Outside the Beltway

It’s not just Red states that put up too many barriers.

A problematically wide-open election in difficult times.

It doesn’t work like the movies, Senator.

No, Colorado’s voting regulations are not roughly the same as Georgia’s.

49 percent of Americans lean Democratic, compared to 40 for Republicans. Yet a plurality identify as Independent.

And, really, all of this current wave of election legislation.

The GA GOP is butting heads with corporations over HB202

How well do single-seat districts lead to representation? (And of what?)

Quite a number of Democratic Congressmen are thinking about seeking a new job.

A truly silly characterization from Senator Mike Lee.

Georgia Public Broadcasting provides a useful list of provisions.

An example from Dan McLaughlin of NR

It makes voting harder.

Multiple indicators point to a decline in the representativeness of the American system.

Let’s not get overly dramatic about special elections.

The lack of common understandings and shared assumptions makes political conversations challenging.

Empowering authoritarians.

Our insistence on relying on an 18th Century understanding of electoral systems is our ongoing bane (if one values representative government).

Any “fair” drawing of districts will yield a GOP advantage over time.

Yes, partisanship is real. And it influences more than just voting behavior.

The fixes worsen the stated problem (more on Iowa and other states’ attempts to restrict voting).

Making it harder to vote in Iowa.

HR1 is a national approach to expanding voter access. State legislatures are trying to both expand and restrict the vote as well.

And what GOP opposition says about the party.

The politics of bait-and-switch.

A story that is both unserious and yet emblematic of our age in a serious way.

A CPAC speaker and the return of the problem of the Heritage electoral fraud database.

Yet another reminder about pathologies of US democracy.

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against ramming it through in the COVID relief bill.

The reflections on the departed right-wing talk host continue.

The Senate’s last conservative Democrat is taking President Biden’s call for unity seriously.

America’s institutions are undemocratic but only some of them are a product of the Constitution.

Some reflections

The distance in accountability between the highest and the lowest must be shortened.

Of course, it depends on what case one thinks needs to have been made.

Some marginal Republican formers are thinking about maybe doing somethingoranother.

Specifically: the former confederacy and Democratic dominance.

Some political history,

Mitch McConnell is testing out his spine again.

Weeks of claims of rigged elections may well have cost the GOP the Senate.

The Republican Party is not really a thing.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her top officials are under house arrest.

The GOP, alas, is not going anywhere.

Let me point you to a reform proposal.

And no, there aren’t always “two sides to every story.”

American political parties are controlled by the primaries.

Every illegal immigrant would have a path to citizenship.

Will there be in-fighting? Yes. A break-up? No.

The GOP will almost certainly survive. But in what form?