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.
After Martha Coakley called Scott Brown to concede the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s old seat in the Senate, a friend of mine confidently predicted that not only would […]
“The worst debacle in American political history.” That’s what a senior Democratic Party official called the Democrat Martha Coakley’s performance in the Massachusetts special election to fill deceased Sen. Ted […]
“Being first sucks.” That’s what Amanda Simpson, one of the country’s first two openly transgender presidential appointees, told ABC News. “I’d rather not be the first, but someone has to […]
Let’s get this straight up front: President Obama has had a remarkable first year in office. He came into office with two wars and a serious financial crisis to deal […]
You have probably been annoyed by how expensive and frustrating it can be to get health care. But you may also, like many people, assume that’s the way health care […]
During the presidential campaign in 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) reportedly said in private that he believed that the country was ready to elect a black man who, […]
As I wrote yesterday, with the unemployment rate at 10% and the economy still hemorrhaging jobs, the Democrats are in trouble. Now more than ever they need to field their […]
Unemployment is a peculiar feature of the division of labor. In a society where people are able to completely provide for themselves by hunting or growing their own food, barring […]
Yesterday I wrote that Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) retirement may actually improve the Democrats’ chance of retaining his seat in the fall. Indeed, as Greg Sargent reports, an early poll […]
With unemployment hovering around 10%, it looks likely the Democrats could lose a substantial number of seats in the 2010 midterms. In fact, the economic climate already seems to have […]
As the new year begins, I want to pass along the final part of my personal list of the most interesting essays on political issues from 2009. My selections are […]
As the year draws to a close, I want to finish by passing along my personal list of the most interesting essays on political issues from 2009. My selections are […]
As the year draws to a close, I want to finish by passing along my personal list of the most interesting essays on political issues from 2009. My selections are […]
In a speech in early December, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) repeated the charge that the Republicans have become “the party of No.” Rather than working to improve the […]
Bloggers, as most know, are exceptionally lazy people. Mostly, we sit around in our underwear playing flash games. Only occasionally do we get off the sofa to whip off some […]
Bloggers, as most know, are exceptionally lazy people. Mostly, we sit around in our underwear playing flash games. Only occasionally do we get off the sofa to whip off some […]
Bloggers, as most know, are exceptionally lazy people. Mostly, we sit around in our underwear playing flash games. Only occasionally do we get off the sofa to whip off some […]
Laws, they say, are like sausages. You don’t really want to see how either is made. The Senate’s vote last night for cloture—a procedural motion limiting the amount of time […]
There are essentially two ways to make money on Wall Street. The first—let’s call it the old-fashioned way—is to match people who have money with people who can use it […]
“The creation of crimes after the commission of the fact,” Alexander Hamilton wrote, “and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments […]
After the administration released estimates that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out failing financial institutions would cost $200 billion less than originally thought, President Obama suggested using […]
After President Obama’s recent speeches—one at West Point proposing sending more troops to Afghanistan and one accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo—commentators have been quick to articulate the “Obama […]
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently told Maria Bartiromo, “maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” That […]
What happened in New York’s 23rd district is just the beginning. A recent Rasmussen poll of likely voters found that if the so-called “conservative base”—the people behind the national “tea […]
Chris Cilizza at The Fix draws our attention today to an interview Sarah Palin did with conservative talk show host Lars Larson. When Larson asked whether she would consider running […]
After blogger Andrew Sullivan announced last week that he was “leaving the right,” I argued that there is no longer much room on the political right for conservatives in the […]
Last week, in his blog The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan announced that after years of identifying with the conservative movement he is finally “leaving the right.” His decision is of […]
On November 19, a large number of e-mails that had been stolen from a hacked server at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were leaked anonymously […]
Shortly after President Obama finished his speech outlining his plan to bring the war in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion, bloggers have rushed to remind us that Afghanistan is “the […]
As I wrote yesterday, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has a radical idea for how to make money off of news content online: he wants to charge for it. In […]