Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  Reading through the morning-after coverage of the big primary night from two weeks ago (North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Oregon) I was looking for some guidance on where we are headed in this mid-term year, and I was struck by the elusiveness of social reality. Our own inner reality, our human nature, dictates that we look for a central theme in the outer reality, specifically in a range of elections across the country. We want a single frame for the night. Lots of important stuff was going on, it seemed all to have SOMETHING to tell us about where all the midterm election jockeying stands, but it refused to gel.  Reporters and pundits seemed to have wanted to write either "Trump still has a firm grip on the GOP" or maybe "Trump no lo nger has a firm grip on the GOP." Instead, they had to acknowledge that he didn't get his way in Idaho or a southwestern corner of North Carolina, but that he had gotten his way in a statewide party primary in NC and in anoth...

Tuesday night's excitement has passed. A brief restatement of the results (for those coming in late). I'll list four in broad brush terms, then I'll focus for a bit on the fourth. 1. The Republicans have retained control of the Senate. Generally speaking the seat turnarounds that the Dems thought in their giddiest moments they might get, they did not get. They did not, for example, topple Ted Cruz. That photo is of Cruz opponent, Beto O'Rourke (D), whose 15 minutes may now have passed. 2. The Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives. This likely means that Nancy Pelosi will be back as Speaker (though that is not a certainty). What is certain is that the new management of the House will change the dy namics considerably over the next two years, although any impact it might have upon such matters as judicial confir mations will have to be indirect.  There was a fair amount of moaning before the vote about how the national Dem Party had failed t...