Objective Judgment in Politics

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW LOCATION (Le Pain Quotidien, 29th & 7th) Recommended viewing: Full 2026 New York Governor Debate \| Kathy Hochul & Bruce Blakeman One of the primary causes of emotionalism in political discussions today is the lack of an objective standard in judging politicians. Today we’ll discuss five possible standards for judging a politician, their relative validity, and their relationship to each other. • Tribe: which tribe does the politician belong to? The good one (the one you belong to), or the bad one (the one you don’t belong to)? • Likeability • Character: What is the ​moral character of the politician? Is he an essentially good man or an essentially evil man? By what standard? • Ideas: What is his level of philosophic and economic literacy? What philosophic and economic ideas does he hold, and are these ideas consistent with America’s founding political philosophy or not? • Policies / Legislation / Appointments: What is the ideological orientation of his administration? What concrete policies does the politician want to enact or has enacted in the past? What demonstrable effects have they had or are likely to have? Once we have discussed the criteria, we will use it to evaluate President Trump and the New York candidates running in the midterm elections, followed by a general discussion of the present and projected future states of the Republican and Democratic Parties.