This is the conversation about poverty that we don’t like to have: We discuss the poor as a pity or a blight, but we rarely admit that America’s high rate of poverty is a policy choice, and there are reasons we choose it over and over again. We typically frame those reasons as questions of fairness (“Why should I have to pay for someone else’s … [ Read more ]
Author: Ezra Klein | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Democracy is designed as a feedback loop. Voters choose leaders. Leaders govern. Voters judge the results, and either return the leaders to power, or give their opponents a chance. That feedback loop is broken in American politics. It is broken because of gerrymandering, because of the Senate, because of the filibuster, because of the Electoral College, because we have declared money to be speech and … [ Read more ]
Author: Ezra Klein | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The party in power will get electoral credit for bills passed with big, bipartisan majorities. But by the same token, the party in power will get the blame if Congress is paralyzed, if bills die amid partisan bickering, if the problems of the nation go unsolved. Compromise isn’t a gift the majority offers to the minority. It’s a boon the minority offers to the majority. … [ Read more ]
Authors: Ezra Klein, Frances Lee | Source: Vox | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The United States is alone among advanced democracies in how difficult it is to get anything done. Legislation can be blocked by the House, the Senate, or the president, all of whom face different electorates, on different cycles. It can be overturned by the Supreme Court, where nine robed judges are protected by lifetime appointment. Constitutional amendments are uniquely difficult, and can be blocked by … [ Read more ]
Author: Ezra Klein | Source: Vox | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
Our political divisions aren’t red versus blue, but fixed versus fluid.
Author: Ezra Klein | Source: Vox (December 18, 2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy