The Plum Line says that a majority of Republicans in the House may want the Speaker of the House to pass immigration reform without support from a majority of Republicans: But either way — however we get there — it … Continue reading
Category Archives: political polarization
Roll Call: “California’s new top-two primary system was supposed to revolutionize the state’s political process. Instead, it’s forcing candidates to revert to an antiquated practice: competing for the state party’s endorsement.” See also Top Two Elections and their Effects on … Continue reading
See here. Don’t hold your breath on either these two nominees getting a hearing any time soon or Republicans putting forward two nominees of their own for the zombie commission. From my conversations with some influential Republicans, it sounds like … Continue reading
Bloomberg: “In a few states, those that are deeply Republican-red or Democratic-blue, the partisan hue is so one-sided that it’s creating super-minorities in some Senate chambers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.” … Continue reading
WaPo: Schweikert considers himself a guarded optimist, but interviews with nearly three dozen GOP lawmakers and senior aides revealed plenty of doubt. The majority is “adrift,” according to a longtime conservative. The top five leaders hail from blue states that … Continue reading
Doug Chapin blogs on Shor and McCarty’s new data. … Continue reading
NYT: “Pillory Congress all you want as do-nothing or dysfunctional, as its critics often have. But in one respect, lawmakers in the Capitol are remarkably productive: they name post offices like nobody’s business. A new report from the Congressional Research … Continue reading
Vandehei and Allen: “So, yes, Boehner by recent historic standards and measures is a relatively weak speaker right now. But, in fairness, it’s not clear a more bullying or forceful leader would fare much better with this gang of Republicans … Continue reading
AP: “The Republican Party, having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, confronts a dilemma that’s easier to describe than to solve: How can it broaden its appeal to up-for-grabs voters without alienating its conservative … Continue reading
Must-read front page NYT: Almost no law as sprawling and consequential as the Affordable Care Act has passed without changes — significant structural changes or routine tweaks known as “technical corrections” — in subsequent months and years. The Children’s Health … Continue reading
Important NYT report. … Continue reading
“What I fear is the majority leader is working his way toward breaking his word to the Senate and to the American people, and blowing up this institution…He wants to have no debate…Do what I say when I say it. … Continue reading
Roll Call: Sen. John McCain finds himself once again pushing his colleagues to avoid giving fodder to Democrats seeking to use the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules with a simple majority. The Arizona Republican’s latest endeavor is to persuade … Continue reading
Roll Call: Senate Democrats picked up some GOP reinforcements in their bid to get to a conference on a House-Senate budget agreement. Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine joined Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., on … Continue reading
TPM reports. … Continue reading
Sarah Binder sees confusion ahead. … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
Cincinnati Enquirer: Should Ohio judicial elections go entirely nonpartisan on the ballot? Should Ohio switch to some nonpartisan process to help governors fill judicial vacancies, and should those appointments require state Senate confirmation? In a Cleveland appearance Thursday before the … Continue reading
Very important NYT article on what’s going on with the Senate, procedurally and politically. … Continue reading
Tyranny of House majority. … Continue reading
Jonathan Bernstein: I have to commend Ezra Klein for push, push, pushing everyone to understand the place of the presidency in the US political system. As he says, that system “is centered around Congress rather than the White House,” and … Continue reading
NYT Editorial: “Regular order!” That has been the demand of House Republicans for three years, insisting on a return to the distant days when Congress actually passed budget resolutions and spending bills, instead of paying for the government through shortsighted … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
TPM reports. … Continue reading
In my forthcoming Drake Law Review symposium piece on political dysfunction and constitutional change, I take on a number of arguments about whether the current federal government is dysfunctional. Among the arguments I consider is Jonathan Rauch’s argument that the … Continue reading
Bill Moyers. … Continue reading
Jonathan Bernstein and Sarah Binder. … Continue reading
A self-inflicted wound. … Continue reading
Tonja Jacobi and Jeff Van Dam have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The filibuster has effectively become a supermajority requirement for all lawmaking in the Senate, an effect worsened by ill-conceived attempts at its reform. Once … Continue reading
FairVote: “In his draft paper on Political Dysfunction and Constitutional Change, University of California-Irvine professor Rick Hasen makes a powerful case for the need for out-of-the-box thinking on American political reform. But he also makes a curious omission. Fair voting … Continue reading
Andrew Cohen blogs. … Continue reading
Fred Hiatt WaPo column. … Continue reading
I’ve posted a revised draft of my article, “Political Dysfunction and Constitutional Change,” on SSRN. The article has already provoked some interesting reactions from Eric Alterman, Jonathan Bernstein, and Seth Masket. I plan to write more about this soon. … Continue reading
Aaron Blake: Congress and the federal government continue to struggle with historically low approval ratings, as Americans grow tired of gridlock in Washington and hold both major parties in low regard. But when it comes to government in general, Americans … Continue reading
Politico: “The Senate minority leader has signaled privately that he has no interest in sitting in the same room as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss a possible “grand bargain” on budget and tax issues, Senate insiders tell POLITICO. … Continue reading
Dan Balz: “Bipartisanship and cross-party alliances are suddenly in vogue in the Senate this spring. The question is whether the Senate is a leading indicator of a change in politics or largely an aberration in a nation divided along red … Continue reading
Interesting perspective from Larry Summers. … Continue reading
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 the … Continue reading
Sarah Binder blogs. … Continue reading
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, and … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
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 Constitutional … Continue reading
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 whether we … Continue reading
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.” … Continue reading
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 lack … Continue reading
The Fix reports. … Continue reading
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 broken. What’s … Continue reading
for this conference. … Continue reading
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
“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 in … Continue reading