Mori Dinauer

This Politico story on how endangered House Democrats are quietly promoting third-party runs to split the GOP vote would benefit from more hard data. As I’ve repeatedly said, Tea Party candidates have introduced a degree of uncertainty to the midterms, but these uncertainties need to be quantified. What percentage are third-party candidates drawing? What are […]

Here’s what the energized conservative base is prioritizing a week before the midterms: The Tea Party Nation is pushing voters to “retire” Rep. Keith Ellison because “he is the only Muslim member of [C]ongress” (he’s actually one of two). The Republican National Lawyers Association warns that George Soros is going to “buy the election” through […]

It’s worth pointing out that the sentiment expressed by this Republican candidate for Congress, who says self-reliant individuals are personally responsible for making sure their eggs do not contain salmonella, is the logical endgame when you make a fetish out of “limited government.” Ironically, the plethora of colorful candidates running for Congress this cycle could […]

The gang at First Read says: “If Republicans take back control of the House and maybe even the Senate, it will return American politics to its standard state: divided government. … Also since LBJ, the longest one party has controlled those three bodies is just for four years (1977-1981 and 2003-2007). And get this: Every […]

Ron Johnson, a Republican businessman hoping to unseat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, summarizes the GOP platform this year: “I don’t believe this election is about details. I really don’t.” Somewhat contradictorily, Johnson also says that he wants to tell people “what my philosophy is.” I don’t know what his “philosophy” is, but I’m gathering that […]

Ed Kilgore asks whether the coming Republican wave isn’t just a “reversion to the norm” for the House. The question is what the “norm” is. In the past 15 years, the House has been largely controlled by Republicans. But prior to 1994, the House was in Democratic hands for nearly half a century. Is the […]

The president’s right when he says that Republicans have embraced, in Jon Chait‘s words, “anti-empiricism,” but how this plays out is complicated. Democrats are generally accused of being technocrats, using cold empiricism to solve policy problems that are important to them. Republicans, on the other hand, believe they already have the answers to policy problems […]

The Republican base has always existed, so the relevant question is why it exerts so much more influence today than it used to. I think the answer lies in the rise of professional hacks and pundits dedicated to pushing something that sounds policy-oriented but isn’t actually. Why should conservative activists and Republican base voters listen […]

When you read stories like this one, about college-educated 20-somethings with very little in the way of decent job prospects, who overwhelmingly end up living with their parents again after finishing their degrees, you begin to appreciate the depth and severity of the economic catastrophe that’s struck this country. We’re not simply entering a “lost […]

Much like the taxpayer receipt, I think addressing the top five myths about federal taxation would go a long way toward clearing up misinformation. To be clear, I don’t believe this would generate widespread support for liberal proposals but rather generate confidence in the public. Treating people like adults by giving them information about who […]