Should any political parties ever be banned?
I have absolutely no problem with political parties that are explicitly against the established norms of liberal democratic politics being banned. By "established norms" I mean a minimal commitment to the democratic system and human rights and the acceptance that the ballot box is the only game in town. Note, this is not a sufficient condition for banning. It would also have to be the case that banning would not do more harm than good etc. We assess this on a case by case basis. The various far left groups in the UK that are explicitly revolutionary I would class as too small-fry to bother with. But anti-democratic, or grossly illiberal groups in Germany there likely is a strong case to ban given the nation's history. Here's a great quote from Harvard philosopher Burton Dreben (It's from his "On Rawls" in Samuel Freeman (ed) Cambridge Companion to Rawls)What do you say to an Adolf Hitler? The answer is [nothing.] You shoot himSeems right to me. Just substitute shooting for locking up. If you think that means I'm not a liberal, so be it. There are clearly risks of abuse and we should guard against them. But that means that we have a defined process/criteria and appeals process. Not that banning is ipso facto off the table.
Out of the two US presidential candidates which one do you think is worse, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
Strange as it may sound, the question evokes in me a conflict between my gut and my heart. My gut reaction is the country is going into a period of anarchy where the better angels of our nature are betrayed and lost from sight. In that country, I suppose someone like Donald Trump is the better president, although I’m at a loss to say why.I don’t see Trump holding the country together, unifying or building. He seems intent on doing the exact opposite. I do see his movement as a reaction to the excesses of political correctness but for all the rhetoric, that seems trivial.Hillary I see as the president if I feel the country will last another hundred years. That there will be a United States to lead the world further in the directions of the Founders and the Age of Reason. That may sound opposite or obtuse to some who’ve internalized the rhetoric of Originalists, but I feel and think it’s accurate.The conflict between these two impressions sorrows me overall.