Outside the Beltway

Much ado about a perfectly normal phenomenon.

Ezra Klein discusses the dynamics of American conservatism in historical perspective. Plus, he helps illustrate a key problem that we have in thinking about American politics (IMHO).

The role of American political institutions.

Added historical context to ongoing conversations about American democracy.

We expect far more from the Oval Office than is reasonable.

They’re not missing and that points to a systemic issue

No, presidentialism does not lock us into two parties.

The Court is out of balance–and it is a design flaw.

Our system lacks accountability.

Doing the right thing on 1/6/20 doesn’t absolve him of being a key Trump enabler.

Shockingly, they’re not remotely equivalent.

Two members of the presidential commission reach the conclusion that expansion is needed.

The erosion of representativeness continues.

A weird new narrative has emerged.

The matter of Executive Privilege and former Presidents is settled law.

Senator Romney and the latest edition of the senatorial pro-filibuster op/ed.

The Politician’s Syllogism rears its ugly head.

His executive order blocks schools from having masking rules.

President Trump’s destruction of longstanding norms continues under his successor.

A meaningless gesture that’s long overdue.

And linkages to broader US politics.

Overruling every case President Trump was involved in is getting silly.

It makes voting harder.

The media became the story but the President was the news.

We tend to focus on the wrong qualities in our early assessments.

What at first blush appears a case of hypocrisy and cancel culture is a violation of professional ethics.

Nonhierarchical parties strike again.

An explanation to a question you likely weren’t asking.

On the one hand, true. On the other, so what?

HR1 is a national approach to expanding voter access. State legislatures are trying to both expand and restrict the vote as well.

It’s easy if you try.

Yet another reminder about pathologies of US democracy.

The distance in accountability between the highest and the lowest must be shortened.

Could the Vice President end the filibuster herself?

Voting ourselves out of this mess is not so easy

The GOP, alas, is not going anywhere.

A legally correct but maddening ruling.

American political parties are controlled by the primaries.

President Biden masterfully used the pageantry of the day to shatter the self-asserted Trumpian monopoly on patriotism.

Biden’s America is a place and idea in which the trappings of empire or glory are ephemera in comparison with perennial human relationships—families; friendships; communities; schools; neighbors; partners.

President-Elect Biden is planning a big first few days, Congress be damned.

Hashtag: You’re Fired.

The absurd notion that the President of Senate is the arbiter and judge of the electoral vote.

Granted, there are more than two. But from a political science/political history POV, these two stick out in my mind.

Tunisia is freer but poorer than it was before Mohamed Bouazizi’s desperate act.

Further musings on the future of the Grand Old Party.

Why isn’t Joe Biden President already?

Perhaps the most normal thing President Trump has done.

Maybe it’s not going to be Michèle Flournoy after all.

He seems to have taken his ball and gone home.