“America’s Problem is Not Political Gridlock”
Interesting perspective from Larry Summers.
Category Archives: political polarization
“The Republican Advantage: The decline of swing districts and the rise of partisanship spells trouble for House Democrats.”
Charlie Cook:
By now, the trend lines are clear. In 1998, we found 164 swing seats—districts within 5 points of the national partisan average, with scores between R+5 and D+5 (a score of R+5 means the district’s vote for… Continue reading
“Does Boehner benefit from breaking the Hastert rule?”
“More BS About ‘Both Sides'”
Eric Alterman Nation column:
Believe me, I’m more annoyed at having to write this column again than you are at reading it. But dammit, nothing changes. The Republican Party has gone off the rails by virtually every available measure,… Continue reading
“Gun control, immigration and budget talks: Is there a thaw in Washington?”
Podcast of Drake Law Symposium on The Constitution and Political Dysfunction Now Available
You can download the audio of the three parts of the great Drake symposium at this link. Presenters were Norm Ornstein, Sandy Levinson, John McGinnis, Lori Ringhand, Brenna Findley and me.
My paper for the symposium, Political Dysfunction and… Continue reading
“Institutions Worthy of Our Parties: Should the U.S. Switch to a Parliamentary System?”
Seth Masket:
Rick Hasen has a really interesting paper up discussing partisan polarization and the possibility of changing the Constitution to deal with it. (And you should really read Jonathan Bernstein’s response, too.) Hasen starts off by asking… Continue reading
“Reid Threatens Filibuster Reform With Nuclear Option”
TPM: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) threatened in his most explicit terms yet to use the so-called nuclear option to weaken the filibuster if Republicans keep blocking judicial and other nominees from coming to a vote.”
Obama’s Catch-22
NYT: “Members of both parties say Mr. Obama faces a conundrum with his legislative approach to a deeply polarized Congress. In the past, when he has stayed aloof from legislative action, Republicans and others have accused him of a… Continue reading
“Senate has become more partisan, less collegial — more like the House”
“The Republican Party is officially broken: Washington’s problem isn’t partisanship or a fatally flawed system. It’s that one party is massively dysfunctional”
Jonathan Bernstein has written this piece for Salon responding to my new draft article (which I presented Saturday at the excellent Drake Law School symposium), Political Dysfunction and Constitutional Change.
Jonathan begins:
The American political system is not… Continue reading
Off to Des Moines
“The Partisanship Spectrum”
I’m looking forward to reading this new draft from Justin Levitt:
In a polarized political environment, allegations of excessive partisanship by public actors are ubiquitous. Commentators, courts, and activists levy and process these allegations daily. But with remarkable consistency, they… Continue reading
Question of the Day
“Is Hasen one of THE most dangerous MORONS in the U.S.A. at the moment ???”
—Demo Rep, an anonymous commenter who has probably sent me literally thousands of emails since I started the Election Law Blog.
The comment is… Continue reading