Outside the Beltway

It’s hard to win a street fight under Marquess of Queensberry rules.

The state’s Supreme Court’s ruling was basically over a dubious technicality.

A significant blow to Democrats.

Plus, I question the timing.

A dumb way to choose candidates? Or the dumbest way?

A little self-promotion.

Only 32 of 435 House seats are competitive.

Race and partisanship collide once again.

Disentangling the two is challenging, if not impossible.

Partisan gerrymandering just got a bit easier.

Fighting autocracy with autocracy.

Ready or not, the campaign has begun.

Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all

Debates about whether Trump is strong or weak often ignore the fundamental fact that he has power.

Permanent damage appears to be coming (oh, and it enhances the authoritarian power of the presidency as well).

Although it is still on life support.

How party change actually works in the US. Plus more on messaging and organzing.

We need to be focused on the system, not fantasies about messages and organization.

SCOTUS appears ready to supercharge gerrymandering.

Some limits on Democratic pushback

This time: North Carolina

A four-pronged test.

Can Democrats do anything?

Wildly unpopular policies in hyperpolarized times.

None of this is good for the quality of our democracy (not that it was great to begin with).

Thinking about the evolution (or is it devolution) of the GOP since the 1990s.

Are Red and Blue states even part of the same country anymore?

Most of the world knows that PR is a better way to elect legislatures.

Here we go again.

Tit-for-tat is maybe good power politics, but is any of this good for democracy?

Trump asks Texas to further gerrymander the state.

This one was in Tuskegee, AL (and this isn’t a photography post).

He was looking for an election to buy.

Not a lot of true competition on my ballot in Alabama.

Looking at the US South.

Democrats are helping the Republican Speaker tame his nihilist wing.

A long-overdue reform is meeting resistance.

A never-ending saga of politicians choosing their voters.

A David Brooks column inspires some thoughts.

I know it when I see it.

The ongoing Republican debacle and what it says about representative democracy in the US.

It really is rife with problems.

Good news with a cautionary note.

A surprising ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

When winning is the only acceptable outcome.

The will of the majority can prevail even in a skewed system.

A surprising factoid in a bad election for the party.

The term that kicks off today could undermine our entire system of government.

A lot of folks who study democracy have sent an open letter to Congress.