We proudly consider ourselves children of the Enlightenment. But we are not so quick to recognize that other parent, the Inquisition. Any attempt to disown it, however, only makes it stronger and more dangerous.

I was struck by the way in which President Obama’s State of the Union speech was structured, with each issue laid out inthe same pattern: start with the conservative talking point, then move to the progressive positionas though the progressive-leaning positions were being given the rhetorical back seat. Only when the speech spoke of unity of worthwhile purposes did it capture what makes a nation great.

When then-President Richard Nixon sat down at the piano on the stage of the Grand Old Opry in 1974, he was reinforcing a conservative, polemical wall of sound to help contain several decades of transformational popular music, from blues and jazz to rock & roll. Music was the last thing on his mind.

As part of his notorious race-based “southern strategy,” Nixon led the efforts of conservative elites to co-opt American country-western music. He got the idea from George Wallace’s 1968 campaign, which Wallace had filled with country stars like Hank Snow and Hank Williams Jr.

James Dobson’s slam on Newt Gingrich at the recent behind-closed-doors meeting of evangelical Christian leaders grabbed a lot of attention in the press, but no one seems to remember that these two have a past. In 2007, Gingrich went on Dobson’s radio program to confess his history of marital infidelity, and received the blessing of numerous TheoCon leaders for doing so.

Now, though, Dobson appears to have led the charge against Gingrich in that meeting of religious conservatives. Is Dobson repenting for having given Gingrich a platform to try to rebuild in image back in 2007?

Branding is not everything in politics, it is important.

A building and loan association, like the Bailey Brothers’ in It’s a Wonderful Life, uses the savings of its members to provide mortgages to the depositors. Members essentially pool their money to give each other the opportunity to buy cars and homes. But Mr. Potter scoffs at such “charity.” The GOP does the same with Social Security, Medicare and other programs that pool the nation’s wealth to help the middle class.

With full awareness that next year could be worse (can you imagine!?) I want to wish every one of you a happy healthy New Year full of self-awareness and revolution. And here’s to less influence from right-wing bigots and the panderers thereto.

A senior North Pole official, operating under a grant of anonymity, provided a copy of a letter sent from the Congressional GOP leadership to Santa.

It starts like this: “We in the GOP Congressional leadership are concerned about the growing dependence in our nation on handouts, and the increasing expectation that you can get something for nothing. . . .”

I encourage readers to purchase two copies of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism – one for themselves and one as a Christmas present for their right wing uncle. That uncle might well stay with Skocpol and Williamson’s highly readable and well-crafted study to the end without throwing it down in anger – something I can’t say with much confidence about my book with DiMaggio.

It’s a presidential primary as docu-comedy. Some talking jumping beans mount the debate stages and the talk shows and tell us, one after the other, that he or she must be out next president if the Republic is to be saved. Begging the question, from what exactly?