Outside the Beltway

“We have to be careful in balancing big dreams and bold ideas with also recognizing that typically change happens in steps.”

As many states contemplate restoring voting rights to felons who have completed their sentence, a leading Democrat wants to go further.

A lesson from Puerto Rico and further reasons why the EC is a problem.

Bernie also faces disclosure pressures.

It’s a lot harder than it looks.

The law is not on the President’s side.

Very little of our vast landmass is densely populated with humans.

The Constitution’s invitation to struggle over foreign policy continues.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz lays to rest a pernicious idea propagated by . . . Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.

A reminder that over 3 million citizens have no effective influence over the federal government.

It now appears that the Attorney General is keeping publicly-releasable information hidden away longer than necessary.

Senate Republicans are pushing for the end of minority obstruction—and the Democrats can’t wait.

Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are leading the field and Pete Bittigieg is doing surprisingly well.

While polarization in our national politics gets the most attention, several states also face serious rural-urban tensions.

In 2016, a crowded Republican field yielded an unlikely nominee. Could history repeat itself in 2020?

Six weeks is a very long time in American politics.

After a flood of stories saying the former Vice President is unsuitable for the modern era, the inevitable pushback is happening.

He’s a national treasure who has been appropriately honored for a lifetime of service and sacrifice. But this seems different.

In some expert trolling, the Senate Majority Leader decries “mindless, undiscriminating obstruction for the sake of obstruction.”

The White House clearly doesn’t have a plan beyond attacking Obamacare to score political points.

Trump’s threat will not make things better (and the notion of actually closing the border is insane).

Note to the folks at Fox and Friends: Central America is not part of Mexico.

Trump declares he will end aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

The peril of not yet running for President include not yet having a campaign staff in place.

John Fund thinks I am afraid of Stephen Moore (and that I am an economist). He is wrong on both counts.

More simplism from the WH.

The early frontrunner for the Democratic nomination is drawing fire from multiple fronts. It may destroy his candidacy before it begins.

It’s increasingly challenging to discuss media coverage because we’re all consuming a hand-selected bit of it.

Scholars argue that the shifting media landscape is largely to blame for our political crisis.

Another demonstration that evidence doesn’t much matter in modern American politics.

Oral argument hints that we may have a 5-4 ruling allowing state legislatures to continue stacking the deck.

A Washington Post columnists tries to make the case.

The decision to hand Democrats a victory and step on the good news from the Mueller report apparently came from the very top.

The Justice Department has reversed course and will not fight a December ruling overturning the Affordable Care Act.

History’s first all-female spacewalk was thwarted by a lack of smaller suits.

The (Acting) Secretary of Defense has issued an unconstitutional order.

The mea culpas and I-told-you-so’s are rather premature.

Before we draw broad conclusions of the reporting on the report, don’t we need to see the report?

It’s possible to conclude that Pete Buttigieg is smarter than Elizabeth Warren for reasons having nothing to do with sex.

It’s the battleground states that are the issue, not small states v. large states.

Ultimately, it isn’t a very good one.

A male sophomore makes two suicides in less than a week.

The Speaker says she will reject any attempt to deliver it in a “highly classified” manner.

Only the best people, dontcha know.

Predictably, news that the investigation has ended has people on both sides cheering. It’s unwarranted.

The Friday news dump to beat all Friday news dumps.

Tragedy piled on top of tragedy.

Lock them up.

Already the longest-serving former President, he’ll pass George H.W. Bush as the longest-living tomorrow.

A racist scholar took some fascinating photos of an enslaved man in 1860. Now, his descendants want the rights to them.