Mori Dinauer

It’s no wonder conservatives are in love with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — he’s the embodiment of conservative Republican leadership. He has total contempt for actual governance and zero compassion for his constituents. Blizzard hit Jersey? Tough s**t — I’m in Florida with my kids. Second, he has total contempt for public workers. Superintendent […]

Are all politics local? Nate Silver looks at the truism coined by Tip O’Neill and finds trends toward nationalization at the presidential, country, and congressional level. But what does this mean? If the parties are increasingly nationalizing races, does this change the basic calculus that outside of presidential contests (which shouldn’t even be considered for […]

Via Seth Masket, Andrew Sprung has written a sincere attempt to understand what he calls the “joyous cynicism” expressed by some political scientists, singling out Jonathan Bernstein as a prime example of this tendency. As Masket says, political scientists are less interested in advocacy and more interested in knowing how the system works — the […]

As we wrap up the year, I thought it would be worth looking back on some of the terminology that featured prominently in our political discourse — and perhaps made us recoil in terror. Some of these concepts were flashes in the pan, consuming entire news cycles for no apparent reason. Others were old chestnuts […]

Normally, there wouldn’t be much to say about Think Progress’ compilation of conservatives freaking out about the FCC’s enforcement of Net Neutrality rules. What haven’t conservatives called a “government takeover” in the past two years? But in this case, it’s an especially dense critique, and speaks volumes about the contempt movement conservatives have for the […]

The new Census numbers are a prime opportunity to remind ourselves that the United States is a complex country that has the third-highest population in the world. Because of this, the federal government is simply going to be larger that it otherwise might be. If you desire “limited government,” the sheer size of the country […]

The Republican plan for the 112th Congress — as if it wasn’t already abundantly clear — will be to slash budgets, deny funding for legislation passed in the 111th Congress, and then point to the results to prove government “doesn’t work.” The risk to Republicans, I’m to understand, is that a government shutdown would be […]

A couple of reactions to the defeat of the omnibus spending bill: “It’s a new day in Washington,” says Rich Lowry. “President George W. Bush won this evening,” says Kathryn Jean Lopez. I single these two out because they imply some era of renewed American greatness is to follow. But I don’t see it. I […]

Radley Balko asks liberals whether they believe the Constitution puts any restrictions on the powers of the federal government, excluding the Bill of Rights. I’m going assume he means the power of federal government to encroach on individual liberty, and if that’s the case then excluding the Bill of Rights is bizarre since those ten […]

The spectacle of Republicans railing against earmarks in the omnibus spending bill — many of which they themselves inserted — is beyond parody. Anyone with half a brain knows that this wild orgy of government red ink amounts to less than 1 percent of the total budget, but there’s a more fundamental point about all […]