Faced with Trump's populist seizure of the Republican Party, establishment conservatives and libertarians are trying to redefine republicanism to exclude anything other than market capitalism.

I decided to name this "economic equality" instead of just economics because it is a more specific and accurate label for what I shall consider here.

This was first posted July 31, 2014 at Real Economics as The Higgs boson and the purpose of a republic.

To truly understand a republic, and its importance in the political development of humanity, you must appreciate the role of science. So let me ask this:

What do you think our government, our national policies, our national reputation and our political prospects would look like if 28 Senators and 162 Congressmen (or some similar number) were world leading scientists?

At some point in 2009 or 2010, as I watched the political and economic catastrophes of Barack Obama interposing himself between the banksters and "the pitchforks" unfold, I was reading a book on the history of American industrial technology. The Introduction included a discussion of the republican political thought of the Founders. Those two or three paragraphs launched me into researching American history, to answer two questions:

What is a republic?

Bloomburg has an article, posted today, How Steve Bannon Rescued Roy Moore’s Campaign Against All Odds.

So, there is another major essay trying to understand and explain Trump's victory. In case you haven't seen mention of it yet, I am referring to The Nationalist's Delusion, by The Atlantic's senior political editor, Adam Serwer. It is an excellent, though lengthy read, which reaches the usual conclusion: white Americans are bigoted.

I think it is important to tie together a number of threads joe shikspack included in his

One of the more notorious quotes expressing the neoliberal philosophy is British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in an interview with Women's Own magazine, October 31, 1987, declaring "there is no such thing as society."