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Tea Party zealots hold the public debate hostage
This year’s contrived budget crisis is headed to its climax, as the date for defaulting on the nation’s debt approaches. Washington’s budget debates are dizzying and incomprehensible. But at stake is...
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The power in a president’s mandate
The controversy over responsibility for the government shutdown has brought about one surprising consequence: a debate over the meaning of the term “presidential mandate.” Republicans are asserting...
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Post-shutdown: Time for recriminations
Recriminations! It’s a familiar ritual in Washington every time a party loses a battle or a candidate loses an election. Only this time, it could lead to something more serious: A split in the...
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Post-Partisan: Fixing our ideological divide
As Americans examine the astounding dysfunction of their government, gerrymandering is usually cited as the prime culprit. This narrative offers a compelling villain: venal politicians who draw...
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Why the U.S. must lead on Disabilities Treaty
In an HIV clinic in Africa, a man born deaf holds a single sheet of paper with a plus sign. He looks for help, but no one at the clinic speaks sign language. In fact, the staff doesn’t seem interested...
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Not ‘court-packing,’ GOP’s aim is ‘court-shrinking’
The party that brought you “death panels” and “socialized medicine” has rolled out another term — carefully selected, like the others, for its power to freak people out. “Court-packing” now joins a...
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What Democrats have going for them? Republicans
Democrats had one thing going for them in the election this week: Republicans. That kept President Barack Obama’s party from faring much worse. Dissatisfaction with the economy is still very high. In...
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The Senate after filibuster reform
The Washington Post editorial page led the charge in denouncing the change in Senate filibuster rules engineered by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and 51 of his Democratic colleagues last...
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Obamacare’s endless exemptions
Thursday night, the White House announced yet another exemption from the pain Obamacare is causing so many Americans. This latest “fix” would allow some Americans who’ve lost plans to exempt...
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2014: Another election about Obamacare
Here we go again. 2014 will be the third election in a row in which Obamacare is the central issue. The Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in March 2010, contributed to...
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Punitive politics: Blame the Puritans
‘Tis the season of giving, charity and good will — unless you happen to be a Republican, and then ‘tis the season of pusillanimity, churlishness and bad will. Congressional Republicans seem hell-bent...
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Filling judicial vacancies to protect the progressive legacy
What could never happen, finally did. For more than 30 years the Democratic Senate caucus feebly stood by as Republicans seized control of the federal courts. Now, however, faced with a GOP filibuster...
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Pennsylvania as the new Wisconsin in union fights
The Wisconsin state capitol was the site of massive protests in 2011 during the fight to pass Republican Governor Scott Walker’s labor reforms. The following year Big Labor staged demonstrations in...
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Can Obama circumvent Washington?
“Washington is broken,” Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, said in September 2008. “My whole campaign has been premised from the start on the idea that we have to fundamentally change...
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Populism: The Democrats’ great divide
One day after President Barack Obama called for moving forward on trade authority in his State of the Union address, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared, “I am against fast track,” and...
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Reagan’s true legacy: The Tea Party
Challenging the status quo is the correct condition of American conservatism. At the end of the American Revolution, Benjamin Rush, who had signed the Declaration of Independence, vowed that though...
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The first woman president is not about the past
Want to know the latest meme in U.S. politics? Here it is: Hillary Clinton is a candidate of the past. It’s been spreading through the political press. Now Republicans are beginning to echo it....
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In search of ‘Mr. Republican’
Who will be the next “Mr. Republican”? While the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination gets underway, there is another, more informal race going on as well. Since the Second World War,...
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The Republican war cuts through CPAC
The 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference has ended but the harsh debate between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party goes on. Though nothing remains static indefinitely....
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Democrats: Beware the Ides of March
For Democrats, the Ides of March came early this year. On March 11, to be precise, in a special election in a swing congressional district in Florida. A mostly unknown Republican knocked off a much...
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