasty habit of pretending that conservatism is somehow inherently anti-woman, anti-immigrant and anti-youth. And when a candidate like the latest potential GOP entrant into the New York mayoral race comes along, they lose all credibility.

Super liberal New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a middle aged white guy. has endeared himself to the social justice crowd with an anti-corporatism facade and attempts to restructure the citys government to make the Big Apple a friendlier place to people committing quality of life offenses, such as living in the country illegally or taking a dump on the sidewalk.

While not encouraging New York cops to take so-called broken window policing to insane extremes certainly isnt a bad thing, de Blasios New York certainly has its critics.

And rightly so.

No, correlation isnt causation but it certainly seems as though the mayors efforts to make NYC a better example of liberal utopia are having an opposite effect. Some even say the mayors policies are bringing the city slowly back to its bad old days of high crime and dirty boulevards.

Among the critics of de Blasios new NYC is the Trump administration, which undoubtedly would love to see the nations most recognizable city, and the presidents hometown, return to Republican control.

Of course in a city controlled by the liberal elites that worked overtime on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, taking power from a liberal like de Blasio isnt going to be an easy task.

But the GOP may have a secret weapon in the upcoming election.

As reported by New Yorks Spectrum News:

After beating an Democratic incumbent in an upset in 2010, Republican Nicole Malliotakis has been serving Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn in Albany ever since. Now, she is looking to take on Mayor Bill de Blasio, if she can first win the Republican primary.

I grew up with a strong sense of patriotism, she said. My parents always voted and were always very excited about being citizens and being able to contribute to the process. Especially my mother, who fled a dictatorship where they dont have the ability to elect their leaders.

Showing us around her Albany office, Malliotakis pointed to her sketches of Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, displayed photographs with her old boss, former Governor George Pataki, and let us know what a big fan she is of the singer Cher, whose book was neatly displayed between those about Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln.

Theres no doubt that Im unique, Malliotakis said. Im a woman. Im half-Hispanic. I am Greek. We havent had that combination in elected office in this city or state, for that matter, ever before.

One thing Malliotakis says she will be doing less of in Albany now that she is running for mayor is late-night karaoke.

I sing La Bamba. Thats my song. And once in a while, Ill participate in duet with Joe Lentol of Sonny and Cher. I Got You Babe,' she said.

While Democratic colleagues stopped far short of endorsing her candidacy, many encouraged her to take on the mayor.

If she does win the GOP primary, expect the Democrats knives to come out and expect yet another example of how the party only believes in diversity when they have the diverse candidate.

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Liberals hate her - Personal Liberty - Personal Liberty Digest - Personal Liberty Digest

A month after Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott for the prime ministership, there was another coupin the Liberal Party.

The scene was Paddington, the affluent suburb in Sydney's eastern suburbs inTurnbull's electorate of Wentworth.

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Ahead of the release of a report into the 2016 election, where the Liberal Party scraped home, the party's director Tony Nutt has resigned.

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Elderly residents of Waterloo's social housing estate are determined to live their last days in the communities they have grown old in.

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Police report that a missing boy, taken from a Brisbane hospital, has been found in Newcastle.

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The 17-year-old has been charged with 74 offences over a series of school bomb threats across three states. Courtesy Seven News Melbourne.

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Police provide details of a missing boy taken from a Brisbane hospital.

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Long-time friend Mark Soper reads out a eulogy Andrew Chan wrote about himself before his execution in Indonesia.

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The Federal Police admit to illegally accessing a journalist's metadata while investigating allegations of an internal leak.

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The government now says it can't guarantee gas prices, a day after the Prime Minister said they should be halved.

Ahead of the release of a report into the 2016 election, where the Liberal Party scraped home, the party's director Tony Nutt has resigned.

Turnbull's son-in-law James Brown, an armyveteran turned academic, seized control of the Liberals' Paddington branch from long-time president and Woollahra councillorPeter Cavanagh.

Working with Brown behind the scenes was his close friend Andrew Bragg, a fellow branch member.

"I know he was backing James," Cavanagh said."Ibelieve he helped him to getpeople to turn up and vote."

Last Friday, the Liberal Party announced Bragg as the party's acting federal director following the resignation of stalwart Tony Nutt.

Unless something goes wrong duringhis probation, Bragg is expected to receive a permanent appointment inthe middle of the year.

That would put the little-known 32-year-old who has never run a state or federal election campaign in charge of theLiberals' organisational wing at one of the most challenging times in its history.

A damningofficial review of the last federal election campaign found the Liberals were comprehensively outgunned by Labor. The party's finances were so dire that Turnbull had to tip in almost $2 million of his own money to keep the campaign afloat. And the Liberals aretrailing in the polls, withBill Shorten increasingly confidentof winningthe next election.

The Liberal Party needs a hero andis set to turn to Bragg.

"People were a bit shocked," an insider close to Bragg said of his appointment.

"Everyone agrees we ran a terrible campaign in 2016 so it seems bizarre to put in someone without any nuts and bolts campaign experience.

"Not everyone thinks it was a wise decision."

Bragg's resume looks thin compared to his predecessors. When Brian Loughnane took the job he had beenchief-of-staff to two Liberal leaders and run the Victorian division of the party.Lynton Crosby had run the Queensland division. Andrew Robb had led the powerful National Farmers Federation and served as deputy federal director.

Bragg, by contrast, worked in senior policy roles at the Financial Services Council for seven years before joining the Liberal-aligned Menzies Research Centre as policy director.

"He's been considered more as a think-tank guy than a campaign director," a Liberal MP said. "But there was an absence of other candidates."

Federal directors are only chosen withthe blessing of the prime minister and that'strue of Bragg.

"The PM trusts Andrew and respects him," a Liberal source said. "He has complete loyalty to the PM and loyalty is important to Malcolm."

For several years Bragg, who declined to comment for this piece,was secretary of the Wentworth Federal Electoral Conference, thefundraising and campaigning vehicle in Turnbull's seat.

As well as being good friends with Brown, he was best man at the wedding of long-time Turnbull staffer David Bold.

While one confidante questions whether Bragg is"too close" to the PM, others point to his allies across the party.

Robb, who conducted the recent election review, is said to back his appointment as well as frontbenchers Josh Frydenberg and Alan Tudge.

Menzies Research Council executive director Nick Cater said: "A lot of people talkthe talk but he actually gets things done.

"He may not have the experience of a party insider but he certainly has the right skill set."

Cater has been impressed by Bragg's organisational skills, framing of policy issues and knowledge of digital media.

Businessman Tony Shepherd, who has worked closely with Bragg, said: "He's dynamic, has tonnes of energy and is strong on policy.

"He's a can-do person who brings a younger perspective to the job."

Bragg grew up in Shepparton in regional Victoria, where he attended the local Catholic school. While other students took gap years to travel overseas, he worked on the floors ofthe local fruit packing and dairy factories to save money to study accounting at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Many close to him express surprise he would take the backroomjob given his obvious ambitions to become a politician. Bragg unsuccessfully ranfor a Senate spot last year before narrowly missing out on preselection for theVictorian seat of Murray.

Victorian senator James Paterson, who entered the Senate at28, said Bragg is a "great liberal intellectual" who will one day enter Parliament.

"It's terrific to see the party place its trust and faith in a young person with ideas, energy and creativity," he said.

Another Liberal source, without excess optimism, said: "If we win the next election he can have a Senate seat in any state he wants."

More here:
Andrew Bragg: Can an inexperienced 32-year-old save the Liberal Party? - The Sydney Morning Herald

Immigration Minister AhmedHussensaid the federal government is clamping down on marriage fraud even as it scraps atwo-year co-habitation requirement for newcomers sponsored by their spouses.

Hussen said the conditional permanent residency, which was brought in by the Conservatives in 2012, wasleaving some women in harmful domestic situations.

"We're doing away with a measure that could potentially result in people choosing reluctantly to remain in abusive relationships as opposed to moving out and getting out of those abusive relationships," he said at a news conference in Toronto Friday.

The Conservative measure requirednewcomers to live in a conjugal relationship with their sponsoring spouse for two years or face deportation.

When the Conservatives enacted it, then immigration minister Jason Kenney said the change targeted con artistswho dupe Canadians into marriage then dump them once they get to Canada. Itwas also designed to deal with "marriages of convenience," where two persons pretend to be in love for one to gain entry to Canada, often in exchange formoney.

ButHussensaid the policy did not achieve itsintended outcomes, and that reversing course reflects the government's commitment to eradicating gender-based violence.

Rescinding the conditional permanent residency is also a recognition that the vast majority of marriages are genuine.

But Hussen said the government is "doubly committed" to detecting fraudulent marriages.

Frontline immigration officers will carry out stringent screening procedures, Hussen said. And a five-year waiting period will remain for people who have either sponsored a spouse or been sponsored themselves and who want to use the program again.

Continue reading here:
Liberals 'doubly committed' to tackling marriage fraud while ending 2-year spousal residency rule - CBC.ca

Can there be a classical liberal political science?

To answer that question, it is instructive to examine how classical liberal ideas have developed and what disciplines have shaped the classical liberal tradition most.

And to begin, we must acknowledge that contemporary scholarly classical liberalism has developed in an imbalanced way.

By far the greatest intellectual investment has been in economics.

There are good reasons for this, of course: the understanding of market processes and market ordering that liberal economists have given us is central to an appreciation of the counterintuitive idea that unplanned and decentralized voluntary action can yield beneficial social results.

The insight that the market economy is a spontaneous order has been a crucial one for the development of modern classical liberalism as a whole. And economists, those who study market processes and orders, have a disproportionate tendency to be sympathetic to open and liberal markets. Most of the founders of the Mont Pelerin Societythe organization that shaped the intellectual agenda of postwar classical liberalismwere economists (of one methodological stripe or another).

Somewhere behind economics, in an order I wouldnt know how to rank, come law and philosophy.

Classical liberal legal scholarship has encompassed both US constitutional law, recovering a sense of the commitment to liberty found in the US Constitutions protection of rights as well as its structure of federalism and separated powers; and private law, especially in the law-and-economics tradition.

Classical liberal philosophy has taught us a great deal about the meaning and intellectual structure of rights, liberty, and justice, and about the vision of human well-being and flourishing that animates a concern with freedom. And, in a broad way, these streams of research and scholarship in economics, law, and philosophy have complemented and enriched each other, contributing to the emergence of a distinctive kind of classical liberal social theorythe humane studies highlighted in the name of the organization that hosts this website.

In contrast, political science, including the kind of political theory that is done within political science, has been relatively neglected in this ongoing scholarly program. (So has sociology; another topic for another time.)

This is not, as some readers will be tempted to think, because political scientists are sympathetic to the state as economists are sympathetic to the market. Political scientists are in routinely in the business of studying things we dont find attractive: wars, coups, revolutions, genocides, civil wars, authoritarianism, populism, voter ignorance, and institutional dysfunction of all kinds.

Yet the study of those topics through the lens of political science ought to be a key part of a classical liberal social theory.

We dont have to agree with those who think that markets and civil society are constituted by the state to see that they may be either facilitated or jeopardized by political outcomes. War, civil war, institutional collapse, the rise of authoritarian or totalitarian governmentsunderstanding where these come from and how to inhibit them is a cornerstone of a fully developed account of social orders compatible with human liberty.

And we dont have to conceptually identify democracy or majoritarianism with liberty in order to think that, as a matter of fact, constitutional democratic governments are a crucial feature of free societies. It follows that we ought to care about how they work, and where they come from.

But the current classical liberal interpretation of political science is lacking.

All too often, classical liberal social theorists (who, in other domains, are well aware that social outcomes can be the product of human action without being the product of human design) treat political outcomes as being a matter of other peoples bad will and bad decisions. But political orders are complex emergent phenomena, as much as other orders in human society. Building a stable government that protects and facilitates individual liberty, involves more than a group of people with the correct beliefs about rights theory agreeing to do good things rather than bad things.

In other words, too many classical liberals who understand complexity in other social arenas become decisionists when they think about politics: all we need from governing institutions, they assert, is for people to make good decisions rather than bad ones.

They fall into this fallacy partly because they identify good government from a classical liberal perspective with mere inaction: all our rulers need to do is to stay their hand. Whatever the truth (and its a partial truth, as Hayek knew) of laissez faire as a description of good policy, it is no truth as an answer to the underlying organization of violence, coercion, and rule. A political order that can engage in and commit to the right kind of inaction, in the right ways and at the right times, is a rare accomplishment, and we still know too little about how to get it and how to keep it.

Over the course of these posts in coming weeks and months, I will identify some obstacles that have prevented the development of a classical liberal political science and political theory that can fit within the broad development of the humane studies. (Spoiler alert: Lockean social contract theory and public choice theory, while theyve both taught us valuable things, have become in important ways intellectual obstacles to overcome.) And Ill try to draw on what political scientists and theorists have learned, offering some thoughts about what needs to be incorporated within the developing liberal social theory of the humane studies.

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What Classical Liberals Get Wrong About Political Science - Learn Liberty (blog)

Amazing how a lawsuit can rattle the rust off an outdated institution.

A couple of weeks after Bellwether spotlighted the University of California at Berkeleys cancellation of a speech by conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, a student group has sued the university for inhibiting free speech on campus.

Good for the students!

Bellwether had argued that shutting down Coulter because of supposed security concerns amounted to viewpoint discrimination, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled is illegal. Thats the argument that the Berkeley College Republican club made in its lawsuit, filed in federal court this week.

And, after trying to ignore the issue for a few weeks, Berkeley has now been prodded into responding. The school says that Coulter is welcome on campus, but only during the first week of May, which, not so coincidentally, is a study week in preparation for final exams. Thats like inviting someone to your house, then locking all the doors and turning out the lights.

Significantly, the lawsuit also names Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of Californias extended college system. Remember her? She was President Obamas first secretary of Homeland Security and a previous governor of Arizona. Though she is now fighting cancer (and we wish her all the best in that challenge), Napolitano is ultimately responsible for defending free speech on the campuses she administers. Naming her personally sends a signal that real people, not just institutions, must be held to account when freedom is threatened.

Berkeleys lame defense exposes just how out of touch the school is. This isnt the 1960s, folks. And being conservative is not a crime, or a personality disorder. Its just a point of view that Berkeley, and other universities, try to keep in a dark closet, like dusty lawn furniture that never gets used.

Hey, Berkeley: What kind of world are you preparing your students to enter? In case you hadnt noticed, Donald Trump is president, Republicans control both houses of Congress, and Neal Gorsuch just donned the robes of a Supreme Court justice.

This isnt the first time Berkeley has tried to shut down free speech. Back in February, it refused to let conservative bomb thrower Milo Yiannopoulous deliver remarks on campus. The reason then was the same as with Coulter: people who dont agree with him threatened to disrupt the event. Some protesters carried signs that read, This is war. Really? Whats going on in Syria is war. In Berkeley, its more like whining.

John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including "Pope John Paul II : Biography."

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Slow learners: UC Berkeley liberals get schooled on the law - Fox News