US Elections Opinion: Taking Apart Rick Santorum and "Compassionate Conservatism"

Rick Santorum (Adam Hunger, Reuters)Whether Rick Santorum and his supporters acknowledge it or not, their ideology is authoritarian, just not as dictatorial as the Hobbesian model. A child tax credit is a perfectly defensible proposition --- and Santorum would triple it --- but at heart it is the taking of property from some people to give to other people in the name of morality and the common good.

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US Foreign Policy: Why Obama's Outreach to Muslim World is Still Valuable (Lynch)

President Obama's visit to Indonesia this week has received relatively little attention in the US. While --- somewhat ironically --- opponents such as Bret Stephens and Charles Krauthammer have hailed the Obama speech in India for promoting the free market and an alliance to "face the common threat of radical Islam and the more long-term challenge of a rising China", the President's address in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world came and went.

Marc Lynch, writing in Foreign Policy, tries to fill in the gaps and provide a wider context for the Obama speech....

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