This week I am in Tennessee visiting with family and celebrating my younger sister graduating from high school.  So rather than right a post of my own for today’s Friday Focus, I decided to link to two articles I saw today and found particularly interesting.

First, an opinion piece from the New York Times about new gun-control measures being passed in New Jersey.  I’m interested in this for two reasons.  First, I am excited to see another state nearby my home of Connecticut passing provisions that I think represent common-sense ways of combatting gun-violence in America.  Second, I’m interested in what’s happening in New Jersey because I think there is a not-insignificant chance that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may be our next President and I am curious about how he, a Republican, approaches this issue.

Second, speaking of Republicans, I just read this note from Alex Castellanos to the Harvard graduating class detailing a vision for the “New Republican” movement.  As with many things in politics I feel like this vision and the platform outlined on the New Republican movement’s website, are probably overly simplistic (one example: “open energy” policy likely means that already established, fossil-fuel based energy sources continue to dominate the market, which in the long-run is unsustainable economically and environmentally. Government intervention is likely the only way to shake-up the energy market enough to allow new, more sustainable forms of energy to become realistic, so while an “open” market sounds desirable, it’s not really realistic yet).  However, I am intrigued by what seem to be the underlying principles at work here: more nuanced and adaptable central governing and bringing government into line with the technological and social demands of the 21st century.  What I’m really interested in hearing is what other people think of this “new” brand of Republicanism?