Outside the Beltway

It’s not what you think.

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

The reality is, I can’t say no.

What democratic backsliding looks like.

Elections, the states, and the presidency edition.

We are observing an effort to embed democratically questionable sectarian norms into the day-to-day life of federal workplaces. 

A breaking of the social contract.

Well, most of them.

Is the DOGE now on a leash?

Partisanship is more important than institutional autonomy.

It “literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

In which I agree with Trump about the problem, but NOT the solution

Who are you going to believe, the WSJ or your lying eyes?

Too much deference to the president, but the trial will continue.

I guess the attention is worth it?

A republic if you can keep it, indeed.

And the intuition that things aren’t really working.

When checks and balances aren’t enough.

Normalizing Trump via poor analysis.

The trend toward hard-right parties continues.

I know it when I see it.

How far should the government be able to go?

The former president faces multiple criminal prosecutions.

The New York Times looks into ties between a DC area law school and the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is signaling an unfavorable ruling.

A silly workaround to an infuriating problem that won’t go away.

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

Our system lacks accountability.

The head of the House investigatory committee seems to think so.

President Trump’s destruction of longstanding norms continues under his successor.

The post really isn’t about Sinema as much as it about a theory of poltiics.

Why isn’t Joe Biden President already?

Gridlock doesn’t mean government stops. It just shifts who is governing.

Definitions are fun, right?

A fundamental building block of our system makes it nearly impossible to fix.

The platform decision is emblematic of a Trump-led party.

A mixed ruling: New York wins, Congress loses–but no release before the election.

A 7-2 decision by the highest court in the land is less decisive than the numbers suggest.

Is being ruled by the elderly a bad thing?

On presidents

Has this precedent permanently damaged the country? Or is it just politics as usual?

To defang impeachment is an invitation for presidents to ignore the rule of law.

Alliance to party trumps alliance to branch.

Two Federal Courts have blocked the Administration from diverting Defense Department funds to pay for the President’s border wall

The House Intelligence Committee has released its report resulting from its investigation of the Ukraine scandal.

A Federal Judge in Washington, D.C. has ruled against the Trump Administration’s latest effort to stonewall Congressional inquiries.

Rich Lowry puts preferred outcomes over constitutional process.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt President Trump another setback in his effort to keep his financial records out of Congressional hands.

A Federal Court has struck down the President’s diversion of funds for his border wall.

When the facts make for a poor defense, attack the process.