Robert de Neufville
Contributor, Big Think
I lecture and write about politics and philosophy. I hold degrees in politics from Harvard and Berkeley, and have studied complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute. Other interests include theoretical physics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and the game of Go. You can find me on Twitter at @rdeneufville.
The election of Barack Obama was a watershed moment in American history. Just twenty years before it was hard to imagine that a majority of Americans would vote for a […]
Arizona is facing a backlash after Governor Jan Brewer signed a law making it a crime not to carry immigration papers and authorizing the police to detain anyone suspected of […]
Maybe the Tea Party isn’t the real threat to the Democrats after all. The greatest threat to the Democratic majorities in Congress just may be old people. Margaret Talev points […]
Matt Yglesias makes a good point. The Tea Party activists talk a lot about the government taking away their freedom, whether by taxing them, byforcing them to buy health insurance, […]
On Monday, Republicans voted to prevent financial reform legislation from moving to the Senate floor for debate. The Democrats’ motion to bring about cloture—which would end the Republicans filibuster of […]
Islam is not a monolithic religion or a single coherent ideology, any more than Christianity is. Yet many people—as I discovered in the comments on my last article—are willing to […]
When evangelist Franklin Graham—son of the better known Billy Graham—had his invitation to the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service rescinded after Muslim members of the military complained about comments […]
Sue Lowden thinks we should barter with doctors for our medical care. Lowden—currently the leading Republican candidate to challenge the very-much-in-trouble Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in the fall—says […]
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said the Supreme Court had “reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign […]
There’s no shame in making money. Making money is, after all, every company’s goal. And when our companies do well, that’s generally good for the country. Under normal circumstances Goldman […]
Where has the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) been? Many of the trades that led to the financial meltdown were legal, but many clearly were not. Even if you can’t […]
Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the Senate this week that we need to allow the biggest banks to fail. McConnell explained that he opposes the financial industry reform […]
Want to terminate your pregnancy? Under a new Nebraska law, you’ll have to prove you’re not crazy first. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed two new laws restricting abortions on Tuesday. […]
It has been a bad ten years for the economy. It may in fact have been the worst decade since the 1930s. As I’ve written, the current recession is in […]
In her short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula Le Guin imagines an almost utopian society whose existence depends on a dark secret. The inhabitants of this […]
For all the talk about how taxes are too high in the United States, American businesses are paying less now than they used to. In fact, many major corporations don’t […]
Like many kids in the 80s, I was convinced I would die in a nuclear war. Dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union had broken down after the […]
Comcast can decide which of its customers can do what on the Internet. A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the authority to […]
Greg Sargent yesterday highlighted a story that deserves more attention. Speaking at Fordham University, Michael Sulick, Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said that the prohibition on waterboarding hasn’t […]
But not fast enough. It’s huge news that the latest employment report (pdf) shows that the country has finally started to add jobs. It’s the first substantial increase in the […]
President Obama announced Wednesday that he will open up huge new coastal areas to offshore drilling. The plan would make new areas off the coasts of Virginia and Alaska and […]
Michael Lewis is probably best known these days for two great sports books, Moneyball and The Blindside. But he originally made his name with Liar’s Poker, a book based on […]
The health care bill was a huge, and even historic, victory for Democrats. In fact, the Democrats are on something of a roll. Not only did they manage to pass […]
As he entered the Capitol building to vote on the health care bill, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) was spit on. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a prominent civil rights leader, was […]
The passage of the health care reform bill has understandably gotten most of the attention this week. We’re going to hear a lot more about it through the fall elections. […]
Whatever you think of the bill itself, last night’s passage of health care reform is a major achievement for the Democrats. Both Republican and Democratic Congresses have tried to reform […]
Tea Party supporters don’t know what they’re talking about. That’s what Bruce Bartlett argues in his latest Forbes column. He and David Frum—both Bartlett and Frum worked in the Bush […]
The Senate just passed a bill drastically reducing the penalty for possessing crack cocaine. The bill would increase the amount of crack requiring a five-year mandatory minimum sentence from 5 […]
The numbers are in. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finally released its much-anticipated estimate of how much of the amended version of the health care bill would cost today. And […]
One of the major obstacles to passing the health care reform bill has been a group of anti-abortion representatives led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). Stupak’s group say they would […]