Outside the Beltway

Representatives Choosing Their Voters Rather than Vice Versa, Chapter 412.

The erosion of representativeness continues.

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

The Biden administration is not doing enough.

The President’s approval has plummeted, largely because of factors outside his control.

American exceptionalism at its worst. (Plus some history!).

It does not create better deliberation.

A long-overdue change appears to be happening.

The internecine fight over the budget is coming to a head.

The political calculus of Arizona’s senior Senator is unclear.

The Catch-22 of passing a massive spending bill in an undemocratic system.

The President is in open defiance of the Supreme Court.

Democrats and Independents are losing their enthusiasm. But some perspective is needed.

Gotta clear those tabs.

Some Democratic election observers think so.

Details are quite scant at the moment.

It turns out a 51-50 Senate majority isn’t enough.

Are Sinema and Machin going to jump ship?

It’s no better than Joe Manchin’s.

Discussing the filibuster.

Kinda, sorta, maybe, but probably not really.

A meaningless gesture that’s long overdue.

The piling on continues.

We’re all apes. And some are willfully stupid about their public duties.

Or, at least, he’s willing to kill democracy in order to save it.

The post really isn’t about Sinema as much as it about a theory of poltiics.

Cries that American democracy is in jeopardy are not hyperbole.

A special session looms. (And how this is not like the filibuster in the US Senate).

We need what we aren’t going to get.

The country is in peril.

Even the smartest designers can’t anticipate all the flaws with the rules they write.

A bipartisan compromise appears unlikely.

Looking to Federalist 22.

I think this underscores the problem with the 60-vote requirement.

Could this be the straw that broke the camel’s back?

On fiscal policy and historical comparisons.

It’s undemocratic and we should get rid of it. But doing so isn’t a panacea.

Look at who’s lined up against H.R. 1.

It doesn’t work like the movies, Senator.

A little-known rule might allow a majority to pass one more bill.

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

Defense of the filibuster tend to be a combo of mistakes and mythology.

Is the stimulus bill it for this administration?

And what GOP opposition says about the party.

Yet another reminder about pathologies of US democracy.

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against ramming it through in the COVID relief bill.

What was mere signaling under a Republican Senate and President could now become law.

America’s institutions are undemocratic but only some of them are a product of the Constitution.

Could the Vice President end the filibuster herself?

It is not a tool to foster compromise. It is tool of obstruction, plain and simple.