Mori Dinauer

I’m going to outsource my thoughts on Rand Paul. Bruce Barlett: “I don’t believe Rand is a racist; I think he is a fool who is suffering from the foolish consistency syndrome that affects all libertarians. They believe that freedom consists of one thing and one thing only — freedom from governmental constraint. Therefore, it […]

Allow me to let you in on the real meaning behind yesterday’s elections: The political press has no idea how to process and report on the mundane and predictable. You say a Democrat beat a Republican-turned-Democrat in a primary? Incumbents watch out! You say a well-connected established pol with name recognition forced a Democratic incumbent […]

There isn’t much new to say about John Judis‘ retrospective on the origins of the Tea Partiers except that these types have always been a fixture of American politics, and tend to be at their most prominent when a Democrat is in the White House. That said, the animating impulse running through the different components […]

The primary season is upon us, so that means it’s time for wild pronouncements about the “meaning” of it all. According to a Hoover scholar, this is a “tectonic moment in American politics,” birthing an “insurrection” against Barack Obama‘s “revolution.” The NY Times Caucus blog asserts that “Rand Paul’s bid for the Republican nomination will […]

Bruce Bartlett has a couple of ideas for congressional reform, including increasing the size of the House of Representatives, but I’m more interested in the other idea, repealing the 17th Amendment. The idea of making senators once again the product of state legislatures rather than popular vote has been tossed around a few times over […]

Joshua Green interviews Energy Secretary Steven Chu to discuss, among other things, using gamma rays to clean up oil spills, but Green’s introductory point is important: The federal government rarely receives attention for the many things it gets right. Only when it blunders do we hear all about the inefficiency and incompetence of the bureaucracy. […]

It’s telling of how outlets like MSNBC view politics in this country that they would choose to preview this finding from a NBC/WSJ poll coming out later this evening: “more than 80% see problems with America’s two-party system — with 31% believing it’s seriously broken and that America needs a third party.” Insert at this […]

An emerging criticism of Elena Kagan is that she is the a product of an elite legal academic culture that is, in Paul Campos‘ words, “an intellectually bankrupt and politically corrupt insider game.” This argument also has some purchase on the right, most conspicuously in today’s David Brooks column, which condemns the same elite system […]

Elena Kagan roundup: James Inhofe is very predictable; Jeff Sessions invokes the Founding Fathers’ “intent” and the “growing sentiment among everyday Americans” as a means of assessing Kagan’s suitability; RNC in-house historian Michael Zak discusses how awesome the Founding Fathers, Republicans, were; historian Sean Wilentz comments on Kagan’s “socialism thesis”; we’re still taking nominations of […]

Congressional Republicans had a plan for the 111th Congress: Block everything, blame Democrats for the deteriorating economic conditions, and ride anti-incumbent sentiment to a new congressional majority in the 2010 midterms. It was cynical, callous, and probably the only good electoral strategy for a party more interested in wielding power than governing. Of course, a […]