Lee Drutman
Latest articles by Lee Drutman
By ignoring the need for a long-overdue increase in staff salaries and instead “holding the line” on the legislative branch spending bill, the senators effectively voted to further empower private lobbyists.
Historically, when these moments of distemper have occurred, they ultimately led to political reforms.
The Kochs are telling us how money actually works in politics — which investments pay off and which ones don’t. Hopefully the rest of us will learn the same lesson.
Donald Trump is a Republican. But he is not an ideologue or a conservative. Whether or not Republican leaders endorse him will reveal which of these values is most important to them.
Trump arose because the the Republican Party was institutionally too strong for too long, which made it too easy for elites to decide among themselves and take their voters for granted.
The GOP-big business consensus is now being powerfully squeezed by two separate factions within the party, one ultra-conservative, one populist. In the future, the Democrats are more likely to be the party of big business.
The political terrain is shifting. And as it does, strange and new alliances will continue to emerge.
There are some problems with how this movement has framed the issues: too much focus on corruption and elections, and too little focus on policy process and the trade-offs of actually governing.
A new insider-outsider dimension is not only wreaking havoc on the GOP presidential race. It’s undermining their Republican leadership in Congress, too.