A group of self-appointed ideological policemen have petitioned @PostOpinions to quit identifying opinion writer @JRubinBlogger as a conservative. This is a teachable moment, so let’s dig in to this to make some larger and more important points. <THREAD> dailywire.com/news/36687/con… 1/ Consider the list of indictments they’ve offered. How in the hell does a commitment to limited government, free enterprise, and a robust national defense (the core commitments of modern conservatism) inform how she or anyone else should think about ...

There are many ostensibly politically sophisticated climate activists who think the way to move the GOP into a better place on climate policy is to never discuss climate change or climate science. This is maddening self delusion. <THREAD> axios.com/newsletters/ax… #axiosgenerate 1/ The battle over climate science is the battle that wins (or loses) the war. Denialisms know this in their bones. Why don't climate realists? And increasing Republican awareness of the scientific consensus DOES move them. Now, the lit review. climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/upl…

To those on the right worked into a lather about how it's not "conservative" to address climate related damages and risks to future generations via taxing or regulating GhG emissions, Sen. Barry Goldwater ("Mr. Conservative") has this to say in "The Consciernce of a Majority." And if any of the self-appointed guardians of the conservative gospel doubt that these sentiments were a deep part of Goldwater's thinking (even if not always perfectly upheld in the political arena), they would be well-advised to read this first. jstor.org/stable/2576448…

The political landscape within the Democratic and Republican parties is not what you think it is, at least according to Prof. Larry Bartels of "Democracy for Realists" fame. In a new paper, he blows away a lot of conventional wisdom. <LONG THREAD> 1/ Bartels' paper examines a November 2017 YouGov survey of 2,000 people, all of whom were originally interviewed in 2015 and 2016 as part of YouGov's 2016 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project. vanderbilt.edu/csdi/includes/…

This is increasingly the conventional narrative. It is wrong on several critical points. So let’s discuss. <THREAD> axios.com/newsletters/ax… 1/ Party orthodoxy has hardly changed at all under Trump. For instance, anti-immigration sentiment dominated pro-immigration sentiment in the pages of conservative publications and over the air-waves of right-wing TV and radio for more than a decade now.

The libertarian-to-Nazi feeder system for the alt-right is becoming an all-too-common tale. Libertarians should think very hard about why that is <THREAD> nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/… 1/ Niskanen’s @hamandcheese is a good place to start. niskanencenter.org/blog/explainin…