Outside the Beltway

The Republican Party is not really a thing.

The #3 Republican in the House will vote to impeach.

The President of the United States is a national security threat. Can we get rid of him now?

A startling number than may understate the problem.

Too little, too late.

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

We’ve just had an election, not psychoanalysis.

Reminders from a perusal of the news.

It is about finding ways to combat minority rule.

Ok, so what should change?

It’s just not immediate.

The trend line shifted this week.

The writing is on the wall for simple-majority voting in the Senate.

What if instead of the unit rule, states doled out electoral voter based on the proportion of votes each slate of electors received?

SCOTUS and “faithless electors.”

The men who gathered in Philadelphia to write the Constitution were geniuses. But they couldn’t predict the future.

It’s not clear if Congresswoman Liz Cheney wants to run for the open Senate seat in Wyoming. If she did, though, she’d be the prohibitive favorite.

At last week’s debate, Beto O’Rourke handed Republicans and gun rights advocates a nicely wrapped gift with his claim that he would seize guns from otherwise law-abiding Americans.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that states cannot punish electors who fail to follow the will of the majority of voters n their state or state laws purporting to direct how they should vote.

President Trump’s hand-picked Federal Reserve Chairman is stating the blindingly obvious about the ongoing trade war, so of course the President labeled him an enemy.

Liz Cheney can pretty much write her own political ticket right now.

The move creates a rare Senate opening in the Equality State, and an opportunity for the daughter of a certain former Vice-President.

Per-student investment in public colleges has not recovered from the Great Recession.

Are people fleeing blue states to avoid repressive taxes? It depends who you’re asking.

The House GOP has moved to rebuke Iowa Congressman for his racist remarks. What took them so long?

Iowa’s Steve King has long expressed anti-immigrant and racist views, now he’s asking why that’s a bad thing.

Washington said farewell to George H.W. Bush today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

Once again, Republicans in California find themselves looking up and seeing a lot of desolation. They need to find a way to bounce back.

The emergence of a silly talking point.

Six siblings of Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar are starring in political ads against him. This is just another unfortunate example of the extent to which our political culture has been ruined by hyperpartisan polarization.

The Garden State has put a hold on marijuana prosecutions in anticipation of full legalization by the end of the year.

Forget the “republic v. a democracy” abstraction. The numbers show some serious flaws in translating popular will into government.

There is a frustration and a growing sense that the American political system is illegitimate.

A Republican organization dedicated to abortion rights is shutting down after 30 years, eight fewer than the Party has opposed them.

There are twice as many suicides as homicides in America.

Yet more troubling news about the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

And a little Electoral College for good measure.

There are no good outcomes for the GOP in Alabama.

As a candidate, Donald Trump liked to claim that he only hired the “top people.” and said he would do the same thing as President. So far, it isn’t working out that way.

Squirrel!

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon is declaring war on Republicans in the Senate.

A Duke history professor uncovers “stealth plan” by “fifth columnists” who are seeking to overthrow democracy in the U.S. for their plutocrat masters.

Thoughts on the quality of our democracy.

Be clear on what one is defending.

The head of the biggest energy company in the world is reportedly Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.

The President-elect lost the popular vote. Legally, that is the way that is it. This is a disgrace for “the Greatest Democracy in the World.”

Well that took long enough.

An increasing number of Republican politicians are finding reasons to skip the Republican National Convention.