by jpitney | Jul 16, 2025 | Bipartisanship, Federalist, Madison, Polarization
Jay Cost at AEI: There are many reasons for the dramatic rise in partisanship at the end of the 1820s, mainly related to economic diversification and rapid democratization. The number of voters had more than doubled between the elections of 1800 and 1820, and while an...
by jpitney | Jul 15, 2025 | California Politics, Public Opinion
Mark Z. Barabak: A recent UC Irvine poll found that residents, by a 2-to-1 margin, believe California is headed on the wrong track, a mood consistent with other gauges of Golden State grumpiness… A poll conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental...
by jpitney | Jul 14, 2025 | Bipartisanship, Civility
At With Honor, Rye Barcott reflects on the legacy of David Gergen: Leadership at its best is service to others. If this were a ranked-order list, this might be the first bullet for David’s advice on leadership, though it is also fitting as the last....
by jpitney | Jul 13, 2025 | Congress, Foreign Policy, Presidency, War Power
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: In the Iran case last month, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced concurrent resolutions in their respective chambers prohibiting the president from going to war with Iran. Kaine...
by jpitney | Jul 12, 2025 | Journalism, Journalists, Law
Filmmaker Mary Strause made a docuseries critical of UnitedHealth. The companies used the threat of litigation to coerce streaming services to take it down. CMC alum David Enrich at NYT: In legal letters and court filings, UnitedHealth has invoked last year’s murder...
by jpitney | Jul 11, 2025 | California Politics, Journalism, Journalists, Local Government, Newspapers
From Muck Rack: In 2000, many Americans lived in a community with journalists — people whose job it was to cover school board decisions, announce small business openings and closures, root out corruption at city hall, warn commuters about road work and trumpet the...
by jpitney | Jul 10, 2025 | Congress, Deliberation
R Street Institute and other think tanks comment on proposed cuts to congressional capacity: Specifically, the bill reported by the House Appropriations Committee on June 26, 2025, would decrease funding of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) by $396.5 million,...
by jpitney | Jul 9, 2025 | Economic Policy, Korea
The U.S. is imposing a 25% tariff on Korea because of trade deficits that it claims are “engendered by Korea’s Tariff and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.” But Korea has a free trade agreement with the U.S. It charges zero tariffs on nearly...
by jpitney | Jul 8, 2025 | Congress, Corruption
Kevin Kosar at AEI: The frequent media stories about legislators’ well-timed stock trades over the past several years have fomented a slew of bills to toughen up the STOCK Act and other rules forbidding the co-mingling of officials’ powers and personal wealth. ...
by jpitney | Jul 7, 2025 | Civility, Polarization, Reagan
Fred Ryan at The Dispatch: When I first joined the White House, I was young and driven, eager to help the president capitalize on his political mandate. So were many of my colleagues. But Reagan taught us a crucial lesson that’s in short supply today: In a healthy...
