Outside the Beltway

A post about thinking in a comparative way.

The primary calendar debate shows, yet again, that parties don’t fully control candidate selection.

Open access to party labels has consequences.

How an apparent serial fabulist got elected to Congress

Because of course she is.

Spoiler alert: the GOP has already failed this test multiple times.

The margins for 2024 are likely to be slim. But that hides a larger story.

Losing has a way of creating intraparty strife.

Parsing the results thus far.

Boosting weak candidates in the Republican primaries paid off.

Hope is not a COA.

How well has the famous thesis fared?

What does objectivity mean in the Trump era?

American parties are coordination problems with shared branding.

The nature of American political reporting distorts our perception of reality.

He met with people. And, get this, with his father!

With record-low poll numbers, the grass roots wants someone new on the ticket next time.

Could Alaska point the way to a solution?

Some thoughts.

An ongoing series of observations.

Ezra Klein discusses the dynamics of American conservatism in historical perspective. Plus, he helps illustrate a key problem that we have in thinking about American politics (IMHO).

More on primaries with a foray into Madison and the general politics of power-seekers and incentives.

The Ohio GOP Senate contest.

Nobody is keeping the gate.

The role of American political institutions.

When doing the right thing is the wrong thing.

A illustration from the Senate race in Georgia.

How rules shape the game.

Our representation problems are far, far more about structure than they are about the messaging of the parties.

And other tales from the AK special election.

No, presidentialism does not lock us into two parties.

The Court is out of balance–and it is a design flaw.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans truly represent most Americans. Fixing that is exceedingly unlikely.

Greatest democracy in the world, right?

It seems that some Americans are relocating to be with people who share their social and cultural views.

Data from Texas underscore a frequent point about primaries.

In their censure of Cheney and Kinzinger the GOP wants to rewrite history.

A bloc of moderates is not coming to a Senate near you.

A pretty good President has numbers comparable to his historically bad predecessor.

And Biden approval down.

More on self-identification and partisan ID.

Gallup has the 2021 numbers.

The effective number of parties.

This time: some multi-party examples.

Counting is not necessarily as straightforward as it may seem.

Democrats and Republicans are playing by different rules.

Our system and the shaping of the GOP’s future.

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

A largely mythical beast may become even more rare.