The Massachusetts Democrat pointed out that the chamber has “become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all.”
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Jim Jordan’s conspiratorial quest for power
The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer on how the Ohio Republican built an insurgent bid for Speaker on the lies of Donald Trump.
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“This is a really big deal”: How college towns are helping power Democrats to victory in key states
“Growing population in America’s highly educated enclaves has led to huge gains for the Democratic Party. And Republicans are scrambling for answers,” Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian and Madi Alexander write.
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Democratic strategists: Why the party can win a trifecta in 2024
“If we do the basic blocking and tackling of great field and GOTV work, and focus on executing an effective strategy for working-class voters, all the elements are in place for a big Democratic victory in 2024,” Mike Lux and Celinda Lake write.
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Can you govern on a lie? House Republicans give it a try.
“After the chaos of the first week of the 118th Congress, many Americans wondered: If it took them 15 ballots just to choose a speaker, how could Republicans possibly govern? Now we know. They are going to govern by fantasy and legislate on the basis of fiction,” Dana Milbank writes.
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Democratic voters want Democratic elected leaders who do things
“Tuesday’s results showed that money isn’t all that counts in elections,” Alexander Sammon writes. “Big spending matters, but the progressive policy vision continues to excite voters enough to overcome major fundraising deficits, and with just two major primary days in the books, the Squad already looks poised to add two members. Progressives look competitive both in open seats and in primaries, both of which will be critical to shaping the Democratic caucus for years to come.”
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Democratic National Committee members push for changes in party to give more money to states
“Dozens of voting members of the Democratic National Committee met Friday to organize a new voting bloc to push for changes to the internal governance of the national party and send more money to state party groups,” The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer reports.
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What if Congress isn’t hopelessly locked in partisan gridlock? What if it’s getting a lot done?
“According to statistics from the Brookings Institution and CQ Roll Call’s own calculations, the 116th Congress was actually the most productive since the 80th in 1947–48, the farthest back Brookings’ data goes,” Jim Saksa writes for CQ Roll Call.
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Democrats, speak to working class discontent
Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg writes: “The Republican threat to America’s constitutional experiment has led me to ask: What is our plan to save it? Here’s mine.”
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Hillary Clinton assails Republicans, rebuts the narrative they’ve been using in Virginia and around the country
“Republicans will claim they’re on the side of parents and family values, but they will do nothing for actual parents … nothing on child care, nothing on paid leave … they’ll ban books but do nothing about guns,” Clinton said.
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‘Highly suspect’: Unusual clusters of Miami voters switched to Republican, data show
“According to the Miami Herald’s tally, 5,428 people’s party affiliation changed between the October and January registration files. Many of the changes were concentrated in multi-family residential buildings, often low-income housing, raising questions about whether the changes are part of a targeted effort,” reporters Bianca Padró Ocasio and Claudia Chacin write.
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How Mitch McConnell, one of Washington’s longtime power players, succumbed to the preeminence of Trump
“He clearly doesn’t care about being labeled a hypocrite. It just doesn’t bother him. He is brazen about it. That’s one of the cynical sides of Mitch. He doesn’t care. If it’s expedient, he’ll do it,” U.S. Representative John Yarmuth said.
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Why ‘moderation’ doesn’t guarantee electoral success for Biden and the Democrats
“The reality is that politics is complex and somewhat unpredictable — with a lot of voters who are regularly changing or just forming views on issues and also changing who they vote for or whether they vote in the first place,” Perry Bacon Jr. writes.
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Are we entering a new political era?
“The neoliberal order seems to be collapsing. A generation of young activists is trying to insure that it’s replaced by progressive populism, not by the fascist right,” Andrew Marantz writes for The New Yorker.
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Thou shalt not worship false idols? Who cares! The Trump cult has made its very own golden calf
Many in the Republican Party want public policy that is explicitly tied to fundamentalist Judeo-Christian religious beliefs. But they don’t even practice what they preach.
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Biden shifts his political operation to DNC ahead of 2022 midterm elections
The move signifies that Biden is a team player committed to the Democratic Party. In 2009, Barack Obama and his advisers chose to keep campaign data in the hands of a semi-separate outfit called Organizing For America.
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Wyoming Republican ex-legislator on Trump: “I felt used and I felt lied to”
Speaking to The Washington Post, Amy Edmonds explained what has happened to her since she started questioning Donald Trump’s deep web of lies following the 2020 presidential election.
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Today’s bold progressive ideas will be the next political era’s widely accepted Democratic policy platform planks
“Increasingly the Democratic Party is divided into two camps: those who favor the ideas of Warren/AOC/Sanders now, versus those who will favor these same Warren/AOC/Sanders ideas in 3-4 years, when those ideas are more in the political consensus,” Perry Bacon Jr. writes.
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DNC members outline party reforms in letter to Biden
“Twenty-nine Democratic National Committee members have joined a call for structural reforms to increase transparency and ensure fairness in the nominating process,” David Moore writes.
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The Atlantic profiles NPI alum Garlin Gilchrist II’s work to deliver a Democratic victory in Michigan
Writer Edward-Issac Dovere takes a look at the Democratic Party’s plan to win the Wolverine State in 2020 after losing to Donald Trump by less than 11,000 votes in 2016, which emphasizes facets of big organizing and local control.
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Slate columnist: Chuck Schumer is a lefty now
A Slate columnist says that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is taking an increasing number of progressive positions, aligning himself with Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, and Ron Wyden, and going further than Joe Biden has in embracing policy directions we need.
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