Links: Stagflation, judicial review, living out American ideals

Links: Stagflation, judicial review, living out American ideals 

Some people with mental illness or differing abilities need more expensive care. Until Medicaid is entirely federalized, state governments will resist expanding services to more expensive residential settings.

Congress rarely rules federal laws unconstitutional, especially under Chief Roberts. Conservatives generally object to rulings that set aside state laws. Shifting these cases to congressional action would essentially end the ability to do this, essentially bringing back Plessy v. Ferguson. Not a chance.

Stagflation happens when a recession is mixed with inflation. If money is poured into the consumer sector to make the economy go faster, the danger is hyper-stagflation. This is why there is a move to end COVID subsidies, which keep the economy deliberately idle. Prices are already increasing, so giving people loans (such as easy term mortgage loans) or more payments looks like an easy solution. It is not, although retirees and the disabled, as well as TANF and Food Stamp recipients, need more money to get by. If people go back to work, quantity supplied will increase and prices will go down.

Critical race theory gets beyond the assumption that everything is fine now that legal segregation has ended. Racism is both baked into the system and into human DNA. Neuroscience shows that our automatic reactions to those that are different are fear and hate. It takes deliberate mental effort to bypass our automatic reactions and doing so takes training in critical race theory.

The founding guaranteed capitalists the right to have their legislators close at hand. It was a triumph of the authoritarian system which allows one person to control the labor of another, even if cloaked in the "free market." If money buys obedience, the transaction is not entirely free. Opposition to critical race theory is an attempt to keep workers from uniting and keeping people of color to adopt a more radical economic program. 

Don't get me started on how the Catholic Church has failed on this front as well, although Francis shows promise. Most popes hated the Enlightenment, even after its embrace at St. John's Council. They also hate Marx, although the feeling is mutual. This also keeps real reform at bay. Critical theory holds that all things are to be held up for reexamination. The Church should welcome that, rather than stand on tradition, and use any such analysis as an examination of conscience.