Should responsibility for the rampant polarization that characterizes American politics today be laid at the feet of liberals or conservatives? … Recently two columnists who are hardly sympathetic to Trump or Trumpism — far from it — raised questions about whether the right or the left deserves blame or responsibility […] Read more »
Republicans now enjoy unmatched power in the states. It was a 40-year effort.
Over the past 40 years, Republicans have quietly gained overwhelming power in state legislatures. It did not happen overnight, and it won’t reverse itself soon. The implications could linger for years. Even after the 1980 election — when Ronald Reagan was first elected president — Democrats still controlled most statehouses: […] Read more »
While Trump tweets, Pelosi prays and Schiff parodies
… I’ve been through the impeachment process up close and personal as director of planning for former Speaker Newt Gingrich, and I can say definitively that the decision to move forward on the impeachment of President Bill Clinton was a sobering experience, not the stuff of parody. But back then, […] Read more »
The Contract With America’s legacy
… The takeaways from the 1994 GOP victory about what works and what doesn’t in campaign politics are important. But it’s what Republicans did with the victory that matters more as we reflect on the contract’s 25th anniversary. For Republicans after the election, the contract gave them the means to […] Read more »
The Shadow of 1998
The Democrats’ 40-seat net gain in the House last fall was the latest example of the midterm election serving as a check on the White House. Since the Civil War, there have now been 40 midterms, and the president’s party has lost ground in the House in 37 of those […] Read more »
The Bad History Informing the Impeachment Debate
In the turmoil of 21st-century American politics, the greatest danger comes in wrongly applying the lessons of the past to a constantly changing present. This is playing out in the debate over how best to challenge Donald Trump. Whether the argument is over impeachment or over the best candidate to […] Read more »