Of course, the authors here do not mention the extremism of the left for 8 years under Obama -- the willful destruction of traditional marriage, with the lighting of rainbow lights on the White House (what OTHER SCOTUS decision was celebrated in this way?) -- the insistence on abusing Title 9 to force transgender bathrooms and to force children to shower naked with members of the opposite sex -- the imposition of Obamacare without ONE GOP VOTE, and with that, to force millions like myself to purchase costly high deductible policies that are essentially worthless jokes?
No, it's all "Republicans BAD" -- "Democrats and liberals GOOD!"
I got it, Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein. And that is why TRUMP is PRESIDENT.
Message to my 6th term Republican Congressman Peter Roskam. Peter: you wrote this tax bill, you voted for it (and will again) and you OWN IT, just as your donors OWN YOU. (At this moment 6 Democrats are lined up to run against him. And Hillary won the IL6th by 50% to 43%) When will you have a town hall? Will you show up to debate your opponents? The resistance is real, Peter.
3
Add intensifying mass migration to the list of the world's woes.
Your analysis is sound - but not new, really. Now what?
1
The Republican party didn't break anything. They just learned how to better take advantage of a political system that is corrupt and a voting public that is easily manipulated thanks in no small part to that corrupt political system. DC is full of career politicians on both sides, who have sold their souls for campaign donations, lucrative lobbying jobs, and power.
One of the few options for fixing our broken political system is campaign finance reform. And I think it's telling that the authors of this piece touch on that, but stop shy of calling a spade a spade. The only way to get our government back to "for the people, by the people" is to stop allowing the wealthy, regardless of political affiliation, to effectively buy politicians to do their bidding. Our tax code is the longest and most complex in the free world. Largely because of specific amendments legislated in by elected officials as repayment to their donors. This latest tax scheme is part and parcel of that same system of pay for play politics, but just on a grander and more blatant scale.
94
News flash! Something cannot be broke that is already broken. Moreover, there actually is no republican or democrat party. They are one and the same. Think of congress as a collection of corrupt political elites (elected) by illiterate constituents. Because of this, thinking people have increasingly become uninterested in or care about day to day activities of these scoundrels. People have moved on from dismay and outrage. They have withdrawn from the system..
22
Only three developments in the Party caused today's instability? And is it instability that's the problem with Congress?
Even accepting all the premises in this piece, there's a larger question which is why do the Republicans behave as they do? They care not a whit for the commoner, nor do they care for community matters as infrastructure (unless there's a personal profit to be made), fine arts (low brow entertainment pays more), higher education (unless their research and policies are in the service of industry). Really, all they care about is consumerism. I can't say it's capitalism since Republicans favor monopolies and stifling competition.
Then there's the even larger question of why anyone votes for them? I recall one of the Republican complaints after Obama won (twice) was that Obama was promising goodies and to the Republicans, that was taking an unfair advantage over the Scrooges.
And the very most bottom line is that the election goes to the candidate who sells his/her soul for the largest price. That's how we got this immoral Congress, one party worse than the other.
28
So why can't the Democratic Party beat these guys? People on this comment board generally fail to note that this nihilistic, destructive Republican party keeps winning elections. The Democratic party needs to wake up and become the party of good governance. Good governance is the opposite of the Republican party, not Bernie Sanders socialism or identity politics. Become the party that makes government efficient and streamlined, and the Democrats will destroy the Republicans.
45
I voted for Hillary in last year's primary and canvassed for her in the general.
I am convinced at this point that the only way to roll back this madness is to nominate a far left candidate like Bernie Sanders.
26
Yes, the Republicans have given us two government shutdowns; eight years of complete obstruction of former President Obama culminating with a violation of the Constitution requiring them to provide "Advice and Consent of the Senate" on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court; and a blind eye to President Trump's apparent violation of the "emoluments clause" of the Constitution. But, the cancer underlying both parties is the unfettered campaign financing by the wealthy approved by the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court that have now seized total control of the Republicans and the establishment [aka Clinton] wing of the Democrats. The Republican tax reform bill is the direct result of this corruption of our democracy. Until we can get shorter political campaigns totally funded by the public, our democracy will continue to sink into the swamp of oligarchic control.
73
Thank you for this clear and powerful denunciation of today's shameful, outrageous Republican party. Their sickness has only deepened with time. Democrats must oppose it more forcefully and, above all, persuasively.
31
I knew everything I needed to know about the Republican party of today when at the GOP debate when Mr Teen USA said that he's the best guy to run the party BECAUSE he's been bribing politicians for years.
It used to be that when people confessed to bribery, they were brought up on charges, but this group actually cheered him on.
Who applauds a briber ? Republicans, that's who ...
39
This article is nonsense. Republicans are saving our economy. The recent progress of the new tax bill will help the vast majority of Americans WHO PAY TAXES.
9
I'm not optimistic for the future of the country as one for all Americans and a light for the world. The oligarchs who control the Republican party have relatively infinite money, are willing to do whatever it takes to win, have the backing of corporate America on massive tax cuts, and have been playing the long game for years. They seem have the strategy, plan, intelligence, messaging and commitment - as despicable, anti-American and anti-human as it is - to succeed. Combine that with the spreading far-right-wing control of the courts and the assaults on freedom of speech and voting rights, and the picture isn't pretty for an organized resistance. The Democrats, on the other hand, seem to be trying to play both sides: beholden to corporate interests, while still struggling to define and convey a consistent vision and message for America that speaks to all Americans (and "we're not Trump" is most assuredly NOT that vision).
22
It's hard to believe that the vast majority of Republicans want to see Medicare and Social Security privatized. Mass financial suicide is not something I expect to see. There's enough of us voting Baby Boomers left to cut any movement in that direction off at the knees. The GOP's lies will only go so far.
29
I love these two guys. Please invite them often. Truth tellers in a sea of deceit.
Republicans embrace this president in public, and malign him privately.
They're degrading democracy in both the House and Senate, having just obstructed President Obama for 8 years, as they had planned a course to thwart Obama at every turn the very eve of his inauguration.
And stole a Supreme Court seat from the president. As they now pack the courts with right wing ideologues. And aid and abet a president who lies as easily as most people breathe.
As of Nov. 14th of this year, President Trump made 1,628 false claims in 298 days, which computes to 5.5 per day. Well on track to 2,000 claims by the end of his first year in office. His resignation or impeachment cannot come soon enough.
Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy should be asked about their conversation about Putin paying Trump, and Ryan swearing the men to secrecy who were in the room. Why has Lindsey Graham turned from Trump critic to his bestie golf buddy and chief defender?
The whole pack of them sold out America to the highest bidders. Lobbyists wrote the bill, and were handing out sheets of paper to senators on the senate floor who complied---and rammed through this disgrace of a bill they know will harm this nation, and its people.
Please keep documenting this historical mistake of Republicans ruling three branches of government following this dreadfully corrupt 2106 election.
64
What took you so long?
It's been obvious for years that the Republicans in the Federal government were dishonorable, mostly, men who made the decision to put their power, money and party first on their agenda and not the Country.
It culminated in their refusal to do their constitutional duty and advice and consent on President Obama's nomination to replace Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court. That action proved them to be dishonorable and breakers of their oath to uphold the Constitution. That was the point you should have published this opinion piece.
38
It will take another 50-60 years for the Conservative rot to be eradicated from this country. The Conservative Doctrine; loathing of this nation's institutions (while professing love of the country), has been a systematic effort-but is it sustainable?
The myriad Conservative Think Tanks (from the American Enterprise Institute, Clairmont Institute and Heritage Foundation to the Family Research Council) combined with the slow and methodical purchase and consolidation of America's airwaves has welded influence and power over the minds of every day citizens and opportunistic politicians- to the slow frog-boil most are now noticing. (Really- how many shrug our shoulders at the Alex Joneses of the word- now alarmed by the millions of his faithful)?
The unspoken question remains; "What is the end game?" Corporations cannot export all their product. Americans must have the ability to be consistent consumers (which means decent wages). If most are on the bottom rungs of society, what is the end result? How much stashing of money in foreign banks is enough for Corporations. How much is enough for the unspeakably-rich. The masses ultimately rebel. Is mercenary greed a well though-out Government Doctrine?
34
Former President Obama and a few of his BFF's are working on what may be one of a few necessary "antibiotics" to fight this disease. Their focus is on winning state legislatures for Democrats before the 2020 census. That census will drive redesigning congressional districts. If Dems can gain control of more state legislatures they will drive the gerrymandering. And while I harbor little hope of the 4 Right Wing Supremes caring one wit about true democracy and one person one vote, there is the Wisconsin gerrymandering case in the Supreme Court which, if Kennedy wants to cement his legacy as a person who cares more about people's rights than politics, could also drive change in house House districts are drawn.
28
One would hope that the news media would stop enforcing the narrative that the tax cuts are Trump's "achievement". He had no input to the tax reform bill. The bill's passage is a huge victory for the GOP establishment led by Ryan and McConnell. Trump did not campaign on corporate tax cuts. Instead, he campaigned on "draining the swamp" that has now all but drowned Washington. The tax bill will not be a winner among the people. The tax cut is negligible for most people and many are bound to pay more attention to the more tangible effect of the deductions going away. The NYT article from Ohio showed that this perception is prevalent even among Trump's base - most people do not expect anything from the bill and even viewed it as "Washington as usual". Somebody should have told Trump that this is a "victory" that will yet come to haunt him, in more ways than one. He was not elected to office to simply rubber stamp the agenda of the GOP establishment but that is evidently all that he is really doing.
20
When people just don't like each other, except for those within their monist group, what chance do we have for a pluralistic democracy?
The American people see the poor as lazy, the immigrant as invader, and government programs like Social Security, healthcare, and public education as diseases. If public education is failing, maybe it's because kids spend a little too much time on the phone instead of doing things kids ought to be doing so they can become better adults. If it weren't for immigrants, there would be a healthy Native American culture and if it weren't for Social Security, you'd have to take in those poor relations you can't stand. What a stupid country this has become.
22
Regarding the last paragraph-it’s too late.
3
Has anyone looked into the Tea Party and whether Russia is behind them?
6
It was the Koch Bros, Heritage Foundation, et al
16
I no longer recognize the country I grew up in. My folks were stalwart Republicans in the days when that party was a supporter of fiscal responsibility and concern for the working man. These guys who call themselves Republicans... also seem to consider themselves religious while doing everything to counter the mandates of their founder. I am appalled and dismayed, to say nothing of ashamed of a country that I was once proud to be a citizen of -- now an international pariah actively destroying everything their predicessors worked so hard to achieve.
37
And it only took ten months...
1
John Boehner wasn't Speaker of the House when TARP was passed. Nancy Pelosi was.
5
McConnell is a monster, worse than Trump, Remember how he vowed he would do everything in his power to obstruct the Obama presidency after Obama was sworn in as President. He cares nothing for this country only power! The power of the Republican Party.
40
~Republican senators have spoken up~
Yet they always vote the party line. Cowards looking to just enrich themselves.
25
The authors admit to being democrat, but deny partisanship in their discussion. Not one mention of Harry Reid, nor of the toxic environment he fostered. This opinion piece is worse than a joke.
7
Great points, except the "horse has left the barn" and no one who needs to read this, will, because no Republicans read the NYT. If 9/11 didn't create enough of a sense of commonality within America to overcome the distrust that polarizes the left and right, nothing will. To quote your laughable naked emporer, "very sad!"
4
"Nothing even close to comparable exists on the left."
Oh, I suppose you haven't visited many American college campuses over the past decade, have you?
11
I've recently finished "The Indigenous People's History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz which I highly recommend to everyone reading this opinion. Now I realize that the United States was founded on a brutal war against its native "savages" to fulfill our manifest destiny...become the world's greatest superpower. What we think we know about America and the American Dream is wrong...and the Republicans and their Trumpism movement has tapped into this thread. We are still fighting the civil war against the savages living among us. Now the "Confederates" have a new champion. The NYT may not like it but its not new and we shouldn't be shocked by it. It is the beginning of our decline however.
15
Took you guys awhile to see what was obvious 25 years ago and that makes you guys and your both sides do it colleagues deeply complicite in this mess as much as Gingrich, Ryan, et al. Documenting your hindsight stupidity is not even a worthy first step.
7
Party number three! Now paging party number three!
8
It happened in Germany in 1933 and in the USA in 2016. The Nazis were racially motivated, dictatorial, lawless at first until they changed the law as is occurring now. thieves and kleptocrats, supported by the military and oligarchs who industrialists and mine operators who hated unions and their idea of law and order was a police state and foreign police was war. Wake up America our country has fallen to a conbination of a hostile foreign enemy and traitors who wanted to ride the gravy train.
23
What a joke. Both parties are to blame. Tell me that Shumer is not partisian. Shumer would call day night and night day to put Republicans in a bad light. There are no Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s in congress any more. Party first, ethics and country last
10
I reject the assertion that "our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties." A huge part of the reason we're in this mess today is that we only have two parties that are taken seriously! We need to facilitate development of additional parties to bring rationality to the system. The current polarized environment will continue to drift apart without parties that can agree on some issues and disagree on others.
6
When the ruthless rule, the reasonable are forced to rebel. It's just a matter of time before we all come to blows.
19
I am lost for words. What a piece. Thank you. It sums it all up. For a European, watching, wringing hands how my late dad's America has apparently changed for the worse, is just so sad. But, what we see is what Norbert Elias, a sociologist I admire, has called the de-civilization of societies. And its happening everywhere, here and across the pond. Someplace faster, someplace slower. Day by Day, we observe, how much social capital has become the one defining currency with which our human existence is being measured. Social capital of a person being defined by his/her age, looks, race, religion, education, name, 'real capital', achievements, etc.
It seems, that every thing else takes a back seat, today even more than before, undermining everything and anything we and our fathers, mothers, and ancestors fought for. But, what did we fight for? I don't know, but what I learned from my parents was: Lead a decent life, help others, give rather than take, in short live and let live.
But, obviously, we lived and live in another dimension, where the vectors of our life, just never ever included the vector of greed and power and not having enough of these two.
My dad once told me when I was eighteen years old: Son, however fast your car can go, there will always be someone faster than you. So, I drive a vw polo now. As a metaphor, that there always will be someone richer and more powerful, it still holds true. But not everyone seems to get it.
15
The GOP needs, desperately, to split into 2 parties - one good, one bad - with the good (believers in truth, honesty and hope) rejecting the bad (supporters of racism, corruption and treason). In the short term, the Democrats would dominate against a split GOP, but longer term hopefully the good from the GOP, and some current Democrats, might coalesce into a new party that America can be proud of. In any case, the current GOP needs to go the way of the Whigs - and the sooner the better!!
8
This could only be written by two old white males. The majority of US citizens have been disempowered and oppressed for decades by BOTH parties. And the polite Dems have served as "bipartisan" enablers of, and accessories to, the crime against the 98% and the rest of humanity that lives on this planet.
Was it polite and decorous of the Dems to support Clinton's repeal of Glass-Steagle, and for them to look away when Bush tortured and bombed innoncent civilians, support Obama's coup after coup?
What a sick and miserable government we have had, under the bipartisan neoliberal regimes. I blame the Dems for getting us all exactly where we are today. At least the GOP never promised "change you can believe in"!
10
Did you intentionally omit mentioning Reagan as one of the giant Republican presidents? If so, well done. He perfected the use of racial dog whistles and kicked off his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, MS, where three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in the 60s.
18
I don't blame Republican politicians for dismantling our federal government. They are doing exactly what they promised to do and the voters who elected them should have expected them to do.
Nor do I blame wealthy Republican voters who will benefit from the tax cuts that will ultimately enable the shredding of the social safety net that they don't need. They are just doing what is in their interests.
I blame the voters who will be most harmed by the Republican agenda. I blame them for their willful ignorance. But more importantly, I blame those whose vote was vindictive vengeance against poor people and/or people of color and/or people of another religion, and/or people of another sexual preference. The mistake these voters make is that they cannot hurt others without also hurting themselves. Taking benefits and rights from others, does not result in additional benefits and rights for yourself. They will get the punishment they deserve for their futile attempt to hurt others.
29
Life is good when you own your own political party, as well as the means to gerrymander it into power.
8
To Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein: NOW you're noticing the GOP's governmenticidal tendancy? You describe it as "beginning in the 1990's," which suggests you were not paying attention for the entire decade of the 80's. Democrats have a dangerous impulse to laugh along when Republican friends trot out the old Reagan punchline "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." But the joke was sick then, and it's lethal now.
14
Wouldn't it be nice to have one week where none of the news shows say a word about the Donald? I'm going to Ecuador in a few weeks and hoping . . .
2
It's a pity few, if any Republican lawmakers will read this. I am sending the link to my (Republican) representative, and I hope you all do the same.
4
"We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils. Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions. Neither party is immune from a pull to the extreme."
LAUGHABLE! This is exactly what you are doing. From the way they passed obamacare to invoking the nuclear option. This piece is silly.
4
They passed Obamacare with 58 votes, and no nuclear option for SCOTUS.
Biiig difference.
14
Are there any decent people, with courage left in Washington DC? Is there anyone who is willing to challenge the effective Republican coupe d"etat? The Democratic party continues to roll over and show the Republicans its belly. There is no fight left. Citizens United has completely corrupted the American political system, its cancer has metastasized and rotted our government to the core. It didn't take much, since the Republicans, long ago, sold their souls to the wealthy devils, and they no longer care a whit for anyone who is not in the top 1%. Also, due to the stupidity of the racists, 63% of white men, and 53% of white women, who giddily voted for Donald Trump, our democracy, and country are on a direct course to destruction.
14
Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein...
First, welcome to the party. Did this just occur to you? I'm a musician and a personal trainer, and this has been obvious to me since President Obama first took office. News flash, fellas.... the earth is round, too.
Second, and what really weighs on my mind, is to what end Republicans see this moving towards? What does the country look like when they're finished? No, seriously.. not just kings and serfs... what do you think this country will look like physically, after all the environmental damage? How about fiscally, after having the poor and even middle class with no safety net whatsoever? What happens then? How about the country's mental state? The 1% have pitted the 99% against each other for decades. What happens if they join forces? We have more guns than people in this country. How will that play out? Do Republicans think this final fiscal raping of the country via their tax plan will have a positive ending for the U.S.?
The only thing they must be thinking for a National Plan for the Country is....
"I'm making a ton of money now, and when I die, my kids get to keep it."
The End.
13
"We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils."
True, Democrats are not angels. But what kind of political party is silent in the face of Trump's attacks on political norms (e.g., despicable attacks on the press)? What kind of party sees that U.S. corporations are doing better than ever - while inequality is worsening and American workers are struggling - and decides the solution is to take away the bargaining power of workers, cut programs that mostly benefit retirees and the working poor, and give a huge tax break to those corporations? What kind of party looks at the reality of anthropogenic global warming and thinks what we need is to make that dire situation worse?
I'll tell you what kind of party does those things: an evil and corrupt one.
14
I think that the reason why we find ourselves in the current political predicament is a little different from what the authors have suggested. I think the current tax bill is designed to comfort those who seek a plutocracy. By plutocracy I mean a government or state where the wealthy class rules. Since the seriously wealthy rarely constitute more than 1% of the population a plutocracy has to destroy effective democracy. That requires playing a long game with skill, patience and determination to achieve success.
Many regard the essential pillars of democracy to be an independent judiciary, and vibrant and respected media and a politically engaged middle class. For 20 or more years these pillars have been under attack by a would be plutocracy that has steadily enlisted the GOP and seeded the media with vehicles of propaganda. It found its figure head in Donald Trump who, with his combination of belligerence, arrogance, bigotry, authoritarian tendencies and narcissistically enhanced media skills, was the perfect person to complete their agenda.
The behavior of the President and the GOP over the last 12 months is dangerous and should not be excused by normalizing it. The passage of this reprehensible tax bill with only one GOP "no" vote from a Senator who is not running for re-election confirms that the GOP has a struck a Faustian bargain with the Plutocrats and may embolden Trump to fire the special prosecutor. Meaningful democracy in our country is seriously endangered.
15
My cousin, a good guy, goes to one of these all-white evangelical churches where the message is more about GOP values than Jesus.I made the mistake of opinionating that it was time to junk the Electoral College, a view I’ve had since my college days 40 years ago and became especially cogent after last year’s election. My cousin was on the spot with the response of our times: I obviously don’t share the values of true Americans, just coastal radicals.
So there you have it, and it’s not going to get any better.
15
So happy to see this pointed out in an honest and thoughtful evaluation of how we've arrived at this point in our country.
The old false equivalency with which many in the media approached these issues - and many still do - is part of the reason the Republicans have gotten by with their shenanigans for so long. Calling them out, and pointing out that they no longer resemble good and honorable citizens governing in the best interest of our country, should help open the eyes of the public which has too long bought the lies and misinformation propagated by Republicans and a complicit media.
6
Other than the presence of committee hearings, their is little difference between the Democrats cramming of the ACA down the throat of the American public and the manner that Republicans orchestrated the upcoming tax legislation. The idea that, only now, Congress doesn't work and the Republicans broke it is simply delusional. Until we eliminate gerrymandering and mandate term limits, we will all be held hostage to the dysfunction we are seeing.
3
"We do not come at this issue as political partisans; .."
This is one of the most partisan articles I have seen. The evidence is in every sentence.
5
Thank you! This needed to be said.
And lest we forget:
On the night of Barack Obama’s first inauguration, a group of top GOP luminaries quietly gathered in a Washington steakhouse to lick their wounds and ultimately create the outline of a plan for how to deal with the incoming administration.
“The room was filled. It was a who’s who of ranking members who had at one point been committee chairmen, or in the majority, who now wondered out loud whether they were in the permanent minority,” Frank Luntz, who organized the event, told FRONTLINE.
Among them were Senate power brokers Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl and Tom Coburn, and conservative congressmen Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan.
After three hours of strategizing, they decided they needed to fight Obama on everything.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-republicans-plan-for-the-...
10
The majority of the electorate is aghast at the unfolding collapse of the institutions created by the Constitution. Micth McConneii, representing a state with a population of less than 5 million, is ill-suited for a world of 7 billion people. Rural Southern states are out of contact with the robust technology economy created by tolerance and globalization.
With a much bigger world you do not get a smaller government. Government must keep pace with a changing world or the country will fall to the competition. Government is part of the economy. Cutting government harms the economy.
A vast tidal wave of resources will sweep away these racist, rural, Southern corrupt politicians. As they seek to take away food, medical care, education, social security and the vote from poor people, may these corrupt racists be swept out to sea by the votes of the educated electorate.
Now that they have made multi-billion dollar estates tax free, may the wrath of working families vote the bums out of office.
14
The moneyed donors have succeeded in learning how to subvert and even misappropriate the intents of our Founding Fathers.
7
The GOP has virtually nothing worth saving in its current form, this much I agree with. That they didn't hold any hearings on tax reform is a sign of how legislation is crafted in our plutocracy that we somehow insist on calling a democracy.
But, the authors loose any claim of impartiality when they are registered Dems. A one-line disclaimer, they their party are not angels either, is wholly inadequate when the other 99% of this piece is a j'accuse of the GOP only. Granted, there is a lot to accuse them of, but one-sided pieces like this only serve to deepen the divisions.
Finally the authors' attempt to explain how we got here misses the mark by a mile. None of the reasons they state is the root of then problem. The crux is campaign finance. Citizens United was only the final nail in the coffin, and not what initiated the corrupt system we have -- for that we need to look back at when McCain-Feingold was done away with.
As long as we have moneyed interests interfering with our races for elected office we cannot talk about democracy.
Democracy is the rule of the people.
Plutocracy is the rule of the "plutos" (from the Greek word for "riches").
We must get to the bottom of any outside agents' interference with our elections, but this outside interference is tiny compared to the interference-from-within of our campaign financing system.
We have to believe as Americans in that higher ideal that one's own vote is the sole reason for someone to be elected.
6
I think the problem can be restated simply. If one party's mission is to win at all costs and the other party's mission is to govern, how can we have an effective two-party system? This is not a sporting event where it's ok to look the other way if your winning QB beats up his wife occasionally, this is public service.
9
What I don't get is why middle-class Republican voters support economic policies that fail them? Do they think this new tax plan favors them or do they not care as long as the Democrats lose?
I don't see the point of supporting a party or its candidates if it doesn't look out for my interests. It's why I hope a more progressive candidate challenges Sen. Warner in the Democratic primary in my state. His sponsoring of a predatory payday loan bill was the last straw. He has time and again shown himself to be too plutocratic.
3
All of what Mann and Ornstein wrote is true.
What is not said is that none of what Mann and Ornstein wrote would be possible without the aiding, abetting, catering, colluding and concurring of major segments of America society, some who should have really known better.
Anoesis: a state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content.
2
Trump hasn't broken with past Republican policies: he has accelerated them. That key fact matches the facts with precision. Democrats should stop reacting and begin working on a shadow government to replace the wreckage that will ultimately result from the disaster about to befall us. It's not business as usual.
5
Yes, the system is broken. The US Constitutional system was based on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches keeping each other in check. Nonetheless, as the judiciary increasingly became the power to affect societal change rather than the elected representatives it quickly poisoned the other branches of government. From the 1980's onwards battles over court appointments polarised the parties. Then Harry Reid invoked the "nuclear option" and McConnell has taken it to a whole new level.
I do think that Trump and the GOP will be thrown out, but that will lead to only more brinksmanship but on the other side.
2
Citizens United ruling is one 4th nail in the coffin too. But the rest was spot on. Combine all that with the CU ruling suddenly rendering the citizen voters unimportant in the election equation. Big donors became king, and after-Congress jobs became more lucrative and started becoming available earlier.
4
Time for term limits, the direct election of President, the use of public funding only for Senate, presidential, and congressional races, and some kind of recall of a president who is as crazy as the one we currently have.
8
I find it particularly ironic that much of our military is recruited from economically depressed areas, among those most adversely impacted by the GOP's rapaciousness. For the promise of a stable job, and with few other prospects, they are asked to defend policies which siphon wealth out of their communities, deprive their children of a good education and offer no hope or security. Largely invisible to the rest of us, these men and women are essentially mercenaries for a corporate state, serving the interests of an elite which who would not touch them with a ten foot pole, much less encourage their own offspring to enlist.
10
I read The Broken Branch a decade ago, and found its description of congressional problems useful. I agree that we have entered a new and dangerous era of complete political breakdown. It is a time that calls for all of us to fight to regain our country and government. I want to join with anyone, Republican or Democrat, or Independent, who is willing to confront this threat to our very existence as a representative democracy. “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
4
The authors left out gerrymandering and voter suppression, which have been the key to Republicans gaining and holding political power. The backlash is coming, and it's going to be fierce. The GOP has no idea.
10
As sophisticated and educated as the authors are, the text of this article appears to be naïve and almost wistful in wishing for the "good old days" of politics. To a person, the Republican Party is beholden to the wealthiest of the conservative class through greed and ambition. Ethics and morality do not enter into the equation. What is occurring is no less than a coup with the levers of all three branches of government being deformed to ensure that these individuals are capable of overriding the checks and balances created in a simpler time. By the time even the Trumpists awaken to the fate that has befallen them it will likely be too late to reclaim our Democracy. As we speak the its light appears to be flickering down to a small spark that can then be drowned in pail of water.
7
Republicans have always represented themselves as the business party. They adopted the pretense of a moral high ground in the 80s and 90s by adding the Christian values group(anti-abortion) but in reality and action have always wanted to destroy the New Deal programs - SS, Medicare, welfare. They have little to offer the majority of white/Christians that have been voting for them and therefore must rationalize tax cuts for the rich as meritorious. The ideology blames the Gov't program recipients for their predicament. On the flip side those who are wealthy are virtuous. They successfully branded Democrats as amoral, a false choice for a virtuous, Christian person. Presently the Republican Congress is acting 100% according to the original, natural Republican platform.
4
Future historians, if there are any, will likely identify three key villains in the decline of American politics and governance in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: Newt Gingrich, Rupert Murdoch, and Mitch McConnell. Immedidately upon the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, Gingrich worked to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency. He even managed to engineer his impeachment. Echoing, and amplifying Ronald Reagan - "goverment t is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" - Gingrich relentlessly lied both about the motives and actions of both elected officials (as long as they were Democrats) and career civil servants. A gullible press unquestioningly broadcast his pronouncements on matters great and small. To this day, it still does. Mr. Murdoch, through his demon child Fox News, has almost single-handedly destroyed the public's confidence in the press, and as a result, millions of Americans now doubt the existence of verifiable truth. This is a crime of such enormity that one hopes diviine retribution awaits the criminal. Mr. McConnell, a small man in a big job, has during his tenure as Senate majority leader reduced that once-great institution tp something like the Supreme Soviet of the former USSR. It's relationship to a functionaly democratic legislature is purely historical. Some observers may believe that this era is sure to end and that a return to hisotrical norms and practices is inevitable. I have no such hopes or illusions.
9
Great article. Sadly, Republicans have taken us beyond the tipping point.
3
Someone give me the best examples of state governments that retain the civil norms of governance and ethics and obey the will if its constituents by debate and compromise. Which states are the best collective model for our federal government?
Let's vote for the state governments that best represent what Mann and Ornstein are writing about. There may just a few.
2
Mr Mann,
"Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions."
Political parties exist for exactly one purpose, that is to concentrate political power in the hands of the few and the powerful. All political parties are anti-democratic.
5
I admire Mann and Ornstein enormously. There are so few credible people monitoring US politics from the perspective of the public's interests. Finding credible independent reality checks is hard with our endless din of shallow political rhetorical opining broadcast everywhere.
There was a time when the US didn't have today's extremely dubious leaders and one party extremism. That time has passed, and Washington is awash in the most shallow, self-serving politics. Historic in size.
This last sentence bothers me, "The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose."
I don't think politics has ever worked like this. The GOP holds vast political power and wealth. I don't see change happening due to new-found institutional benevolence or public empathy from within. Whether the GOP runs a kleptocracy, or some other type of government, change and accountability has to come from outside.
Fault has to be the loss of those institutions made to check one party from running amuck in power, as we see happening.
There's the loss of a well regulated fourth estate industriously working in all 50 states, in some basic public interest (deregulated by the GOP in 1987, and disappeared over time).
The Dems holding to Clintonian "triangulation" & "incrementalism" politics is not enough real opposition. The political hobbling of unions in the '80s. and slow decline is another problem.
Without institutional opposition this new, (and very old) extreme fringe politics will continue to thrive.
4
Our only hope is that NK can reach D.C.
3
No mention of the money sloshing through the campaigns of elected officials, that surprises me. Feeling beholden to the mega donors to their campaigns and to the small but vocal groups of primary voters leads members of the House and Senators to ignoring the needs of the country as a whole. As long as donors keep donating we will continue to see elected officials voting on huge pieces of legislation virtually sight unseen but written at the behest of the donors.
17
" Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions. Neither party is immune from a pull to the extreme."
And...all this time- I thought Political Parties "existed" to represent the interests of the people who registered as voters with those political parties; Man- was I misled.
15
Yes. Indeed. This is the embodiment of corruption.
2
1990s? Lol... try the 1980s. What part of "government is the problem, not the solution" is not demonizing government?
27
Blaming the Rep party is just as pointless as blaming the Dem party. Both parties push the buttons of citizens to drive outrage and fundraising. Operating in the middle where most US citizens would get along quite nicely does not work for them. Now both parties are held captive by big money so the country continues down the path of bankruptcy regardless who is in office.
You are wrong when you say "Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties." We really need more than 2 parties as we are locked in a zero sum game political battle which is very destructive.
11
No. What you are doing here is the classic communist/GOP whataboutism.
It is the republicans who do that the democrats talk about real things and if they happen to outrage you then maybe you are paying attention. It is not intended to outrage you it is intended top inform you so that you can think about how to make things better.
The GOP uses outrage and religion and emotionalism to get what they decide they want before ever applying any thought to the topic since it has nothing to do with doing their job of making the country run better and using its resources to help all of us.
2
Yes. What Democrats don't yet understand is that the DNC and the Democratic Party and Clinton are all actually Republicans. We're given a choice to vote for Big Money Republicans or Big Money Republican-lites.
The Republican-lites throw us an occasional bone, whereas the Republicans leave nothing on the table. This makes it easy for soft-minded Democrats to rationalize their vote.
Until the so-called Democrats tighten up their shoes and join the Progressives, Republicans will continue to have their way with us all.
As for a third party, that is not viable in our plurality system, and I base my opinion on Duverger's law.
Every Democrat has to become a Progressive to take our country back from fascism - there is no other way.
2
I'm sorry but your comment is an example of the denial of reality by too many Americans that Mann and Ornstein are arguing against. To suggest that this is a problem of "both parties" is exactly what it isn't and as long as you and people like you cling to that view, we will not confront the pernicious threat that the Republican Party represents to our democracy and our country.
2
While Mann and Ornstein certainly have more access to 'Inside Washington' information than I do, while the spectacular enforcement of this Republican 'looting vehicle' of a tax bill will inflict great pain on Americans, and while it surely appears that the Republicans have broken not only Congress, but our entire government, and our country --- any attempt to paint the Republican Party as beyond the pale and assume that the other Democratic Party will set things right, strikes me as wishful naiveté.
I often use the following analogy that I recently commented to Paul Street: "the greatest danger among the lesser informed, but enthusiastic leftish, progressive-lite folks who might well be delighted with mere Democratic wins in '18, or for a Democratic 'Obama-like' flop of a President in '20, envisions the horror of a tenth (10th) deadly 'least worst voting cycle" of merely "jumping out of the Orange-monster's frying pan" without knowing that they will be "jumping into the duplicitous dollar-drenched 'D' Vichy Party's fire", and winding-up as Empire toasted marsh-mellows AGAIN!
Yes, the 'rougher-talking' neocon 'R' Vichy Party 'clown car' will certainly be applying great pain now --- but "in the long run" a short-term jump to the 'smoother-lying' neoliberal-con 'D' Vichy Party seems, IMHO, to offer the ultimate stability and luxury vehicle that this disguised global capitalist Empire could drive forever.
We Americans need to make a revolutionary change in cars and parties.
4
Agree with last sentence. But it was easier to break out of Alcatraz. We are surely doomed.
2
Pirates unloading a sinking ship have higher principles than today’s GOP.
19
The party of Lincoln is dead. The more accurate term for this entity since 2010 is the Nihilist Party.
18
Think about it. Was there ever a party of Lincoln after he departed. I don't think so.
5
No The American Communist Party fits better. They are already in all but name.
1
The GOP has pretty much ceased couching its lies with weak explanations. I look at Mitch McConnell's face and see a look of weariness; weariness of having to be "bothered" with such minutiae. They are all aware (even the fake patriots of doing the right thing like McCain and Murkowski who sold Alaska for less than the requisite 30 pieces of silver) their state's voters (not their real Constituents) are pretty much ignorant and will pay more attention to the 10% off sale at the " 99 Cent Only Store" than who's picking their pockets: The rest of us- they never cared about.
America may have to come crashing down upon itself before any change is possible. But- the GOP Problem is mainly a Stupid-People problem and there really is no fix for willful Stupidity.
24
Putin couldn't wish for a more destructive party. I don't know what Mitch McConnell cares about, but he sure doesn't seem to care about this country much.
It really seems that they want to end the US government. Guys, it won't turn out well for you if this happens.
Most of the really wealthy people in this country are not all that well educated. It isn't the voters that are dumb, but rather its the rich people that are dumb. Many of them don't even have college degrees.
I really wish somebody could get a bug into the Koch brothers' offices. Are they evil enough to charge them with treason? I think they're absolutely treasonous.
18
No. The voters are very ill informed and extremely apathetic or pathetic. Either word works.
5
As a child, I would battle with my older brother to share a remaining slice of pie. My wise mother instituted the policy that my more dexterous brother would cut the pie and I would choose my half. This guaranteed that the pie was, give or take a few molecules, evenly split.
I later dated a young woman and shared my family’s pie-sharing norms. She shared the I-cut-you-choose tradition in her family. Like me, she had an older brother, but her older brother would cut the pie as he saw fit, deposit a wad of spit on the the larger slice, then let his sister choose between the larger or the smaller, mucous-free slice.
My date’s brother would be a man after Mitch McConnell’s heart. Our nation had wise founders who set up institutions and norms with the intent of maximizing the values, interests, and contributed wisdom of ALL parties involved in governance. McConnell, while he has (barely) kept the outward form of these norms and conventions, has stripped from these norms the design by the founders to maximize wisdom in our government.
Epilogue: I still love my brother dearly, despite that he and I made different choices in voting for President. My date’s brother, last I heard, was estranged from his family.
16
Just browsing through the juvenile and lying tweets of the oligarch-in-chief is painful. That the GOP reveres this man is grotesque.
13
I cannot believe that John McCain went along with this ruining of America.
19
"We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils."
But, it is clear that vast 10's of millions of Republicans believe the opposite to the core of their being: That Democrats are in league with Satan and Republicans are on the side of God and the Angels.
How else can one explain Roy Moore, a foul segregationist, anti-Constitutionalist alleged pedophile running neck&neck with Doug Jones, the hero who finally got justice in the 16th Street Church bombing? Moore, a truly evil, dishonest alleged predator is seen clearly on the Angels' side, but Jones, an honorable man, is seen on Satan's.
How else could SO many people have seen Donald Trump, a man with a 45 year public history of being a selfish, self-indulgent, bankruptcy-declaring, scam artist sued multiple times for cheating all kinds of people out of millions of dollar as "better" than Hillary Clinton, who, has a few blemishes on an otherwise lifetime of working for the betterment of others? How do Benghazi and eMails compare to Trump U, and 16 sexual assault charges, including a rape, and 6 bankruptcies? Yet Trump is President and Clinton's in Chappaqua.
But the authors are right: Trump is the consequence of decades of Republicans pushing more and more for a one-party state. From Gingrich in 1994, to the attempt at a "perpetual majority" by denying ANY donor access to Republicans if they gave a DIME to Democrats, to the blatant racism and obstructionism of the Obama years, Trump is THEIR fault!
19
We have entered a topsy-turvy, looking-glass world.
The contrarian right has adopted this childhood chant: I'm rubber and you're glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. To wit:
-GOP lies are real, while the facts of the left are fake.
-The the alt-right is for the middle class while the alt-left is elitist.
-In Trump's view, Republican Roy Moore, accused child molester, should be elected to the Senate. Al "Frankenstien" should be evicted.
-The administration doesn't work for the Russians, but Hillary did. That's why she gave them America's uranium reserves.
-Russia may systematically kill enemies like journalists and political opponents. But Putin, at least, is a real leader -- strong on crime, gun rights and anti-immigration policies. Obama was weak.
How about a few real facts: Far-right Christians have lost their way. The biblical mores are presently inconvenient, while the GOP agenda is everything. In Paul Ryan's words, "We stand for Trump," i.e. Mr. Immoral. The right claims to be working for the middle class but, like Amazon packages, it seeks to deposit taxpayer billions on the doorsteps of the uber-wealthy. Their tax bill steals from commoners to give to the rich -- such as donors and lobbyists. And the reluctant GOP senators who voted Friday for the tax bill, after receiving a few sops, expose the depths of their party's hypocrisy.
Republicans aren't draining the swamp, they wallow in it like pigs in mud.
13
An ancillary but significant factor in the decline of representative government has been the reduction of political discourse to partisan showmanship. The presidential debates and their associated primaries had much more in common with gladiatorial circus than reasoned debate.Both parties and,especiallythe networks, were instrumental in this debasement The production values derived from world wide wrestling....base insults,clear lies,panderringto selected audiences for cheap applause, failure of moderators too confront lies,despicable behaviors and rude insults, led to the election the least qualified most ignorant., narcissistic and dangerous president in the former repubic's history. We now confront a plutocracracy with a laughable verneer of
populist support and an egotistic idiot at the helm.
6
-Unpayable, strangling, government-sanctioned interest on loans for higher education--a burden bringing down educated-enabled-to-think voters
-Government-applauded cost of higher education reaching record heights, increasingly excluding potential thinkers, especially those not white and male
-Infiltration of higher education by Koch-backed, “think-tank” “experts” exactingly creating a pulpit from which to systematically destroy the scientific pursuit of truth
-Govt-subsidized pharmaceutical companies creating stupefying, murderous drugs that get labeled only “Schedule II”
-Those same drugs over-prescribed by drug-company-backed medical system
-Resultant thought-impaired, uneducated electorate (see item #2 on list) easily swayed by a lie-spewing, hyped-up media
-Koch money and the like backing and controlling lie-spewing media that oh-so-cunningly produces voters who vote against their own livelihood
-A Russian-backed easily-inflatable puppet monopolizing lie-spewing media with increasingly insane behavior to keep the drooling, drugged public memorized while democracy is being murdered in plain sight
-Fact or Fiction?
8
What is the role of the Fairness Doctrine in all of this? My impression is that when we lost that, conservative talk radio took off. A bunch of mostly white male angry talk radio hosts riling people up for decades, playing on the fascist side of people's natures. That fascist side is always there, ready to come out. These radio hosts stirred it up. There's money in stirring up anger. And there are those who seek power who say: sure, we're fine using the dark side of human nature for our own purposes. Now we are here. Good luck to us all. This next year promises to be a wild ride. Hopefully the moment will present itself where it is clear to all who can see that is time to stand up.
9
We will dismantle all of this next year when we "wave" (a big blue one) at the Republicans. Nothing is permanent--especially their majority. Enjoy the short-term "victory" for your short-term thinking. Predator Trump makes everyone around him dumber by osmosis.
2
How comforting to think that Republicans broke America.
It's just sickening how absolutely no loves the idea of this country enough to realize that what is going wrong is fundamental to who we are; it's not aberrant; it's as orderly as sowing corn and then harvesting corn.
The Republicans, acting alone, didn't give ONE MAN the power to destroy the world!
Republicans, acting alone, didn't devise a system THAT ALLOWS legislation to be passed without the input and cooperation of the whole nation through its elected representatives!
Republicans have not acted alone in failing to meaningfully invest in the universal education of all Americans--left, right; top, bottom--so that solutions to our problems are made possible on the basis of shared understanding and methodology.
Potholes in our Constitution, in our ethos itself, have been exposed, and all anyone can write is a cowboy song about how we are being wronged. We are not being wronged! We are being righted, with ourselves. America's reflection now includes Neo-Nazis; not on the fringes, but on the front pages with advocates at the right elbow of the President.
Write all you want. Talk all you want. The lies we are telling ourselves are going to stop us dead in our tracks. We are at war.
4
It is well past time to stop the false equivalencies between the Democrats and the Republicans. They have never been the same. One only needs to look at the first example cited in this article: to republican behavior in the 1990's when another Democrat was president, through to their outrageously disrespectful treatment of Obama. And let's not forget their heist of the Supreme Court seat occupied by Gorsuch. Throughout it all they have delegitimized Congress, the Supreme Court, and, now, with the puerile pugilist in the WH, the Presidency. The GOP is a deplorable lot, exploiting the deeply religious, the downtrodden and racists to promote their clear agenda to feed the oligarchs. We're a broken nation.
18
Highlights of the republican treason
1. Nixon using the Whitehouse as if he were an autocrat.
2. Roger Ailes, Pat Buchanan et al conspiring together to subvert our system and taking control of all three branches to break the balance of powers.
3. The failure of the Press to understand and remark upon the Communist level of party loyalty and adherence to the party dogma to the point of destroying anyone who was independent utterly that the reagan republicans enforce to this day.
4 reagan interceding to make sure Murdoch got citizenship when Congress was ready to prevent it on Advice from many Britons. This is almost as harmful as the de-regulation and alterations in law he helped produce with his propaganda machine.
5 Bill Clinton staking out positions to the right of reagan's 1979 positions and endorsing much of the harm reagan inflicted on us. Finally he ended up finishing off the last parts of regulatory safety the people had. No one saw fit to focus on or fix the unnatural sea change caused by propaganda that has so altered our politics that "democrats" were now further right than the ultra right wing ronald reagan. Still Are!
6 W and Cheney et al looting the States treasuries of their surpluses and driving many into debt with energy market scams prior to September 11th 2001. Then taking that event to really going to town on looting our treasury and turning our Constitution into toilet paper.
7 The election of Trump by the GOP with Russian KGB man's assistance!
13
GOP is a legalized gang. It steals from the less well to do, so it receives it’s checks. Gang leader mcconnel confesses. When the deficits come, trim congress.
4
We are in all out war and the Democrats better recognize that or the Trumpsters will win, a Cold Civil War. It's not over til its over.
11
Several of the central concerns of the Republicans are now rotten to the core, and have even, more likely than not, pushed the Trump campaign to commit treason. Note, for instance, today's news that before the election the Kremlin approached the Trump campaign through the NRA, in order to set up a secret backchannel between Putin and Trump. This on top of everything else that we know about the NRA. The first secret meeting between the Kremlin and the campaign was to be at the NRA's annual convention. These NRA meetings were orchestrated by "Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of the Russian central bank and key figure in Mr. Putin’s United Russia party." The conservative Christian activist and NRA supporter Paul Erickson wrote that he had “slowly begin cultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin” in recent years.
8
I've long been a fan of their book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks, in which their hair was slightly less on fire but the message was the same.
The GOP is entirely a bought-and-paid-for bunch of lackeys serving the Kochs, Mercers, etc. This should not come as a surprise - it has always been the party of the wealthy, but now it is mercilessly grinding down everyone but those very wealthy.
The party is corrupt, it is beyond redemption, it is evil.
The only pr
7
we need a 10 million citizen march on Washington to take our country back!
10
The Republican Party = ignorance and exclusion.
Republicans: the world is a zero-sum "game", every possible resource is finite and must be allocated according to a world view that excludes non-whites, non-males, non-straights, the non-wealthy, and the non-Christian. This view depends on tribal instincts and protectionism fostering conflict domestically and warfare internationally. There is a fascination with money, and a devaluing of non-business activities like education, science, etc. not seen as income generators but as threats to control of the populace "required" for the wealthy to maintain economic superiority, resulting in the wealthy's sense of entitlement and moral superiority and corresponding sense of disdain and fear towards those "below" them.
The Democratic Party = knowledge and inclusion.
Democrats: the world is a place with room to grow, resources can be shared, increased, or newly created. Citizens' talents may be developed, utilized, and appreciated according to a view that race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, and faith affiliation rank second behind a person's unique, primary importance as a citizen within a shared society. Education, science, etc. can address world problems instead of hoarding. Less sense of superiority because economic resources are shared, and do not define individuals, so tribalism holds less sway. Conflict and warfare are last resort; cooperation domestically and beyond is more important.
Broad outlines, but accurate.
9
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution." -- John Adams
8
Trump's approval rating at 33% and the GOP only tax plan when exposed for what it is ,a windfall for the donor class as demanded by them. Controlling the message by Trump's fact free tweets and right wing media spinning conspiracy theories will muddy the waters. The base and 1% are on board but if the democrats take the house in 2018 and Trump's approval rating sinks to 30% the GOP may dump him and be happy with Pence. The 1% always wins in any case even if a crash with billions in a cushion no worries for them but the poor and elderly on fixed incomes a lot to worry about. Trump can spin all the wild fantasies of his wonderfulness but when his base gets burned personally he is toast.
2
Excellent Article. Republicans are purposely destroying our democracy, and turning it into an autocracy - One that is controlled by Billionaires for the benefit of Billionaires. The propaganda being put out by the White House, FOX "news", Breightbart, and others is serving to undermine our Democracy and move us toward autocratic rule.
It is time to put party politics aside, and make sure our Democracy remains healthy. Democracy is what makes this country great - Without it, we loose our freedom and our voice !
5
You might think that the Kochs would look at what they've done to once prosperous Kansas, and acknowledge that trickle-down economics are just voodoo lies after all. But the Kochs already know that. They didn't do one or two appalling things to Kansas. They did a dozen appalling things each and every day until Kansans were buried under the thousands of assaults it takes to subvert and destroy a government. The real lesson of Kansas is that the Kochs can take everything from a state (or a nation) with absolutely no outcry, no accountability, no hesitation, no problem. To ignore them is to enable them.
7
I am horrified at this tax bill, but there is something odd at the end of this article.
"Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties..."
Why two? I think we are at a point where our country would be best served by more than two parties, since it is totally polarized. If our lawmakers were forced to build coalitions, then they would have to work together. We have one-party rule at this time, and that makes us no different than, say, China.
All Democrats on one side, and only ONE Republican who voted no on this horrifying tax bill.
My outlook is not optimistic, why should it be? It seems that we are bound to repeat history. Must it take another Great Depression and/or horrific world events that affect us all directly to wake up the self-righteous and under-informed electorate? I'm not exaggerating when I say this.
Donald Trump was elected, in great part, because people cannot think outside of their "tribe" and accepted the fear-mongering, the racism, the tribalism, the non-issues as issues.
Did American voters bring tragedy upon themselves by ignoring reality, or is ignorance beneficial to the Republican party?
I think both of these two are valid arguments.
I am bracing myself for catastrophe. This tax legislation will punish all of us; don't worry about the millionaires, they are the few ones who will be all right when it all falls apart.
1
Please refer to the "Powell Doctrine", created by Louis Powell before Nixon appointed him to the Supreme court in 1973. This "doctrine" is the foundation for the Republicans take-over of our country - strategic, well funded by wealthy elites and, frankly, brilliant. They invested in a solid political, media, legal, voter supression, ideological corporate and financial infrastructure that has become the underpinnings of their false narratives, lies, framing and legislation. They have huge donor money behind them. Example: Sheldon Adelson "invests" $25mm (1/10 of 1% of his $25B) into the Trump and Congressional campaigns in 2016 and the new tax cuts will save this guy billions.
The Dems - no compelling future vision or plan for America, no strategy, no framing ("A Better Deal"-pathetic), no infrastructure, just raise $ election by election. no engagement - "please, send me $1 or $5". The Dems do have a built in challenge with big donors. If the Dems stand for the middle class and less fortunate, for students, elderly, etc., then those who invest large $ in Dem candidates will not make the kind of personal financial returns that R's do. Dem policy is actually more about fairness, equity and what's better for the nation than the R's promise of major returns for their donors. Witness the current tax cuts and who really benefits. The Dem donors have to invest their political $ to build a better future for the children instead of simply lining their pockets with more $.
2
The Republicans broke congress and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and four Republican justices broke our country and our Democracy.
4
I've read Mann and Ornstein's books and believe they articulate very well how the Republican Party has poisoned our politics. There is a long list of nasty things Republicans have done to undermine the credibility of government. You can cite the racist "Southern Strategy" intentionally using integration against Democrats to Gingrich's list of derogatory terms to use when describing Democrats to Birtherism and the Tea Party. But, I think the real root cause of our political system spinning off its axis starts with Reagan's declaration that 'government isn't the solution to our problems, government IS the problem'. That statement that Republicans embraced may be the beginning of the end our country's position in the world.
Republicans and conservative groups have spent decades now convincing people that government is their enemy. They have hammered home the idea that government is the root of all evil. So, why should anyone be surprised when sixty-three million people vote to burn it all down. Why not? If government itself has been and is the problem, why not elect a know-nothing who proclaims he will "drain the swamp". The fundamental problem is that Republicans have convinced people their government is a swamp.
Now we all pay the price for Republican lies.
6
Remember Mitch McConnell after the 2010 midterm election: “Our number one priority is to make Barack Obama a one-term President.” He and the GOP then blocked everything, even after not succeeding in 2012. Their contempt for the health of the country took my breath away.
9
This rot has at its core the influence of money in politics. The Supreme Court in its ruling has created this horrific result. Other developed countries have put limits on corporate influence. The only solution is a Constitutional Amendment which supercedes the Supreme Court ruling. Do we really want to become a Plutocracy, like Russia, Mexico, Colombia and so on? People, quit watching the royal engagement and engage in the takeover of your money, retirement and ability to survive!
7
You forgot to mention the depleted judiciary whose seats are now being filled with conservatives.
This is a disaster, as is the appointment of Gorsuch, with eventually more appointments to come, and thanks to Schumer, no filibuster allowed!
Because once again, for love of a political stand, Schumer tried to filibuster Gorsuch's appointment when its futility was so obvious, and in return, McConnell eliminated the filibuster for future supreme court appointments.
Just as Harry Reid eliminated the filibuster for cabinet appointments. Which is why we have all these bad actors in key positions now. Should I mention their names? Scott Pruitt at the EPA, destroying environmental protections.
Ryan Zinke at BLM, destroying our National Monuments, getting them ready for oil and gas drilling (including the Grand Canyon), while pushing to send our wild mustangs to slaughter in Mexico, (60,000 of them!!), Perry at the Energy department which he once promised to eliminate, Betsy DeVos, Education minister who undermines our public schools. I could go on, but the bottom line is, you can blame the democratic "leadership" for this disaster. High-handedness by Harry Reid, and now continued high-handedness by Chuck Schumer, enabled the unscrupulous death march of Mitch McConnell.
You can blame the Republicans for their reckless decisions, but without Democrats having HANDED them the power to make them by eliminating the filibuster, we wouldn't be anywhere near this close of the cliff.
2
Finally, we are getting to the rotten core and examining it.
I would add only one more name: Ronald Reagan. He continued and expanded Nixon's Southern Strategy with its Philadelphia, Miss. dog whistles, he removed the Fairness Doctrine, he devalued higher education, and, most destructively, he deliberately leveraged the post-Vietnam cynicism toward government into the current Republican mantra weakening the collective power of the people, which we call the Federal Government, allowing corporations to take control over everything, including government itself.
10
The Republicans have come a long way from their "good Republican cloth coat" days when fiscal responsibility and integrity were their watchwords. Unless the cloth for the coats are woven in Rumpelstiltskin's workshop by underage workers using gold and silver thread on a warp of greed and fabrication.
2
I'd say the current situation is simpler; look at the audiences at each party's rallies. Republicans are almost completely white, As the country changed, white voters rather than embrace that change decided it was losing their preferred status. LBJ said it best: if you can convince the lowliest white man he's better than the highest black man, you'll win the election.
The Civil War was fought but right now I'm not sure it was won. Hearts and minds did not follow. The south in many areas behaves as if nothing changed. The Republican congress is filled with racists - Jeff Sessions barely hides it. Mitch McConnell refused to work with a mixed race president.
When more women and minorities, along with the next generation are elected to Congress it will begin to change. This will require effort, to get out and get involved not so much around party lines as around American values.
White men have traditionally felt empowered by skin color alone. One more positive outcome of the sexual harassment charges is that it no longer allows those in power to abuse those not in power. Not all are white males of course but the majority are and are protected by predominantly white males. Their numbers are dwindling and right now they're grabbing at everything they can get their grubby little hands on until they fall on their own swords.
3
All the Republicans and conservatives have done is maximize the ways to promote their agenda and put it into power. Instead of complaining about them damaging our political system, the questions should be about why, after eight years of the generally successful Obama administration and the most-qualified presidential candidate in history, (or so they said), the Democrats and liberals can't manage to do the same. This is politics, and just as in many athletic sports, whining to the ref gets you nowhere.
Well put, but nothing will change until the spurious reasoning that led the Supreme Court to deem corporations "people" is debunked and Citizens United is overturned.
7
My only real disagreement with this is that I think it started well before 2006--like 1960 maybe, or 1877 depending on the breadth of your vision. What I'm waiting to see, however, is when the behavior of the Republican Party is going to be punished at the polls. Even with a couple of Democratic presidents, Republicans have dominated government since 1980 and done terrific damage to ordinary Americans. They are currently in the process of doing a lot more. Think white, blue collar or southern, voters are ever going to catch on? I'm not holding my breath.
2
But what is happening now (with the path paved by Reagan through Gingrich through Dubya through Ryan and McConnell into Trump) IS the essential reclamation of the purpose of the Republican Party:
That is, the streamlining of extreme corporate feudalism and the re-creation and fortification of a New Gilded Age, only now on steroids. A place where their leaders can debate, with a straight face, whether there is such a thing as a "society"... A place where hostile corporate takeovers, popular since the 80s, can now be applied to whole countries, notably ours.
Sorry but there can be no serious party politics and no democracy if that democracy has become a "pay-to-play" game solely for the extraordinarily wealthy.
Given the apologetic and infantile rationalizations coming from them, now that even most of them have realized the depravity of those they've empowered, the phrase "conservative intellectuals" has become the perfect oxymoron.
It is likely that the Republican Party and the very rich, by further impoverishing and punishing most everyone else will have taken themselves out, with our help, of the equation of governance for decades to come. So, you won't need to worry about them anymore.
1
Absolutely on target. But it goes well beyond the present plutocratic regime. They have poisoned the well for decades by putting in place jurists who believe that corporations' and fundamentalists' rights are primary. And, they are well on their way to assuring that our lands, water and air are open to plunder. More than this, fundamental belief in government (not just Congress), science, public education, and unbiased journalism has been shattered. So, it is not just Congress but American democracy that is broken. Question is, how long will the enlightened, under-represented states that have not fallen for false populism and nationalism, and contribute more than their share to the national treasury, continue to remain willing bystanders.
5
Well said.
The combination of Republican legislative goals, and their gerrymandering and filling the courts with young extremists leave me bereft of hope for the America we have known. Today,In fact, I realized it is time to start planning for how we and our daughter are to survive in this dystopia.
2
Empires collapse. Their citizens live on. The question I've been grappling with for the last few years is: What's next? What will a post-American empire reality be like? Mass devastation or quiet resentment at the rest of the world but still hobbling along? It seems to me that the only thing protecting us from the former is our vast wealth that will probably last another generation or two. What happens when it runs out?
2
The Republicans conveniently forgot that during the Obama administration they did everything they could to obstruct the functioning of our government. The system of checks and balances that we learned about in school has ironically proven to be what may be the destruction of our system of government. Even small groups such at the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus (both Republican groups by the way) can pretty much hamstring our system. The days of working for the mutual good are gone and all we now have is a system that only works for the moneyed and the connected.
1
As I've written over the past year, the country is in an irreversible death spiral and consequently emigration is to be considered an option especially for those with young children. As for me, I choose to remain on the Titanic listening to the band as it plays on.
3
The latest events in Congress, could bring permanent damage to the once proud and innovative psyche of our Nation and of what it means to be a United States citizen. The tax reform bill, slammed through the Senate in the middle of the night, can do nothing but hinder any sense of confidence, energy and idealism that all citizens require of themselves and with others to participate in an open and free society.
Our nation’s basic constitutional framework is based on the principles of justice, insurance of domestic tranquillity, national security, general welfare and a universal access to the liberty of personal freedoms and responsibilities.
Indeed, these principles have been articulated and maintained through 228 years of debate, sacrifice and compromise, but could be snuffed out quickly and quietly.
The survival of our cherished freedoms and responsibilities, along with simply the chance for current and future generations of citizens to prosper have been diminished through social diseases such as racism, separatism, classism and sexism . This has resulted in the replacement of universal human rights, such as hope, idealism, social connectedness and upward economic mobility, with fear, pessimism, isolation and economic slavery.
This replacement can only erase our future generation’s chances to have the idealism and energy that is a central requirement of a truly free, living and permanent democracy.
1
I think the authors' analysis of the Republicans' role in the dissolution of the American political state is right on target. I'd love to see a similar analysis of why the Democrats seem incapable of responding effectively.
3
No mention in the article of the SCOTUS Citizens United decision. Opening the gates of financial contributions by corporations is another very important reason of why we are where we are now.
2
Join the party you want to change and vote in primaries - it is something every voter can do to pull both political parties toward the middle, and toward working together.
1
Borrowed from another commenter:
The real goal is to provide Republicans with a context and a pretext to take down the safety net, from Social Security and Medicare to the VA, SNAP, CHIP (already dying, thanks to the Republicans who killed its funding framework), and of course, the ACA.
The dark money donors want it all gone, and have provided the Republicans with a template for doing it by building in structural deficits so vast that the only way to "pay for" those tax cuts for billionaires will be to shrink our entire safety net down to nothingness.
Republicans must be very confident about the outcome of next year's mid-term elections.
Because otherwise, you'd think they'd be stroking out over the political damage they risk by passing corrupt and reckless legislation that will do lasting damage to our infrastructure, hurt the elderly, the jobless, the chronically ill, the working poor, middle class taxpayers, homeowners, and everybody in America who makes < $75,000 a year.
Their lack of concern about next year's elections coincides with the right's takeover of our federal courts and vast swaths of the country's news apparatus, the death of net neutrality, the GOP's massive voter suppression project, and the curious reluctance of the administration to take steps to protect our nation's vulnerable voting machines.
Republicans have clearly committed to selling out democracy on a grand scale. After this tax bill, electoral theft is the logical next step.
1
Mr Mann and Mr Ornstein, you were completely off base in 2006. It seems with the latest mockery of the democratic process in the Senate and House you finally woke up to the reality that it isn't "both sides" who are responsible for breaking Congress. Bothsiderism in the media is, in part, the reason Trump is president, and it may be too late to save the remnant of our democracy.
2
Sorry, but if the press would prioritize correctly and make this a more important story than Matt Lauer, than perhaps things would be different.
2
While the Trump administration and the GOP are basking in the glory of the most atrocious tax bill for the middle class since Reagan, I will like to thank Mueller and his team for making what might be our last effort to keep our democracy from being morphed into an oligarchy as a result of the GOP's actions. Do the Republicans have any conscience, or do their economic ties to their democracy-killing oligarch supporters take precedence over everything?
While Trump and the Republicans are dancing with the devil (Putin and his Russian oligarchs), we wonder how this will turn out. Let's hope that Flynn will be the John Dean of the Republican party once more so the truth might win out. It's one thing to have a policy that favors your donors (the oligarchs) to obtain their campaign contributions, but it is another to sell our government out and replace it with an oligarchy similar to Russia's.
We must pray that the Rule of Law will prevail in this country, preventing the merging of US and Russian oligarchs.
It's time to look at Tillerson who was instrumental in trying to create an oil deal with Russia for drilling in the Baltics, to make Russia one of the largest oil producers in the world. Maybe he should be questioned about any underlying connections to Russia as a result of the oil deal that was killed by Obama's sanctions. Is Tillerson still strongly in favor of the oil deal, in spite of evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign?
1
Would spending the $1.5 trillion on US infrastructure have created more middle class jobs, and spurred consumer demand, leading to more economic growth than that coming from the current tax reform plan?
10
The authors of this piece make an excellent point, though it is hardly surprising to cast things in this light given the events of the past years. As someone who came of age during the Clinton years, and been witness to the devolution of our political infrastructure, I am left with one sad thought: why should I continue to care? As a progressive who has never identified as a Democrat (or a Republican), but has votes for both, I question the fundamental utility of the two parties, finding myself resentful or angry.
I have devoted my life and career to the practice of medicine with the philosophy that we live in a caring society, in which we offer resources for the least able to help themselves, and everyone should benefit. But our society does not value this approach, it seems. So why stay? After years of advocacy and fighting, I am tired. And I think it's time to leave this country, and take my skills and passions to a place that appreciates them (hello, Canada!).
Because, if we're honest, the politicians and politics aren't going to change. And most of us don't have enough influence to do anything meaningful.
16
Instead of us being hosts to refugees, we will all want to join you and become refugees ourselves. The truly noble experiment of America seems doomed. My country no longer represents our former common ideals. Heartbreaking, with no end in sight.
2
"The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose."
Why? Has it not defined its purpose? Is it not carrying it out rather effectively? Has it not insured that the federal judiciary will take a hard turn to the right for a generation or more? Has it not insured that the 1% and privileged will continue to prosper at the expense of the rest?
What is there to reclaim?
23
The party should be defined by the populist will of it's voters and while there are some profoundly bad ideas in the leadership of the party and shared by it's most outspoken followers, the majority of Republicans share your thought that income inequality has gotten out of hand and should be corrected. Trump made a lot of outlandish statements, but rural Republicans voted for him specifically to clean up the swamp in DC. While thier judgement was profoundly bad thier purpose was the opposite of making sure the privileged stay in power. That is the purpose they have to reclaim.
1
This all is (and long has been) observably true. I think it goes back to Grover Norquist, his tax pledge and the notion of “making government so small you can drown it in a bath tub.” Republicans have become so wedded to this orthodoxy that it’s now win-at-all-costs politics with no regard for the citizens congress allegedly serves.
This is mindless orthodoxy at its worst and most harmful.
19
Gerrymandering, Citizen's United, voter restrictions.... If there was any doubt about the "coup-like" war on democracy that Republicans have been waging, and for whom, it should end with the last minute way this tax bill was thrown together, and who it benefits, and who will end up paying for it.
22
I enjoyed the article. I would appreciate a follow up with the outline of a plan that would enable us to crawl our way back to representative government, and responsible civil society. The super rich had a plan, and stuck with it for 50 years. They manipulated tax laws so that charitable deductions could be used to promote their ideology, manipulated the media in order to spread their propaganda unopposed, and politicized the courts to their advantage. They manipulated our political system in a directed organized way to increase the influence of the rich, and now they are passing this tax bill to solidify their power. We are the witnesses of a silent coup.
The rest of society, with a few exceptions, stopped paying attention to the fact that class warfare in a Capitalist society is ongoing, and relentlessly waged by the rich. Distracted by dog whistles, the electorate is still some way off from realizing their mistakes. Our policies will have real consequences. The average lifespan of Americans will continue to decline over the next 30 years for the poor and what is left of the middle class, even as therapies for various common diseases, like cancer, show increased efficacy. More toxic exposure.
18
Don't overlook Gerrymandering, by which they have constructed a seemingly impenetrable wall of permanent control of state legislatures: and of house districts.
13
Also, gerrymandering drives polarization because politicians must appeal to the party's base rather than a diverse set of voters.
1
Agree to a point. Rest is the absolute refusal of the Democrats to step up and fight the rise of the right wing extremists is the rest of the story. Weak and ineffectual describes the Democratic party of the past 20 years. Too bad. It may well destroy our country.
6
I couldn't disagree more. The Democrats don't need to bring more partisanship to the table, they need to be the party of sanity. No one who voted for Trump wants the extreme left stance to rescue them. What they want are the positive values Trump promised in the simple format he promised them in, but with a rationality they can trust. The white house was the Republicans to take. The party in the Whitehouse always tends to lose when the incumbent can no longer run. Let's not forget Trump barely won. They may control everything, but just barely so and are slowly, but surely losing thier grip. I want to see the Democrats as the party that makes adult decisions that often mean compromising on ones idealology for the greater good and just be the trustworthy party with a practical plan to clean up this mess come 2020. Don't be the party that takes away tax cuts, be the party that makes them work.
1
Given the radicalism evolved in the US over the last years culminating in this despicable tax overhaul, the reckless as incompetent presidency, the collaborator Republican Congress, I think the US needs to hand the access to its own nuclear stockpile over to some responsible country. I propose Sweden, Denmark, ... . For the sake of mankind.
It is that bad.
8
It's also worth mentioning that Republicans have catered to, organized and weaponized the fundamentalist Christian vote. In order to do that, Republicans have been forced to repudiate science, reason and empirical evidence.
A similar process occurred when Republicans deliberately pandered to the donor class and right-leaning think tanks (including, by the way Norman Ornstein's own American Enterprise Institute.) Siding with the likes of the Koch brothers, the Mercers, ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, etc. has required the Republicans to repudiate the laws of economics. This, in turn, has led them to produce an economic abomination our president wanted to rename the Cut, Cut, Cut Bill.
11
Spelled with three 'K's".
2
Nice to see the NYT wake up and understand what liberals (real liberals, not neoliberals) and progressives have been saying for decades -- the false equivalency line so many in the mainstream media take ends up carrying water for a GOP that is wildly off the rails.
The GOP has been part of a trend that had its seeds sown in 1964 and we're seeing the foul crop that's sprung from it, where even the pretense of good governance is tossed aside in favor of the ideological jackbooting that's going on.
Call them out for what they are, because they're doing untold damage to the country -- both in the here and now, and in the future.
16
My despair over the future of our nation and citizens is nearly complete. These republicans are not supporting their voters, rather their donors. How any sane person could, for example support a tax reduction on one's airplane and tax a teacher for a $250. class expense speaks to the immorality of the republican party.
25
What we've witnessed in the last election is a hatred so deep of Hillary Clinton than anyone else was better. And so rose Mr Trump. What the Democratic Party failed to understand is people matter too, not just ideas (which they failed to promote as vigorously as they promoted the 'woman' factor). Yes there are right wing looonies out there as there are leftest nut cakes too but while I agree with most of your assessment in this editorial, the democrats didn't even follow a Democratic process to selecting their nominee. So while they whine I hope they are looking in the mirror too.
5
Rather than look in a mirror first, I would look at the internet social media defecation purchased by the Russians.
2
Because the unwashed masses are so profoundly good at selecting leaders? As it turns out, all it takes is a russian Facebook account to undermine the democratic process. Given the profoundly bad choices made by voters this election, they need more guidance not less. We need to work on the credibility of that guidance, but less of it seems like the wrong direction.
3
You forgot to mention the republicans not granting obama to pick Supreme Court judge. It’s hopeless if republicans control both houses.
9
This is STILL on the GOP website as of this positing.
https://gop.com/a-national-security-and-intelligence-team-to-keep-americ...
GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN: AN EXPERIENCED VOICE
President-elect Donald Trump has made it a priority to put America First and keep our nation safe. That’s why President-elect Trump has named a decorated Lt. General, Michael Flynn, to serve as his National Security Advisor.
No one has a deeper understanding of the capabilities of the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus on a range of national security issues here at home and around the world. He recognizes the threat that ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism pose to our national security and knows exactly what it will take to keep our nation safe.
He is one of our nation’s foremost experts on military and intelligence matters and will offer invaluable advice to President-elect Trump and his national security team.
President-elect Trump’s appointment of Gen. Flynn has received wide praise.
2
sent the link to my Senator!!!!
I welcome the collapse. It will hit the Trump base the hardest. Reap what you sow.
5
The Trump base are all people making more than $70K per year. Yet somehow the myth they are mostly working people persists.
Congress has been broken since Newt and the contract with America. It was the dawn of extreme tribalism and it has only gotten worse and more vindictive since then. When the first black American was elected they lost their minds and decided to erase any concept of democracy. Now they have a dictator that they cannot even trust in the white house. Don't be surprised if they are successful in accomplishing the biggest transfer of wealth in history with the tax heist they suddenly get interested in impeaching Trump and installing a party friendly bible pounder like Pence.
9
Puppets on strings doing anything and everything that their puppeteers so desire.
6
'cringe-worthy," "Bankruptcy." Using this language to describe Republican members of congress, the Republican Party, is no longer acceptable.
Their behavior is treasonous to the United States of America.
Reflect what is really going on today. We do not have time for the likes of 2006 soft balling, we are in trouble.
18
Yes thanks for saying that. I too cringed at the weak “cringe-worthy”. Sometimes there are no words to express the feelings the actions of the so-called Republican Party evoke, but revulsion and fear for the future are among them.
3
What do we do to regain our country? Wait for Nov 2018? Will it matter?
9
Let all the poison that lurks in the mud hatch out; it will be over soon.
3
In the sixties we went to the streets and demonstrated enough to make our voices heard that the Vietnam war was wrong. Along with voting this is the only way besides armed rebellion to take back our democracy. We the majority the middle, the centrists, need to be out-vocalizing the republican fringe. We need a new loud voice from new young democrats and brave republicans centrists. What has happened is completley un democratic.
Thank you NYT and the authors for this very important article to help us get a grip and a perspective. Now is the time to organize in a unified voice against the republican cabal movement of congress who is stealing our system. Or we will loose more, it will truly be a trickle out giant sucking sound as the balloon of democracy looses its air. Now how and who will do this?
9
It took the centrist middle a long time to realize the Vietnam War was wrong - at the cost of thousands of additional lives. Let's hope they get going a little sooner in this crisis.
1
Vietnam ended in 1975.
Such simplicity! The Vietnam war certainly did not end in 1975; not for the Vietnamese who still suffer, not for the US soldiers who still suffer, and not for the dead. The war will last forever for the dead.
1
The Kochs and their ilk are no longer Americans in any real sense. The GOP is just a tool they've bought to achieve their ends. When the country is hollowed out and teetering in collapse, once they have consumed its entrails, they will be offshore, feet up, with their piña coladas.
16
I am so ashamed by the Republican Party that I have no words to describe it.
14
Big, regressive donors (oligarchy) don't much care if their wishes are met by dems or repubs. But the once slight difference of greater republican acquience has greatly outdistanced the current democrats (even Hillary). One Koch brother must be equal now several million American voters. 1 person 1 vote is a joke. If you vote in Wyoming your vote's worth 14(?) votes in LA. The phrase democracratic America is oxymoronic. The country desperately needs creatives who happen to also possess some altruism. We'll see.
6
This will only turn around when actual voters that are fearful, ignorant, racist or some combination thereof are outnumbered by those that aren't any of those things.
8
the Republican party today just might succeed where Jefferson Davis failed.
9
Nixon's Southern Strategy.
1
"It has become clear that the Republican Party has done unique, extensive and possibly irreparable damage to the American political system."
Yes. Oh, yes. And, of the contributing factors addressed by the authors, let's give an especially loud "shame on you" to the media. During the 2016 presidential campaign, for every predictable insane thing said or done by Trump, the media was sure to follow it up with "what about her e-mails." The media has blood on their hands for normalizing Trump, portraying him as a legitimate candidate and promoting the fantasy that we have two, equally responsible political parties. We don't.
The GOP is beyond evil. But they're just using Trump as their idiot puppet to enact their "let them eat cake," plutocratic agenda. It's all about their beloved 1%. No one else matters.
17
When will We The People march in the streets to overthrow this corrupt Republican Party? It’s time for a revolution.
16
So forcibly overthrow the party that legitimately won the overwhelming majority of elections in 2016? This is Bolshevik talk.
1
If the opposition to Obama by Republicans was racism, then what was the opposition to Bill Clinton? What about turning John Kerry, a war hero, into a wimp and Al Gore into the straight A student you love to hate? Republicans are good at demonizing anyone whose policies they disagree with and they have their misplaced moral certitude to justify it.
15
The obvious motivation for passing the odious and worthless (to average citizens) tax spending bill is that congressional Republicans know they are going to face a very angry public in 2018/2020, and many expect their Senate majority to be wiped out, with a much smaller majority in the House...or worse. So they pass a classic conservative ideological showpiece of made up assumptions and fiscal duplicity that Democrats will, in theory, have to live with.
Governance is something Republicans cast aside in the 1990s and only truly stupid voters support them. One would have to be truly stupid to allow their country to be run by those so incapable of governing for the greater good.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
4
The GOP tribe , wants to do like 1929 Great Depression. Tax cut to the top , corporations ridiculous low percentage to pay ; Wall Street free to gambling without any regulation whatsoever. Welcome to the “Aristocrats’s club. We the 98% get the crumbs. The GOP cabal should Stop saying “One nation under God”.
because God has nothing to do with this nonsense inhumane attitude.
7
We are now setting up for another 1929. Most voters too young to be depression babies and know what it was like. Here it comes again, and with the same symptoms and signs.
1
All politicians are greedy and self-centered.
However, today's Republicans have slavishly devoted themselves to personal gain on a scale that was previously only seen in corrupt third world countries.
They have sloughed off any commitment to truth, to the national interest, to the most basic morality or to serving their constituents. All that is left is an unholy, ceaseless gnawing to get more - more money, more perqs, more power, more 'donations' - for themselves while the getting is good. Next month might be too late, next year doesn't exist. Somewhere in their reptilian brains they know that they and their party will pay for upending the Constitution, lying, betraying and abusing their constituents, attacking convenient minority targets and, perhaps most of all, shielding and following the worst president in American history. So their grabbing is desperate, soulless and relentless.
It also happens to be geographic. The Mason-Dixon Line remains a border in American culture. Perhaps the best thing that could result is that it becomes the new border between a smaller United States and a larger Canada.
9
Not "all", for even one exception will invalidate, but certainly the majority, most of them GOP.
This was Nixon's 'southern strategy'. Guess he got even after all.
2
Sure, Republicans broke congress, but aided and abetted by Democrats who embraced every losing cause they ever discovered these past 3 decades and then began not just ignoring their old base, but trash talking them like a step child.
Republicans could never have achieved such success without suicidal Democratic support.
Democrats could reverse this terminal trend if they gave up on just a few of their sacrosanct crusades. Or just die.
1
It is a coup d'etat. And we are losing it all.
5
A refreshing article that objectively summarized the history of the recent Republican perfidy and the stunning decline of our democracy.
It has been widely reported that much of the Republican "strategy", including the current tax cut plan, has been targeted to support their true constituency, corporations and wealthy donors. Well, given that members of Congress spend up to 50% of their time soliciting donations, rather than doing the people's business, I can somewhat understand their motivation to mollify this tiny, yet powerful minority.
But I am shocked to see no significant mention from either party, or mass media or social media about campaign finance reform! I get it, this is seen as an esoteric snooze-fest by much of the American public. As an incentive to raise awareness on this issue, we need to constantly point out the quid pro quo between campaign contributions and legislation that favors the privileged few.
An argument could be made that part of the reason the post election stock market rise is the expectation among the financial elite that a major tax cut would come soon. Well, mic drop, boom, here we are today, and the future of the country and our democracy be damned.
7
You seem to ignore the huge hole in the dam created by the Citizens United decision. That was one HUGE error.
1
A broken Congress is just one symptom of our failed democracy. We can only hope that the electorate will recognize that the US was captured in a right wing coup aided and abetted by the Russians and the 40 million voters who stayed home in 2016.. They must all unite to clean the scourge known as the Republican Party and Trump, from our government. Anything less is to descend deeper into a fascist world from which there may be no escape. Remember Austria and Germany in the '30s. Abe Lincoln said it best "....you can fool some of the people all of the time (witness the loyal but ignorant Trumpies), but you can’t fool all the people all the time. This is the time to redouble efforts to rid this nation of Trump and his Republican sycophants.
7
... and before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Bob Grant. Bob Grant was the master of hateful right-wing radio. He broadcasted out of New York, and he had a huge following.
2
I think it's time we faced facts: the real Party of Lincoln is now the Democrats:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-democrats-new-party-of-linc...
6
“The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em," the former head of Breitbart News told The American Prospect in an interview. "I want them to talk about racism every day."
"If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats,” he added.
2
Why are they not also writing about Citizens United? This decision led to even richer congressmen (women too but far fewer) whose jobs depend on doing the will of large corporations and supporting a psychopathic demon/idiot whose mental illness they deny. Of course the rise of charter schools that teach whatever they want has not helped create a discerning citizenry. Add to that the proliferation of media that influence those who can’t do their own research to determine the truth or even begin to understand history have also played their part.
6
I for one am tired of seeing people blame Congress, the media, Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wassermann-Schultz, Nancy Pelosi (hm...ever wonder why so many women get on these little lists of blame?), gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and sunspots, for the simple fact that half the country won't go vote, about a hundred million Americans apparently can't read worth a lick, and we'd rather nurse our conspiracy theories and crackpot plans for Constitutional Amendments and impeachment than just go knock on doors and ask people to vote.
And pretty tired of all the secesh talk, too, as though that wouldn't crash the democracy and eventually get a whole lot of people killed.
3
" (hm...ever wonder why so many women get on these little lists of blame?)"
in a word, misogyny.
2
The GOP is a hollowed out shell of itself. When the Party of Lincoln nominated an empty vessel in the name of Donald J. Trump to be their standard bearer. They completely sacrificed any shred of moral clarity. Trump provides political cover and tacit support to right wing extremists, white supremacists, and child rapists.
7
Repuibicans, in congress and out, have no soul and no heart. What do you expect?
5
All those academic economists installed by the Koch machine sure have snowed Susan Collins.
9
All thinking Amereicans can do is retaliate and make Republicans pay dearly for undermining our democracy by destroying Congress and choosing a president who is clearly unfit, unstable and a danger to the country. That means throw the bums out in every future election. And if people are too stupid or too lazy to vote, they deserve what they get.
6
The situation our country is in is frightening. These nuts will do so much damage we may never fix it.
5
The Republican party is the enemy of the American people.
12
This GOP Congress take down of democracy, democratic principles is the result of 50 years of the infestation of the Koch's beliefs;their enormous wealth bought the GOP votes, their opinions on climate change which of course they all deny because they signed for the money in exchange for this lie;the puppet trump mouths whatever the Koch's tell him to, going back to the birther fiction the Koch's started;the Koch infestation is the NRA,the tea party, is the religious right, is the prolife movement;every GOP politician,every cabinet appt.made by trump is the Koch machine;the Koch's money&lie machine is unstoppable,that's why every corrupt GOP congressperson was gleefully grinning at the signing away of democracy because they will benefit from the tax bill&they will get rewards from the Koch's;the GOP at all levels are all Koch operatives;there's no way to stop this monster, And yet,
And yet.....
3
The chronology here is solid, however the last 40 years represent something deeper in America. My grandmother taught me in the 1950s that America was greatest when she was a child: the 1880s. The great men of the nation were not hobbled by laws and regulations. The poor and immigrants in the cities got what they deserved: sickness and death. We were the God-fearing nation we were founded to be. She hated the educated, the cities, and immigrants (especially the Irish). Her special hell was populated by Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower. She would love Trump’s America. And 40% of Americans have felt this way since the founding.
4
And from which country did your grandmother immigrate? What a hateful legacy to pass on to a grandchild.
5
Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein,
Thank you for this. While depressing, it was eye opening. I just have one question -
What is the answer?
8
As a woman of color I know our community has been calling the GOP for what it is (and what we knew it would be become) since Nixon and Goldwater, maybe even well before them. But we live in a nation that hardly wants to acknowledge our right to breathe, let alone listen to our warnings about the Grand Old Party. Malcom X warned us. King. The election of Barack Obama was a warning. The racist rot runs deep. And as for the Democrats, one could say we have an extremist on the Left in Bernie Sanders- but that man is an extremist for GOOD, not evil like the kind Steve Bannon is pushing. Democrats since FDR have (almost) always been pushing for extremely progressive policies that gives a damn about the common man. We lost our way with the Clintons but we're on our way back.
5
No NYT article, no Forum comment and No Ballot Box vote will fix this. EVER!!
3
Trump is just the external manifestation of Conservatives Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, the Mercers and the Murdoch's who at the local level corralled envy and race hatred, Fundamentalist Christian alienation into a Strident Conservative Nationalism. It's influence in Washington began in 2010 and reached an apex with the Trump. Make no mistake the senate leader is a full blown member of this cabal, forget the superficial fights with Donald. Mitch McConnell is the point man of the Conservative pay to play politics. The Canary in the Democracy Coal Mine is dead, lets home American's notice before it is to late.
2
The mightier you are, the harder the fall....where did I hear that from???
1
Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come
Let's see if the good christian citizens of Alabama prefer a pedophile over a Democrat. Then you'll have your answer as to how far down the rabbit hole we have gone!
18
h of both the Southern COnfederacy , combined with the Soviet Union in a second set of wars against the USA.
Americans have become "easy marks" for propaganda and have lost all sense that powerful anti American forces want to see the US fail and will do and say anything, act in any way and blame all the wrong people if it will eventually cripple the US and the West leaving Europe and the Pacific and all the nations that depended on the US for support, open to absorption and alliances with the Russians and the Chinese.
Millions of Democrats listened to and believed internet propaganda and even US media allowed itself to become a carrier of the propaganda and lies from the East because it seemed to earn them more money-to reinforce their bottom line". SO , for a few dollars more, we sold ourselves to the Russians and the other low bidders in the information wars we created-always insisting that the WWW and internet was just a great big love fest for everyone.
Far too many Americans see the world through the bottom of their beer bottles and like what they see.
1
Despite the authors' claim to "not come at this issue as political partisans", this op-ed does "suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils."
Republicans didn't break Congress by themselves, in a vacuum.
The American political system is broken, and both parties share the blame.
Only a system rotten to the core could have produced Trump and HRC as presidential nominees and a bill that favors the very few against the many.
The two-party charade where two equally corrupt parties have a monopoly over the political system, and a handful of conglomerates owned by billionaires have a monopoly on almost all information we receive, has finally proven to be unsustainable.
American society has become a sclerotic mass of selfishness, ignorance and corruption and is past the point at which any of its institutions has the power to reverse the decline.
Letting Democrats off the hook for their joyful assistance in ushering in the corporate coup, which has ultimately led to the broken Congress, is counterproductive.
Virtually all politicians, Democrat or Republican, represent the interests of their wealthy campaign donors, not their constituents.
It's true that Republicans are worse, but that’s not saying much.
If Democrats cared about average Americans, they would’ve given us universal healthcare and other legislation when they had full control of Congress and Saint Obama as POTUS.
Both parties now work against US citizens, workers, the environment etc and for perpetual war
4
Now that the Democratic Party has let itself become impotent and irrelevant, our only hope for derailing the social program cuts is to mobilize and engage in mass demonstrations.
Will the Democratic Party use it’s organizational assets to aid in the mobilization?
Doubtful. I think the ultimate rule in Washington will prevail: do not let the public become involved in policy decisions.
Face it, people, we need a third party.
2
Money in politics plays a significant role that isn't mentioned here. Almost all politicians bend to the winds of big cash. And as a consequence, they mostly serve themselves and their big donors.
4
This brokenness is overwhelming. For those that are having a hard time or just feel like they are in jeopardy this environment must feel justifiable. This is a shock and awe environment meant for those that watch Fox News and reality shows with less education behind them and older white people. Democrats have not been able to catch up. Anger and idiocy is wining right now.
There have been decisions made that have allowed the loopholes for this to happen. Citizens United, NRA, Petro Chemical lobbyists, large donors; the list goes on. None of these groups represents a whole reality but these groups are tearing down any hope of my children having a "better" future.
The things that this administration and Republicans are pushing are not what makes America great. This anger, distrust and backwards looking movement is wrong. Period. This rude form of transactional non-diplomacy is not in our countries interest. Period.
Democrats do go too far but at least their hearts and most of their rhetoric are in the right place in compared to this ugly version of Republicanism.
5
In any conflict, the members of each side only blame the other for the conflict. In the U.S. Civil War, the Confederates pr Rebels always blames Pres. Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republicans.
Those Confederates' great-grandchildren, today's progressive Democrats, can only blame their sworn political enemies for Congressional stalemates. THAT would make the observer ask how many Dems have tried voting with the Republicans to ease the dispute.
The answer, of course, is ZERO. The progressives are 100% of the same mind, despite the disappearance of 1250 Democratic elective officers fro m their posts since the Obamacare attack on the American working classes began in 2009.
Meanwhile, the occasional Republican votes WITH the Democrats.
So Dems are the most committed to maintaining the conflict that they blame their enemies for maintaining.
If you've been watching for over 40 years like I have, this is nothing new.
Of course Democrats find it very easy to hate the people of the United States for resisting progressive socialism.
So what if the voters know no country has ever done well with socialist leaders? So what if it is always economically unsustainable?
2
The Republicans run with the intent to dominate whereas the Democrats run with the intention of creating programs. That's why you have to look at the entirety of what the Republicans have done since Newt was elected and started this revolt against shared interest, compromise, etc. The Republicans stirred up anger and fomented it, that's true. But more holistically and strategically, they focused on a wide range of factors that, when changed en masse, would yield the power they desired. Just a few of the those factors not even mentioned here are: Republican-led campaign finance reforms which essentially opened up the floodgates for the out-sized influence of these donors, the Republican-led abolition of bipartisan groups that were replaced by so-called 'Think Tanks', and Republican-led gerrymandering.
11
Not many rational people would take issue with this thoughtfully written piece.
But our government is now controlled by a minority of very wealthy, thus powerful, entities.
And the Republican party has ditched all pretense of public service, to cater to these forces.
Campaign cash far outweighs the desires and needs of the general public.
It is hard to argue that this is not the definition of oligarchy.
13
I do not recognize the America I emigrated to. It is now a country of kleptocrats, selfish politicians who only see $$$ as a mean to achieve their agenda. If the Republicans are not voted out of office soon and the President and his cronies not removed from office, this country will never be the place where you can achieve the American dream again.The Democrats are no angels for sure and they seem incapable of coming up with a leader, at least for now. But they have a heart and their policies are devised for the people and the common good. The Republicans have no heart, they are ruled by special interests, owned by the likes of the Koch brothers and the NRA and they will pay dearly next fall.
9
Thank you for calling the spade a spade...except I don't think you are thinking big enough. It is not just Congress that they have broken; it is democracy; it is America... and perhaps, by diminishing America's role in it, even, the world. I can only guess at their motivation: they see they are on the losing side of history and, rather than adapt or change in any way, they have behaved like the deranged and abusive husband who says, "If I can't have you, nobody can," and who then kills his wife and children rather than imagine for one second that they can live without him (let alone allow them to do so). Then he burns the house down. The rest of us get to be the ashes in this suicidal meltdown.
I hope the Republican party proves me wrong… but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
10
Susan Collins should ask herself, "What would Olympia Snowe do?"
Moderate Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.
19
It occurs to me that perhaps McConnell is the one who should be investigated for collusion (aka treason) with Russia. He has sowed much of the seed that has brought us to the frightening extremism and dysfunctional government we have today--exactly what Russian interference intends.
9
Good piece. It also belabors the staggeringly obvious. Of course neither party is angelic or perfect. But the Republican Party has become increasingly toxic, divisive and destructive. There has long since ceased to be any noble purpose behind its "any means to an end" scorched earth approach on behalf of the richest and most powerful in our society.
It's a shame that it has taken a year of heretofore unimaginable damage inflicted on our country by Trump and the GOP for respected news sources like the NYT to begin to drop their false equivalence narratives about our two major parties. And even then, we're still seeing realism much more often in op-ed's than news coverage.
6
And many are dancing in the streets as the death of the 'deep state' draws near. This well written opinion piece adds fuel to that movement. Politics, never tightly moored to any 'objective' reality, is now totally possessed by an effective reality TV style marketing campaign. Libertarian nationalism is fueling an intuitively gratifying, conspiracy laden, justification of the ever widening power/wealth divide. The MSM has been co-opted by it, totally possessed in its reporting every tweet of the divider in chief buoyed by its enthusiasm for negative framing. The NYT has yet to realize that to the GOP and diminisher Don's base, its counter punching is evidence of its complicity not its access to truth. And so it, with the help of Mann and Ornstein, are part of the problem, not yet offering any solution.
The Republicans do not believe in the common good. They do not believe in Democracy. They do not believe in education. They do not believe in the separation between church and state. They do not believe that we are all equal. They do not believe we have a responsibily towards others. They do not believe.
14
The real culprits are the voters and the non-voters. And most of them are getting what they deserve.
12
What we must accept is that the natural state of the human condition is racism, bigotry, hypocrisy, and tribalism. Those inadequacies can only be overcome by an effort on the part of the individual. Education makes it possible to recognize those deficiencies but it is not necessarily a cure. Concerning tribalism, when the pursuit of absolute power supersedes the sharing of power democracy fails. As Ben Franklin famously said when asked what kind of government was created, (A Republic if you can keep it.) At this time in our nation's struggle to keep it, we seem to be failing. Our only hope seems to be, historically, when Republicans are given enough rope they hang themselves.
4
"The Obama effect had an ominous twist, an undercurrent of racism..."
Thank you for calling out the underlying and inherent racism in the Republican's wholesale obstruction of President Obama's agenda. Republican's racism, particularly toward President Obama is the elephant in the room that no one else wants to acknowledge.
And also be clear - while the so-called birther movement aided and abetted Republicans, their racism toward President Obama clearly predated that issue.
President Trump has clearly ushered racism and bigotry (and other things, such as misogyny) into the open. It has previously lived under the carpet where it has lived and festered for so many years.
But everything that Republican's have done over their modern lifetime, and in particular directed toward President Obama has mainly to do with one thing and one thing only - the color of a person's skin.
9
Goodbye America. The Republican leadership departed from conservative ideology decades ago -- it joined the Koch phalanx with the aim of destroying government capability so as to undermine citizen confidence in public institutions, and it has proceeded with hijacking democratic institutions with the goal to wreck democracy and replace it with a corporatocracy. What Americans don't admit is that the Koch side has already won -- Citizens United was the decisive turning point, and the wrongly achieved Gorsuch appointment cemented it -- and all we're doing is fighting rear-guard actions to slow down the defeat. The Trump regime is only the latest craziness on the path set by Reagan with his ideology that "government is the enemy."
6
We face a lot of serious threats in 2017, but by far the most serious is the
Republican campaign to depict the government as separate from and the enemy of the people. It is amazing that people have absorbed the idea that attempts by the government to try to make life better is seen as an invasion calculated to control their lives. Government support of health care, an idea favored by a majority of Americans as far back as WW II, is a prime example of this oddity. Government policies may not always be right, an seemingly at times very stupid. But we are in peril if we decide that the government is our enemy.
322
Precisely. People on all sides of the spectrum have forgotten that in a democracy, WE are the government. It is not some dangerous alien force. There are many reasons for this view----but successful right-wing propaganda surely counts high among them, as does the gospel of Reagan's fateful assertion that government is the problem, not the solution. On the right, anti-government sentiment is used to justify tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations paid for by eliminating social safety net and education spending. The result on the left is often apathy and cynicism: my vote doesn't count so why bother participating in the whole oppressive, rotten system. The fact that we expect our politicians to lie and be corrupt was a huge contributing factor to why all of Trump's crude norm-breaking was no impediment to his winning the office. But we need to wake up and realize that we deserve better from our politicians, and our government. We must remember that our Republic, despite its flaws, was once and still can be the envy and model of tolerance, freedom, and fairness for other nations to follow. It is a priceless and hard-won inheritance we are foolish to throw away so quickly.
8
I have been watching Fox News for almost all of the Tax Cut Legislation. FOX has simply not covered it. they are keeping their audience in the Dark. Instead what I have seen is a lot about sexual harassment, but not much about O'Reilly or Ailes, just Weinstein and other so called Democrats.
6
Sadly, this one is.
1
If the public does not have handles of reason to grip, nobody can lead it wisely.
The only explanation I have for the overwhelming support for the Republican platform by a majority of white voters in "Red States" is total ignorance of reality. It is clear to me that anyone who works for a living and votes Republican is completely oblivious as to exactly who's interests the Republican party is actually concerned with. I chalk this up to the this voting bloc receiving its information from heavily partisan biased "entertainment" sources like Fox News, or plainly illegitimate "news" sources such as Facebook, which apparently a majority of Americans depend on for their information; information that influences their vote.
At this rate it is no wonder the oligarchs have completely hijacked our republic's government, and have aligned it to serve their interests exclusively. Through their agents in all of this - the Republican party, they have just robbed the American people blind - again. As long as so many Americans continue to get their information exclusively from echo chambers and legitimate looking privately sponsored articles on social media platforms, our republic and our democracy will continue to wither to the point of eventual nonexistence; a fate which is clearly within view as I write this message. God Save America.
240
People were not robbed blind. They were robbed ignorant, and self-righteous. Because even now, after realizing the consequences of their vote, they refuse to accept their mistake. As they said Twain said, it is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
3
"At this rate it is no wonder the oligarchs have completely hijacked our republic's government, and have aligned it to serve their interests exclusively." Indeed, if not exclusively, at least primarily, and this is why I see campaign finance reform as our only hope of preserving American small-d democracy. Until we take the power to so corrosively influence the legislative process out of the pockets of rich donors and corporate sponsors, by instituting public financing of all congressional and presidential campaigns, nothing will change, which is why I've come to see this issue as the ultimate issue, since all others depend upon it. In one stroke that will vastly dilute the influence of the emerging plutocratic aristocracy, while simultaneously returning the half of their waking hours legislators must spend grubbing for campaign funding back to focusing on the public interest. Campaign finance reform, as well as the abolition of gerrymandering, can't happen soon enough. Let's do that before it's too late.
3
It is hard not to see this all as orchestrated. The GOP has been chipping away at society for decades, weakening our democratic institutions.
Education is the most glaring example. They seek not just to diminish education funding, but the very idea of education--including educators, the educated, and even the scientific method.
When conservatives pit their voters against "the government" or teachers they disrupt the process of democracy. Gerrymandering illustrates that these voters are targeted because their votes carry extra weight. But it also reflects the social separation between the urban majority and rural voters, which the Right both stokes and then points out to trump up fear-based rural votes. This cultivated divide keeps us ignorant of each other's struggles and gifts, and it keeps us from cross-checking our ideas with new perspectives.
It's important to acknowledge that this is not a comedy of errors--it is outright manufacturing of consent. Moreover, it has been extraordinarily successful. How else could a third (half?) of the country be deluded into believing that a black man raised on welfare by a single mom is a snobbish elitist? Or that a crooked real estate baron with a public record of immorality would fight for coal miners and drain D.C. of swamp monsters?
4
"A nation gets the government it deserves." During the nineteenth century we became extraordinarily wealthy by exploiting the untouched resources of a continent and thought the success was due to our own merit ignoring the contributions of slaves and then economically enslaved working classes. Now our excesses are catching up with us (climate change and exhaustion of resources), so the one percent is trying to make the rest of us powerless and buying us off with bread and circuses (but very little bread.) Can this government long survive?
3
"The Republicans must reclaim their purpose."...not until they start losing. Why do they have to do anything, when they just keep on winning? We better pray the 2018 midterms and the 2020 general are huge victories for Democrats, or the Republicans will only continue what they have started: a fundamental remaking of the USA.
4
"Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties, both of which operate in the realm of truth, see governing as an essential and ennobling responsibility, and believe that the acceptance of republican institutions and democratic values define what it is to be an American."
Do you think for one minute that any Republican will read this and take action? Do any members of Congress on the Republican side have the imagination to embrace this idea? I used to think there were one or two, but no more. They are in power to reward themselves and their wealthy donors, period. With the Senate's passage of tax deform, there is no Republican who cares about their country, that is, if you define caring for your country as helping those who cannot help themselves, and protecting the interests and lives of the vast majority of average, non-wealthy Americans.
1
6 minutes ago
I don't think there's any common cause between the Democratic-leaning parts of the U.S. coasts and the Republican-leaning interior. I don't think the country will come back together.
Ten states on the coasts control about one-third of the U.S. GDP: New York and New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) on the East Coast, and California, Oregon, and Washington on the West. If the coasts seceded, they would combine for the world's fourth-largest economy, slightly ahead of Japan. They would also control the majority of North American shipping. For example, 40 percent of U.S. imports come through the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach.
I think it's time to cut the red states loose and see how they do on their own.
6
The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose?
No. First Americans who care about their county and their legacy to their children and grandchildren must repudiate the Republican Party and all they currently stand for and throw all the Republicans out of local, state, and federal office!
Only then will the Republican Party get the message that what they are doing is unacceptable and get the motivation to change.
5
We have all heard, "Money is the root of all evil." That is the problem directs us to the solution. Now, legislators, when they arrive in Washington, from day 1 are spending most of their time getting funds to get re-elected, not serving their constituents. It has created an atmosphere where their has to be winners and losers. Doing what is best for constituents takes a back seat. Working for more and more funds subverts rational thinking and legislators become ideological slaves to the money barons.
The solution is simple. A firmly stated amendment to the constitution that mandates public financing of campaigns and bans outside funding of campaigns. When that happens, the patriots will return to Washington to do the work of the people.
6
Agreed, the only way is to get money out of politics www.wolf-pac.com
Another result of the Republicans misdeeds is that young people who are the future of this country are either turned off by government or drawn to more extreme left organizations. We used to govern from the middle. What next?
1
The Republicans have always been, as long as I remember the party of the rich, the establishment, the party of the anti-union, reactionaries, and I have always felt a sense of fear when they were in power. I first became aware of the dangers they posed when they nominated Barry Goldwater as their candidate, a man who said he was prepared to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam.
Since that time the party has devolved even further, becoming more and more unhinged,embracing the “southern strategy “, anti-feminism, anti-immigration, anti-public health, anti-government. Trump is the logical culmination of the Republican mindset and I believe that with the Trump presidency we are witnessing the final gasps of the American Century.
3
Let's start with not letting Republicans' preferred language confuse what's really happening. E.g., "add $1 trillion to the deficit..." has the word "add" in it when "emptying" or "draining" the public purse is more to the point. People can understand draining the public purse. Or even better "draining the people's purse."
1
Vote them out. All of them. Regardless of party. And keep doing so. There are too many 20-30 year veterans of the house and senate. That's not healthy.
4
The slide toward complete control of government by business interests, through the Republican Party, was given a major push by the Supreme Court : (1) the decision that money is speech and (2) the Citizens United decision that opened the flood gates allowing big money (Big Speech?) to buy America.
5
How ironic that Democrats are now the silent majority. Massive protests need to focus on Washington, D.C. co-ordinated with other cities nation-wide, so that a strong Democratic voice can show Trump what a real crowd looks like.
3
It has nothing to do with politicians and the media and everything to do with voters and voting. The missing word here is "discernment" by voters. Voters typically pick the best candidate, the perceived winner and that requires discernment. Trump was perceived as the winner under the electoral system. Now we know that voter discernment was wrong. But the popular vote discernment was right. What needs to be fixed here, voter discernment or the electoral system? Hilary lost the electoral election because she listened to ideology instead of pollsters. The pollsters told her she was losing the blue collar Democratic base and she did not listen. Getting the facts out to influence voter discernment is now a real problem. Voters no longer read good journalism. Their discernment is becoming faulty. Although the popular vote may indicate that it was still working in the last election. Good government depends on good journalism that creates voter discernment. Social media and TV news entertainers are destroying voter discernment.
The question now isn't whether a tax bill will pass in the Republican Congress, but what form it will take. The wealthy will enjoy the most beneficence, with ordinary Americans initially receiving some tax relief. What they don't want us to know is that downstream in a few years, everyone, except corporations and the wealthiest among us, will pay a huge price in the attempt to reduce an additional budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars. The Republicans know this and are lying to us about the facts. And, in typical fashion, they don't care.
1
In a winner-take-all election system, the natural state of political parties is two. Attempting to form third-parties often results in spoiling the election for one of the major parties, and the unintended result is that one of the major parties will still win but at the cost of the other major party. The thrid-party is simply a spoiler.
The first unofficial party was the Federalists. Democratic-Republicans, lead by Jefferson and Madison, created our first two-party system and the games began. Pamphleteers, political newspapers and our long history of dirty politics emerged as the status quo. Eventually, the Federalists were driven out of politics and the voice of support for our original political experiment was silenced.
In the Age of Trump we've reached a new era, our two-party system is hopelessly broken.
For those readers of the New York Times, the assumption is that the Democratic Party can rise up to meet the challenge in the next two national elections. But this hypothesis fails to account for the millions of voters who now find themselves without a party.
It is time for TWO new political parties, at least one formed in the spirit of Hamiltonian Federalism, to challenge the first assumption of our great experiment, that a government by and for the people is the essential role of our Federal government.
Join the movement, start the conversation, recruit the next generation of leaders. We need to form TWO new political parties and end the constant bickering between the Democrats and the Republicans.
For those who question can this be done, let them hear the rallying cries in the past few years, Yes we can!
47
Neither arty represents the vast majority of the public, so a new party is the only option.
Unfortunately, the two parties have conspired to make the formation of another party virtually impossible.
Our only hope is mass protests to force them to change and allow other voices into the system - ones that represent the people.
2
With one exception. The founders did not give control of the national government to "the people". Only the House of Representatives was elected directly by the people, and it alone has no independent powers.
Too many people who said, “Yes We Can!” when asked to vote for Hillary in 2016 or if they might actually do more for democracy than post indignation on Facebook have responded with, “No I Won’t.” So, who will start these new parties? You? Will you start them?
1
Everything you need to know about the attitudes and moral vacuity of the Republican Party can be found in this one quote - Senator Orin Hatch on children's health care:
“I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves – won’t lift a finger – and expect the federal government to do everything.”
15
Hatch is right. He speaks for The Forgotten Man who is being continually taken to the cleaners by bureaucrats who waste as much money as they spend pretending to do a state function as specified by the Constitution.
If you don't think government wastes money and that the federal level wastes the most, you haven't even begun to read enough on the issue. Are you only reading sources that you already know will ratify your personal prejudices?
2
" The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose." the dang democrat party must reclaim its purpose. i am not a deplorable.
4
Trump behaves deplorably by all the standards of conduct my mother demanded of me. Who would want such a person to represent their nation to the world?
1
Have you ever actually read the “deplorable”statement in context? She said that, while some trump supporters were racists, etc., and therefore deplorable,t the rest had valid concerns that the Democrats needed to address. I assume you would agree that racists are deplorable. Right?
3
No, you are not a deplorable. I hope you can open your eyes to the truth of what is really happening to our democracy. Do you realize, for example, that this tax bill takes away cancer treatment from Medicare patients? What is the goal behind that policy??? What is your party doing to YOU?
1
Let's cut through all the verbiage and get right down to where we are now. We have an authoritarian, anti-democratic government under the Republicans that is rapidly heading for full blown fascism. Here are the warning signs, taken from a poster at the Holocaust museum.
1) Powerful and continuing nationalism.
2) Disdain for human rights.
3) Identification of enemies as a unifying cause.
4) Supremacy of the military.
5) Rampant sexism.
6) Controlled mass media.
7) Obsession with national security.
8) Religion and government intertwined.
9) Corporate power protected.
10) Labor power suppressed.
11) Disdain for intellectuals and the arts.
12) Obsession with crime and punishment.
13) Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14) Fraudulent elections.
If there is anything on that list that the Republicans and Trump haven't embraced, it's not obvious to me. You can see some of that agenda being written into the tax 'reform' plan. It's not just about robbing from everyone else to make the rich richer - it's about deliberately targeting institutions and norms that would counteract the above list. Ending deductions for education, allowing churches to become political money conduits - it's all of a piece.
185
Thank you for this absolutely accurate list. It is frightening what our country has become and what it will become.
11
These clowns even think they can over-wish the laws of physics.
1
Like many children of my age, I have found many of my characterizations of the World in song. This column leads me to paraphrase the words of the Nobel Laureate in a song about the murder of a “maid in the kitchen”:
In the Congress of men, the Vice pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the law's on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the rich get properly taxed
Since the ladder of law has no top and no bottom
. . .
Ah, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
for now's the time for your tears.
5
Books written, published, and sold by store front ministers/pastors with a Degree in Divinity from matchbook-cover universities repeat incessantly, in both explicit and implicit terms, that liberals undermine faith, are allies of Satan, are enemies of Jesus; and are generally, responsible for all the woes in the world. As long as 25% of the population swallow the gruel of these charlatans there is little hope that any politician who advocates for education, environmental responsibility, health needs of the citizenry, economic fairness, or fairness of opportunity has a chance to be elected in the south or in the heartland. Look at the way Roy Moore paints his opponent as a "liberal" who is being sponsored by gays, transgenders, and communists. Critical thinking, as in asking critical questions, is actually assailed as demonically inspired.
The real problem is that real life political demons from the South, like Atwater and Gingrich, figured out how a generation ago how to manipulate the citizenry of the South and mid-west by infusing religion into politics so that "voting right" is, today, synonymous with "voting for God."
39
Well said.
"Looking back, you have to wonder how we could have ignored the warning signs. In the 1970s, Big Business began to refine its ability to act as a class and gang up on Congress. Even before the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, political action committees deluged politics with dollars. Foundations, corporations, and rich individuals funded think tanks that churned out study after study with results skewed to their ideology and interests. Political strategists made alliances with the religious right, with Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, to zealously wage a cultural holy war that would camouflage the economic assault on working people and the middle class.
To help cover-up this heist of the economy, an appealing intellectual gloss was needed. A prominent neoconservative religious philosopher even articulated a “theology of the corporation.” I kid you not. And its devotees lifted their voices in hymns of praise to wealth creation as participation in the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. Self-interest became the Gospel of the Gilded Age.
By Bill Moyers, Plutocracy vs. We The People
3
In 2016 there were numerous Republican Senators & Representatives who publicly stated they could not endorse Trump! Senator Mike Crapo, here in Idaho, was featured last year on the front page of the paper of note in Boise that he could not endorse Trump, one reason being the Billy Bush Tape! And where are all of these Senators and Representatives now? Of course! Support this inept, immoral, incompetent nutjob in order to get their tax bill passed etc! Only Corker has the stamina to resist the Party's commands, and he's not running again! Shame on all of them! Term Limits can be enacted by the voters - just vote them out!
25
It's almost like Trump has video of all these people behaving like aristocrats in his hotels.
1
Why no mention of Citizen's United?
35
Because it is the keystone of this coup d'etat.
2
You neglected to mention the Lobbyists, the most perfidious and successful adjunct to Congress that exists.
16
As a Canadian watching your country's horrifying slide to the dark side, I think another of the issues is the lack of choice presented by having only two political parties. It forces an embrace of all the kooks from each end of the range and sags support in the middle. The rich-white-men gang holding onto its power is ruining your wonderful country while the rest of us cry a collective primal scream. Hope you can hear us next voting time.
39
The article doesn't even mention McConnell's (ie, Republican Party's) hijacking of the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination as an indication of the rot in the GOP.
39
This notion Republicans have that they can do anything they want is both residue of old social norms and a clear sign of how far they are willing to go. Have some or most Republicans decided this then?--that anything is preferable to losing the old form of society that benefitted white males alone? If they cannot have what they want, are they willing to destroy everything, tear anything down, blow the whole thing up? Has our democracy been irreparably damaged? "If your baby is dying, should it matter how much money you have?"
11
It's time for the New York Times style guidelines to prohibit the use of the acronym GOP, or the phrase "Grand Old Party", to refer to the political party of Ryan, McConnell, and Trump. No exception should be made for headlines, the convenience of the short acronym notwithstanding. An exception should obviously be made for verified direct quotations.
6
We can change it to "Gross Old Party."
It's true, the GOP/Republicans are about destroying rule of law and any function of government that supports the democratic (small "d") part of our country. They do it by spreading disorder, distrust, and hate, and a series of clever lies. Poverty, misery, and desperation are useful tools to these guys.
Here's just one thing we can do: STOP HELPING THEM destroy the country. We must recognize and oppose xenophobia and race-based hate when it happens, not just with Trump's obvious racism and hate towards Muslims, brown-skinned people and anybody else he can label as "other," but also with racism that targets European-Americans, for example the "Black Lives Matter!" movement and its lying, hateful myopic roots.
Diversity generally is good, and it's very important to what's great about the USA. Racism is bad, no not just certain kinds of racism, all of them. Racism always just ends up begetting more racism.
History is important, but taking a small part of history out of context and exaggerating it for political purposes is bad news.
2
How many Euro-American men are being shot by police vs black males?
You seem to point towards Obama's executive orders and then say Trump doesn't do that. Huh? How can you be as well read as you claim to be and ignore just how autocratic Trump has been? I suspect a severe case of partisan blindness.
5
Many of those executive orders would not have been needed if the GOP congress had been doing its job looking out for the average American!
2
They are encouraging people to take to the streets, and once their extreme right wing supporters feel the pain, they will excercise their second amendment rights
8
This article perfectly summarizes what is happening. And even though this train is barreling along, we're all just standing on the sidelines and watching it roll. The question is, how to stop it?
14
Join Indivisible! Resist! VOTE in 2018!!
1
Vote for NO republicans in 2018.
1
JVG/San Rafael: we stop the rolling train by getting out to vote in droves in 2018....there is strength in numbers.
The authors' arguments are cogent and very convincing. The point is simple: Democratic systems presuppose the existence of divergent views and approaches for solving problems. The expectation is that these approaches will be intelligently debated and a choice made based solely on merits. Where debates and intelligent discourses are scuttled, instead brute power is used to make decisions, democracy exists in name only. If a political system can be conceived along an "authoritarian-democratic" dimension, the US political system today is more on the authoritarian side of the dimension. The US is a pseudo democracy, thanks to the egregious (ab)use of power by the GOP.
26
Democratic and autocratic processes can exist simultaneously. You can have fair elections that legitimately elect tyrants. We need to work on our civic hygiene. We can no longer afford to think of democracy as a once-every-four-years enterprise, where we rely on leaders to adhere to traditional institutional norms and values while we attend to our individual “non-political” lives. What’s remarkable is we’ve gotten away with doing just that for so long.
Our great country is at a point of reckoning. That a democracy of the size and influence of the United States has survived for almost two and a half centuries is remarkable. But the wisdom of the Founders is now being tested in ways not seen before. Either we will wake up and overcome the immediate existential threat that confronts us or we will go the way of ancient Rome with possibly unimaginable consequences for all humankind.
28
I’m afraid that it’s worse than the title of this essay suggests. It’s ‘How the Republicans broke All Branches of Government.’ Of course the Presidency has been trashed by Trump, with the complicity of Congress. But now the judiciary has been overtaken by anti-government judges, first by the intransigence of The Senate in refusing to approve Obama’s nominees, and now by packing appeals courts with Federalist Society-approved radicals. And of course farther up the chain, those appeals that do make it to the Supreme Court must contend with an illegally-appointed Neil Gorsuch, whose place was kept vacant for a year while Republicans refused to give Merrick Garland so much as a hearing. Farther down the chain, we have state legislatures dominated by Republicans gerrymandering districts to preserve their choke hold on American government. Supervising all this is the plutocratic donor class that pulls all the strings. Our once great American experiment has devolved into an oligarchy of autocratic Republican zealots.
41
"Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinect parties, both of which operate in the realm of truth"....etc.
Herein lies the problem. With both parties corrupted by corporate/1% campaign donations, neither works for the good of the nation
7
"The Obama effect had an ominous twist, an undercurrent of racism that was itself embodied in the “birther” movement led by Donald Trump."
Sorry Norm and Thomas, the 'Obama Effect' in the GOP in Congress that was conducted by Mitch McConnell did not have an undercurrent of racism. It was driven by racism. This was its energy source. It was not an artifact.
21
Unfortunately, one cannot reason with a person that thinks that Obama is a Muslim born outside the US, and they are 30% of the voting public. Add to this that they vote in higher percentages than normal people, and you have this situation.
It will take every vote of the normal people unified behind a single candidate to defeat them.
21
Somewhere along the way Republicans lost the sense that government is based on a simple concept: civilization. Reagan's belief that government is the problem is a truly twisted idea of society.
Civilization means pooling our resources to create something larger than ourselves: It's not just about building roads and schools -- although that's something we couldn't do without government -- but creating a web of protections.
The anti-government Republicans don't want to pay for infrastructure until a loved one dies from a collapsed bridge. They don't want to pay for hurricane damage in someone else's state but are eager for help when their own back yard is on fire.
I am confident that Harvey Weinstein will be put on trial for repeated, uncontrollable, violent assaults. That’s because we have a court system.
Taxes are seen as going to the "government," as if the government was some kind of distant, alien blob, sucking up our money to feed its greedy self.
But the government is us. It's our society, it supports our way of life.
It’s civilization, something I'm very fond of and happy to pay for.
21
Civilization is about managing and limiting how much we step on each other's toes in an ever more crowded world the productivity of civilization makes possible.
1
An election is a sacrament in a democracy. We don’t ban a candidate from getting foreign help because it’s a GIVEN. Trump says, “ We didn’t break the law on collusion, in part because there is none. He never says, “They offered, but we turned them down,” or “I got no help from Russia: zero, zip, nada, none.”
It’s time to excommunicate Trump and Pence. Not for political reasons, not for legal ones, but as an article of faith in our democracy.
10
The G.O.P. is no longer a traditional political party. The Republicans have evolved into the political wing of billionaire oligarchs. That is, they are more a class than a function of democracy. They represent the interests of an hereditary aristocracy which is precisely what the revolutionary era fought against. This is quite possibly an attempt to reestablish the classical and medieval world's class system, mixed with corporate fascism.
20
Libertarianism is belief in liberty for the only people who can handle it: the aristocracy, however it manages to select itself.
Thank you. Your even-handedness is appreciated. But this has also been evident to many since the 1980s. The left wing has no actual equivalent to Roger Ailes or Lee Atwater; no actual equivalent to Rush Limbaugh or Fox News; no actual equivalent to Donald Trump.
In the past these terrible forces have pretended they are playing fair and have the little guy at heart in order to achieve their aims. But in 2017 they seem to have decided they no longer need to pretend.
Now even the GOP's "moderates" continue to vote pro-rich and pro-Trump. This year's open grab for money and power is astonishing.
18
Well said except that there are no republican moderates left they walk in lockstep with grover norquist
1
Maybe just a tiny little hint of the destructive power of the extreme right wing plutocrats that currently run the GOP would be in order here. The NY Times loves to talk about the clowns, but somehow doesn't feel the circus owners are worthy of their scrutiny. often referring to them as "conservative donors".
The Koch brothers are not conservative and their extreme right-wing agenda and power are unknown to the vast majority of citizens. This column does nothing to change this and that is not forgivable for those of us that read the Times for real news.
It's enough to coax rational people to subscribe to conspiracy theories.
195
Actually we seek out and read responsible journalist.
The interlocked directorship of the US collectively spends many billions of dollars per year on managing US public perceptions.
3
For the duration of my lifetime republicans have always been the party of the warmongers, the genteel white supremacists, and the aristocrats. They have been the central problem in American political life for generations now. Nice to see a couple more guys wake up the obvious. It's a little late at this point as things are going to get way worse fast for most of us.
13
It is just mind boggling that the american people are allowing the Republican party to eviscerate the middle class and poor in this country in order to give billions MORE $$ in tax cuts to the already filthy rich.
How is this happening? Where is the outrage? Where are the marches protesting the GOP's (Greedy Old Plutocrat) destruction of the working class in our country?
10
Republicans may have broke congress but Fox News broke the country.
Hate sells and it is very addictive. Until we as country come together and demand a return to civility then things will not get better. People say we need a new fairness doctrine. What we need is a civility doctrine.
Sean Hannity openly says that his goal in life is to destroy all liberals. Tucker Calson says he despises the democratic party. Shouldn't these views automatically disqualify someone from being on tv night after night spewing their personal hate?
12
"We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils." Well maybe it's time to do exactly that, and to spread the word the Republican believers that they have spawned the devil. As if that would work.
3
[We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils. Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions. Neither party is immune from a pull to the extreme.]
I have to disagree, the GOP in its current itineration is so evil that the Devil would be ashamed to be associated with them. This is why, they rammed through a tax bill that will only serve the 1% and Fortune 500 companies. Combine with automatic triggers to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Obamacare to offset any revenue losses that will be caused by this tax cut scam. They still support the president even though he has 16 accusations of sexual assault and harassment against him. Even after he retweeted anti-Muslim videos from a racist British right wing group. We have a political party full of racists, nativists, and bigots pretending to be public servants. The GOP reflects the dark underbelly of the American Electorate.
12
In 2012, Mann and Ornstein wrote an OP-ED for the Washington Post: "Let's Just Say It, the Republicans Are the Problem." As with the 2012 column, the authors once again could not get through an entire essay without some acknowledgment that both sides can be a problem. The following paragraph doesn't prove the authors are unbiased. Rather, it shows that they are still unwilling to come right out and describe just how truly unhinged and evil (yes, evil) the GOP has become.
"We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils. Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions. Neither party is immune from a pull to the extreme."
Again, Mann and Orstein weaken their thesis, by going weak in the knees just long enough to "prove" to people who aren't listening, just how fair-minded they are. " See, see, we know the Democrats aren't perfect." From what I could see, their earlier column had no effect on the general discussion. I don't see any reason why this essay will make any difference. Will the New York Times pay any heed? I doubt it. The compulsion to appear even-handed has led to news organizations committing some of the worst unfairness in American political and journalistic history. And the Times has been a leader in this travesty.
2
Don't forget Republican efforts to suppress the vote and to gerrymander districts to ensure House seats.
7
During the entirety of my lifetime the GOP has been behaving seditiously towards the United States.
6
It’s as if the only legitimate functions of the federal government are national defense, security of the nation’s borders and oiling the wheels of wealth instead of those stated in its foundational document, the U.S. Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty...”
3
You forgot to mention the Republican's obstruction of Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. One of the worst acts against a setting President in the history of our country.
12
Yes, Congress is a mess. Yes, an almost totally partisan GOP is largely responsible. Yes, an emasculated Democratic Party, with archaic leadership, has culpability--BUT--let's not forget the Supreme Court. Their passage of 'citizen's united' gave the GOP a leg up on the horse of political power. The Republicans are the party of the powerful financial people and institutions-- so it would follow that they benefit the most from 'citizen's united'.
McConnell's refusal to allow Obama to appoint a replacement to the court was quasi criminal.
Since our judicial system became politicized, all remnants of a democratic society slowly fades away.
7
An excellent piece. Thank you. My only difference is with the statement "We have never suggested that Democrats are angels and Republicans devils." I do believe, especially after the passing of the recent tax bill, a true act of kleptocracy, that they are devils. Given that these people are in office by the votes of 80% of Evangelical Christians and 60% of Roman Catholics ( I being one), let me offer a word from the Master to support my assessment of them as devils, chief amongst them Ryan, McConnell and Trump. In John's Gospel, Jesus called the devil "the father of lies." Can a more accurate description be offered on this party and their leader? I think not. Jesus' assessment of these misfits makes him "alright by me". They are devils. And our country is and will continue to suffer from their diabolical actions.
6
We are in the era of the Second American Civil War, and that is how these actions are to be interpreted. No armies moving across the landscape (yet), but a civil war, nonetheless.
11
Certainly this article is a relief from the "balance" we get so often in the new media. (The Times has been less guilty of this since the election, but they did spill an inordinate amount of ink equating Hilary Clinton's email "scandal" to Trump's abundant inadequacies.)
The writers fail to mention the force that drives the Republicans' behavior: money. The corruption is a disgrace that -- to use a journalistic term -- has been "normalized." Senators have openly admitted that their motive for passing the recent tax cut was the impatience of their donors. The level of this corruption has been exposed by many excellent journalists, most notably Jane Mayer.
Why do the writers ignore this when it is of such importance?
7
You're so right. I had the same reaction. Why didnt authors mention DARK MONEY and citizens united?
Today's GOP;s hold on power is built on three pillars.
1) Negative campaigning,
2) Voter Obstruction
3) Gerrymandering
Of these, the most used is negative campaigning. The Democrats do it, too. Because of it, in most elections between the Democrat, the Republican and 'No Vote Cast' the modal choice is 'No Vote Cast'. (42% in 2016)
As long as the way to win elections is to run down the opponent so that Independents and Moderates can feel justified in not voting, we enable a splinter to pretend that they are the people's choice. They are not and honesty requires they be rebutted whenever they use the term. They maintain their majority through tricks, not votes. Never let them forget it.
9
The Republicans will never give up power and never give up trying to take all the nations wealth. Because they are the power of white privilege class. Which I could say, I am a member of. Until the vast majority of people that are hurt by the Republican party start to understand they are hurt and stop seeing it as a blue versus red football game and worse as a fight of whites versus everybody else nothing changes.
5
Sadly those "without" often don't vote. I spoke to workers at Mount Sinai hospital who said "I'm not interested in politics." But they care about their pocket books, of course. I explained the tax bill would make cuts to Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid & end up costing them more for healthcare. "Oh, I didn't know, " said one.
For the first time I was furious and I could understand why many wealthy lack compassion for the lower classes: the working poor figure their votes won't in the future, and haven't changed anything in the past, so they don't organize, don't call their representatives and let the rest of us fight for them as well as for ourselves and for a just America. After explaining the bill to our doorman he said: so what can I do? I urged him to tell his friends and call his representatives and to join protests.
2
"Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties ..."
I agreed with pretty much everything until that phrase. Lest we forget, our democracy has survived the collapse of three of those 'two serious and ideologically distinct parties' sets (although histories mention only two). First the Federalists collapsed, largely over regional differences. Then the Whigs, a Federalist-ish reboot collapsed, largely over regional differences. And, usually unmentioned, the pre-Civil War Democratic party collapsed over regional differences. That collapse and the refusal of southern Democrats to accept the election results was the catalyst for the Civil War, although slavery was the underlying cause.
Our democracy has made a compromise with political parties, which seem tied to human nature somehow. But the idea that we need two parties is false, both historically and presently. Needs and policy decisions are not binary. Many democracies function with multiple parties, a system which not only encourages but in many cases requires compromise to govern. Compromise in today's D.C would be refreshing, wouldn't it?
5
I think these two op-ed writers are missing the main lesson here. Republicans didn’t break Congress. Corporations broke Congress.
For most of the past century, as well as this one, too many important people were too worried about the proverbial ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’.
What we should be worried about today (and should be doing things to stop it before it’s too late) is the ‘Dictatorship of the Corporations’.
7
In years past this was called Fascism: harnessing corporate power to the politics of the day. Question is: to what end do corporations plan to put the government after increasing profit exponentially? What do they do with all that profit and the profit on the profit (Wall St.)? And this is the point at which morality and ethics generally kick in, but not here.
1
The authors forgot about the huge influence of St. Ronny. He started his dismantling of government in California. But, it was in Washington that his destructive policies really took place. Even Reagan probably wouldn't recognize the Republican Party of today, that he help build.
5
The authors leave out one very large institution that the Left controls and that has inculcated our youth for decades with the anti-democratic, anti-political values of identity politics. The campus left espouses a philosophy that says you can’t understand where I am coming from and unless you agree to except everything I believe you are the enemy. Politics requires listening and compromise, things many on the Left now reject as much as the alt-Right. As Mark Lilla has said in his brilliant book The Once and Future Liberal we are becoming a democracy without democrats.
It's hard to want to give equal time to the other side when all they want to do is kill you.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine, and make sure any media or politically active organization participate in it. This means all radio, cable, broadcast, churches, internet sites have to give equal time to both sides of any political issue.
When churches proselytize like when they tell their parishioners that Obama is the anti-Christ and warn their parishioners not to vote for him, someone must come and offer those parishioners an opposing viewpoint, and those churches that politically proselytize should pay taxes .
9
Is this the immediate future?
Thr Republicans pass their tax bill knowing full well this may force the Democrats to shut down the government by not passing a budget or CR. Shutting down the government at Christmas may not be popular. Who wins in the court of public opinion? The Donor class is happy but if this was a sham and doesn’t become law will they tolerate this situation. Does this give the Democrats enough leverage for meaningful changes in the tax bill? Does this shut down Bob Mueller? Does this allow both sides to get out of town before they face their own allegations of sexual impropriety? If so who gains the biggest advantage and what nefarious underhanded stunts does the administration have planned?
So many questions.
2
I'm hoping Congress gets out of town and hears from voters at home who will resent losing healthcare they had gained and seeing healthcare costs rise, not to mention punishing children with disabillities while granting breaks to the wealthiest among us.
1
And when this infamous tax bill explodes the economy, who do you think conservative media will blame? Immigrants and minorities first of all, and Democrats, for not wanting to cut/privatize Medicare and Social Security. We’re headed for a dark age. To satisfy the interests of their masters, the GOP will double down on their alliance with the formerly fringe right, and continue their march towards explicit white nationalism. Should Democrats recover from their torpor, they will have to embrace vigorous legislative action just to stem the bleeding.
5
I don't see the DNC doing anything; are they? Advertisements against the tax bill with demonstrations of how it will cut Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare in the midwest? coal belt? anywhere? Individual DEMS are good but the party is run by old people who are out of touch.
How well would this country function if political parties were banned?
3
Much better. It would be interesting to see how things would work by citizens voting on referendums.
"Republican leaders have been blunt about their motivation: to deliver on their promises to wealthy donors...Republicans strategically demonized Congress and government more broadly and flouted the norms of lawmaking, fueling a significant decline of trust in government"
"Government is best that governs least" (Thoreau) is the core libertarian dogma--driving their nonsensical conception of freedom. Originally (1700s) it was free-from foreign government (Britain). The GOP morphed it into "free from government". Bush's second inaugural misused the word and its variations (liberty) 40 + times as if 'freedom' were some sort of elixir and its high
Logically freedom is a complex relation among agents (WHO-individuals, corporations, polities), constraints/compulsions (FREE-FROM what) and ranges of activity (FREE-TO-DO what?). Nonsense results from not specifying the relata.
Absence of government is anarchy.
Minimal government transfers political power to corporations and the wealthy. Government becomes police--protecting the private property rights of the rich--and enforcing duties to obey them.
The "commonwealth" becomes a gang of private wealth--lords of the manor--competing or colluding for ever more wealth and power.
Money is political power--those with less must defer to, obey, suckup to those with more. Moneyball is feudalism--lords and vassals. GOP pols are knights in shining armor--jousting in Congress and campaigns for donor tips and favors--grovelling really.
6
Did Citizens United enable Dark Money and its takeover of our government?
Mr Mann and Mr Ornstein speak the truth about the state of American politics today.
With one glaring exception.
The culpability of those Americans who continue to vote for those republican politicians.
They, like the good Germans of the 1930s are complicit in the destruction of what we once called democracy.
8
Will the media please interview Trump supporters asking WHY they support Trump? WHAT policies they like? WHAT will they personally gain from the tax bill?
2
Analysis shows that the problem is real and deep. Paralysis of government insofar as action on behalf of the people and for the people has been drowned in debt for the power brokers, the dark money and incredibly irresponsible false patriotism. Flag waving by itself is not patriotism; having a functioning government and supporting those representatives in this republic who see the need for a functioning government is real patriotism. As Ben Franklin said, we have a republic "if you can keep it." Folks, it is being ripped out of our hands.
2
Nothing in politics lasts forever. The change might take a generation to materialize but this will end too. We're just beginning to see the death throes of Reaganomics. The tax bill is partially a last ditch effort to cash-in on a failed theory. That's why the bill is so horrendously bad. Republicans know this is the last time they'll ever get to argue supply-side theory.
The emergent replacement for Reaganism also supports tax cuts but for different reasons. The far-right has weaponized budget policy as a means to destroy government. Less government revenue means less money for government services. Taken to the extreme you no longer have any government services and therefore no government. The anti-government coalition is actually advocating a limited form of anarchy. They wave the American flag while actively working to dismantle our nation's existence.
Democrats have a monkey on their back too though. The emergent Clintonian era is basically a regurgitation of narrowly defined conservative economics combined with social liberalism. Not even Obama really broke free from this trap. Neither Party has learned to approach globalism in a way that promotes general prosperity. In which case, government distrust will continue to broaden. If the left has any hope, their future will look more like Sanders than Clinton. You can't restore government without promoting the principle of shared responsibility. Eg. Democratic socialism.
3
If anyone would assert that both parties share the blame, let them name a time when all major legislation, for an entire year, has been crafted in secret and rushed to vote without debate, without even a pretense of consultation with the party that represents a majority of voters. Name an era when so many offices at all levels have been held by persons who did not win the larger share of votes. Name a Democratic candidate for President who openly sided with a hostile nation. Tell us when Democrats have refused to even hold hearings on a reasonable, moderate Supreme Court appointment.
6
The current crop of Republicans is not about to change unless given no choice; those of us who are deeply troubled by the direction our country is taking need to take to the streets in protest and to insist that a Constitutional convention be called to address the failings of our government.
3
McConnell's anti-democratic instincts showed through with the Merrick Garland nomination. The constitution gets torn up whenever it suits him and his supporters. Whatever else the democratic senators are, they are elected representatives of the people and legislative processes that entirely excludes them effectively denies citizens who voted for them representation in the legislative process. I have to wonder whether bills passed in this way can even be considered laws given this pattern of exclusion. The lack of hearings underscores the almost theocratic nature of lawmaking in the current era -- as if the goal were to suppress heresy rather than craft laws that serve country. This seems to have nothing to do with the vision of government of 1787, or for that matter just about anytime since.
I do think that kleptocracy is a little strong for what's taking place -- no one is stealing money from the government. They are shifting the burdens of paying the cost of government, admittedly with phoney claims that they are not. The money that is being kept is earned privately, however, and the extreme language further polarizes the discussion.
However one chooses to characterize what is taking place, there will be new elections, new Congresses and new headlines as the impact of these changes is felt. Now that Republican government is not just fantastical promises but soon to be legal reality, I can only hope that voters will choose better government in the future.
2
And what proof do you have that these elections will ever be held? When the Nazis gained a majority in the Reichstag and Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the FIRST thing they did was to outlaw all other political parties. Don't scoff at this very real possibility. Republicans are no different from the Nationalist Socialists, in their tactics, ideology, or goals. People like Bannon and Miller lift their rants directly from from the Nazi playbook, to rabid applause from their white-faced lemming hordes.
People need to stop believing that business as usual will somehow magically change the destructive dynamic driving the fascist politics that have taken over this country. There will be violence--epic in every aspect--and be forewarned: there will not be enough sand for everyone to hide their heads in. It's coming, and the only people who could possibly stop it--Republicans, I'm talking about you--are instead focused on getting rich from it.
2
THANK YOU. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
2
I'm travelling in Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the world. There is corruption here still (nothing like on the scale of the Somoza regime which ended 30 years ago) but still the post-revolutionary government manages to provide health care and education (including college) free of charge or greatly subsidized to its people. In our country, the richest country in the world, there's corruption of such a mean-spirited and selfish nature that the government in power (read: Republicans and their patrons) actually work tirelessly to destroy even the stingiest of assistance programs that might offer some relief for the outrageous health care and higher education costs borne by its people. It's very clear what's wrong with this picture. History tells us such terrible levels of corruption never last; it all comes crashing down sooner or later. The only question is whether the revolution will be a relatively peaceful one (eastern block nations) or a relatively violent one (Nicaragua).
4
Don't worry it won't be around much longer. I expect the government will shutdown this month and using the shutdown and the Korean crisis as a pretext Trump will declare martial law and end American Democracy once and for all. Then he will declare himself the greatest democratic President of all time on twitter.
Normally I would dismiss this thought as paranoid fantasy but that is getting harder and harder to do,
1
It has probably been a year or more since I last said in Comments that the future of America is one with blood running in the streets. But I remain convinced that blood, and I mean real not metaphorical blood, there will be. Mann and Ornstein, if they omitted anything of substance in their appraisal of the treasonous turn the Republican Party has taken during the past 30+ years, have failed to warn of what is rapidly becoming inevitable.
I'm not talking about a rise in mass killings, people. Republicans' tactics are turning citizen against citizen, in ways that disrupt and destroy societal norms. It won't be just the have-nots against the haves. It is neighbor against neighbor already.
Have a merry Christmas, if you can. With this current all-Republican government, it may well be your last.
3
The "Republicans broke Congress" and the Republican Congress broke the country. We'll be paying for their treachery for decades -- if we survive that long.
4
Just how much more money does the 1% need? what are they doing with it? burning it in their fireplaces in the winter?
4
I want the outrageous self-dealing of this bill to be exposed with an examination of each legislator's personal gain resulting from it. We already know trump himself will pocket billions.
2
Yes, but it's impossible to analyze the Right sans fundamentalism and how it patterns thought. Forgive me for quoting Carl Schmitt, but: "All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts. ... The omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver. The exception in jurisprudence is analogous to the miracle in theology.
"The idea of the modern constitutional state triumphed together with deism, a theology and metaphysics that banished the miracle from the world. This theology and metaphysics rejected not only the transgression of the laws of nature through an exception brought about by direct intervention, as is found in the idea of a miracle, but also the sovereign's direct intervention in a valid legal order.
"The historical-political status of the monarchy of the 17th century corresponds to the general state of consciousness that was characteristic of Western Europeans. Monarchy thus becomes as self-evident in the consciousness of that period as democracy does in a later epoch."
The point is to note the binding of theology and politics. Leftist revolutionaries' hostility to religion is explained thereby. What I truly wish to say can't be said in the remaining space, so I want only to repeat that one cannot grasp the Right without delving into religion. All politics has a metaphysical kernel. Try analyzing Pakistani politics sans Islam. The religion prevalent on the Right, which so warps thought, illuminates more than many realize.
The solutions are obvious...
- Term limits
- Legislation to reverse Citizen's United
- Publicly-financed elections from state senate on up
- End gerrymandering with algorithm-based, census-based districting
- More transparency all around, in government and party machines
...and impossible to achieve, given that those who benefit most from the status quo would be the ones who would have to make these changes.
There may be no going back from here.
America, 2017: This is what you get when the people in power don't care how bad they are; not when they keep getting what they want, and they want to keep getting it at any cost. Apparently, in pursuit of the Republican agenda, compromised ethics, values and principles are a small price to pay.
I agree with this article. But I can't shake the image of McConnell, Ryan, et all, and their fat rich donors reading it, and throwing back their heads in happy laughter at our anguish and their continued good fortune.
2
Start by blaming Citizens United for unlimited and hidden campaign contributions, voter suppression efforts and gerrymandered federal, state and local districts.
1
How could these supposedly intelligent professional political scientist authors not see the Republican Machiavellian, full-court tactics to con voters, undermine our democracy, and take over our government coming years ago. Unfortunately this mea culpa comes a bit too late.
Republicans to Main Street Americans — Drop Dead
Republican politicians are counting on traditionally skimpy mid-term election voter turnout to keep the lid on unrich outrage. Wait till Main Street discovers that Corpoville and the mega-rich have no intention of raising wages, onshoring factories or returning money stashed in offshore banks. They’ll take all that lovely money gained from corporate and personal tax cuts, thank you very much, then re-stash the money in offshore banks.
If the deficit gets too large even for Republicans, they’ll cut Main Street’s Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Who cares about Main Street? They should have saved money when they were young so they’d have money when they were old. As for Medicare and Medicaid, they’ve outlived their usefulness, let ‘em die and stop wasting resources.
1
This is the Reagan legacy. The corporate-fed myths he popularized about the evils of government, the need for less government, and individual freedom over group responsibility have grown to their logical, toxic, potentially fatal conclusion.
3
One very important item that was left out of this excellent article: the stealing of a seat on the Supreme Court---unparalleled in American history. And now the packing of the lower courts with extreme right-wing ideologues. Mitch McConnell deserves a lot of credit for helping destroy our democratic government.
3
At last, Norm Orstein speaks out during this time of crisis. I've been aching for him to do this. He and Tom Mann need to speak up weekly and expose the Republican party's irresponsible behavior. They have the reputation and respect to command attention.
If the GOP actually passes this horrid tax bill, let's hope that the voters vote them out.
Finally, I hope they expose Flake, Collins, et al for their behavior of talking the talk but folding in the end. Shame on the Senators. With their capitulation, most hope is gone. They are not the good guys any longer...there are no good guys in the Republican party. They are all losers and traitors to the democratic form of government we have previously enjoyed.
2
I agree with the article until the last sentence. Republican party would be baffled by that sentence: What is this about reclaiming their purpose? They just did so with the tax bill. Their purpose is to please their donors.
A simple solution: vote D in the 2018 elections, elect a Majority Senate and House, repeal all these laws, and impose 85% tax rate on the 1%. And, be sure to 'lock 'em up:" there are plenty of candidates in the federal government, starting at the top. Ain't gonna' happen.
2
“The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose.”
Apparently not.
Intoxicating power and huge personal gain trump honorable action every time in present day Washington. There are a few outliers and holdouts, but they have no real impact for reform.
Reading the current book by Ornstein and company and have read previous offerings. Well thought out and presented, informed and insightful prescriptions. However without a broad and committed bottom up movement, a coherent strategy, substantial assets, and most of all capable and committed political leadership reformation remains but a vague hope.
The forces that own our political morass are powerful and deeply entrenched — and backed by huge resources. The stakes they represent and covet are monumental.
Thank you for writing this. I find nothing more infuriating than the sanctimonious platitudes of people on the right -- and even more so the media -- who say both parties are to blame. That is patently false. The Republicans made this bed and now we're all stuck lying in it. I grew up in the 60s, and became politically aware in the late 60s, especially with the assassinations of Bobby and Martin, and, of course the early 70s -- Watergate. I have never been so frightened for our country as I am now.
1
So the "both sides" defense doesn't work, at least it doesn't if you're paying attention.
The strategy has been in the works for decades. Previously, the Democrats would snatch them back from the edge, from following their worse angels. The Democrats can't stop this craziness because the Republicans have taken control and barred the door.
This is what happens when the Republicans "govern." REMEMBER!
1
I agree with commenters who say we need to do more that write our Congressman. Why is it that among the millions who can see the threat, there seems to be an inability to take decisive action now?
I also find it very troubling how the Democrats in positions of power are so ineffectual in opposition to this president and the Republicans. Where is the daily forceful coordinated attack on these policies?? Say what you will about him, McConnell was very effective as minority leader in this regard. I like Schumer, but statements like "if the Republicans will abandon this partisan tax legislation today, we will work with them in a bipartisan way tomorrow" doesn't cut it. I don't think Democrats realize that this current Republican party is waging an actual war to control every aspect of American society, cement their political power for a generation, undo or undermine basic social programs, and use right-wing "news" outlets to control the electorate. This will be disastrous for all Americans except the very rich.
Another huge problem is that so many Americans are not aware of what is happening nor do they understand basic facts of government. A recent Annenberg Public Policy Center study found that 33% of Americans cannot name a single branch of the federal government. Many don't understand basic aspects of the Constitution. More than half don't usually vote.
We are facing an existential crisis.
1
Mann and Ornstein make a brilliant and spot on analysis.
A major contributor to the collapse of a responsible Republican Party has been the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision that allows unchecked, anonymous dark money to flow into our elections. The Trump Tax Giveaway was not just made possible but made inevitable by this flow of corrupting money to the House and Senate Republican, every one of which signed Grover Nordquist's pledge to never raise taxes. A ploy and enforcement mechanism financed by the Koch Brothers', billionaire and Wall Street greed and radical ideology.
When next the Democrats seize control of the Presidency and Congress, which they will, they need to enact a host of remedial actions before the Republicans can totally destroy our democracy.
2
In my view the accelerating trend to a dysfunctional House began with the Hastert Rule requiring a majority of the Republican majority to move a bill. Historians will look back in horror at this anti democratic (small d) trick.
Blaming Republicans is not the answer. There is certainly a deterioration of norms, but this article sounds like a flip side of 'make America great again'. Instead, opposition should focus on a positive message to the 99%. We need to set new norms, but the message should be simple: reduce income inequality.
Perhaps the only thing left for progressives and moderates to hope for in the current political environment is for the Republican Party to break up. The ideological seams can be seen splintering today, the nationalist nativist 'populist' wing pulling away from the establishment old school side. Republicans in Congress are rushing through the process in passing flawed legislation now because they know that the future does not bode well for them - their base is shrinking and even that may be split in two.
The republicans did not brake Congress, any more then trump broke the Presidency. The people who voted for them and continue to support them are what broke Congress and Presidency, and are now doing their best to tear apart the nation while wrapping themselves in a phony flag of patriotism.
I too will never forget and I doubt I will ever be able to forgive what they have done and some of them are my closest relatives. Now I know what it was like for brother to fight against brother during the Civil War, and like the Civil War there is no longer pretending that voting republican as with fighting for the south is about anything other then basic cruelty, hate, lies, injustice, hypocrisy, and the power to exploit others.
As in Lincoln's prophetic words, "A house divided against itself cannot stand", they have already managed to divide the nation between the same old darker angles of exploitation and hate, and the better angles of justice and hope. They may have seemed to have won for now, as the South won the early battles of the Civil War, but in the end, they will not win this war.
1
The article says, "What is astounding, and still largely unappreciated, is the unexpected and rapid nature of the decline in American national politics, and how one-sided its cause."
Social Media - owned lock, stock and barrel by Wall Street/other market Robber Barons - is the cause. Unfortunately hate-anger-fear-LIES always gain traction more easily with new technology and when it is used as a political weapon it's even more sinister.
First they destroyed newspapers across America and around the world. Many average people depended on their local news sources to tell them the truth of what is happening in the world. The Robber Barons had to kill them so they withheld advertising dollars they control and put newspapers out of business or bought them up to control the messages.
Social media plays a more sinister role every day. Twitter is obviously a way for the International Mafia Robber Barons to communicate. Operatives from facebook were embedded in The Con Don's campaign to help spread unparalleled hate against Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton. They spread lies about what The Con Don planned for The United States of America - robbing WE THE PEOPLE blind and destroying anything good OUR government does for us.
Google and hate social media also helped. So-called news station, fox, brainwashed viewers into thinking The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren would take care of them.
Just remember, it's not over until the fat lady sings and SHE is just getting started.
2
I am amazed by how little these people really understand of technology, history, and law.
2
After reading the excellent Sunday Review essay on the devaluing of women on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, I can better appreciate the role women could play with greater representation in government.
For instance, let's consider national security. What would make American families feel more secure on a daily basis, a much larger Army or a job that pays above poverty level wages? A larger Navy or affordable healthcare for all? A new fighter jet for the Air Force or the opportunities of a good education, vocational and/or academic?
12
If this tax legislation passes, which will increase the deficit and institutionalize inequality of income type and wealth, and when the GOP begins its assault on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, we will enter the beginning of the end for this country. I think the large, economically productive, and progressive states will need to sever their relationship with the US, join Canada, or form other nations. If I were 30 years younger, I would be making plans to emigrate. It is too late for me now, but I have advised my children to lay the plans to emigrate.
18
A soul mate. If one is willing to devote the time to read carefully American history and the political and cultural epochs of western civilization you cannot ignore what is broken in America can be patched up with the nostrums of government reform: fixing gerrymandering, Citizens United, term limits, etc. These will not heal the cultural and geographic divisions of our society. Amen to creating semi-autonomous regions and alliances outside our borders. Those of us in California and Massachusetts have more in common with one another and Canada than with the Deep South.
2
I hear ya. My parents have been telling me to this for the past couple years. I think France or Germany would be nice.
2
I have no doubt that the folks who passed the new tax bill are playing the very Russian Game of Chess. Their gambit is to make the deficit so large that they will force on the country in 10 years a Faustian choice of extremely higher taxes or massive cuts on Social Security and Medicare.
Given the polarization that has come about I think there is a good chance of a perfect storm in 10 years. If we have a big economic downturn at the same time that the Faustian choice is thrust upon is, the resulting turmoil will echo along ideological lines as in 1860.
The resulting civil unrest will dwarf that of the 1960's and may well approach all out civil war as in 1860. The responsibility for that carnage will rest on the shoulders of all of the members of Congress from the 1990's onward. To bad most of them will be dead and not have to see what they have done.
24
Right. Their projected numbers do not take into consideration any economic downturns or recessions that could occur in the time frame. By some measure, we're due a recession by now (though the recovery was very slow). I think though that when the middle class tax cuts are reversed in 5 years, the media will be buzzing with what that means and the middle class will start to tighten the spending because of tax uncertainty. In response, a recession in about 4 or 5 years and maybe one that is longer and more protracted than previous in history because of the tax burden uncertainty in middle class in the nation's most populous states, California and New York.
You need to re-read the essay. Both parties are not remotely equally at fault for the current dysfunction in Congress. If you were paying any attention at all, and aren't a right wing nut job, you would see that the Democratic Party is playing by traditionally accepted congressional norms. The Republican Party -- alone -- has abandoned any pretense of responsible governance.
You, aren't pointing out the problem. You're a definite part of it.
They sure do overplay their hands. Apparently they've never been checked.
This oped is spot on, but one excerpt gives me pause:
Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties...
Here's why:
Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties...
I think it is uncontroversial to say that the 3 branches of government were set up by our founding fathers to provide checks and balances on each other. I don’t believe that it was ever their intention that any political party or parties would organize in such a way and then work in concert throughout all of the branches of government to achieve the goals of a single party with a narrow ideology. This is the exact situation that has been gradually building up in our government for many decades now. The result is that the running of our government has become a game between the two major parties. The primary stake for these parties is winning control of our government for their party and imposing the ideology of their party on our whole country. Problem solving for the common good of the people of our country has gradually disappeared. Now, the policies included in and the process used to pass the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’ clearly demonstrates that problem solving and common good as a stake are completely gone. And with it, possibly our democracy.
15
What was the founder's intentions is obvious. The structure of our government is plain for all to see ( and read).
The unintended consequence of the Electoral College, is the rise of political parties. To get to a majority of the electoral college, cooperation is necessary. That cooperation will lead to a group (or groups) that can reach 50% +1 of the electoral college.
If will allowed the democratic vote leader to take office, even if that person only received a plurality of the vote, parties would be more fractured.
50%+1 means two parties.
1
There is only a facade of Democracy left, the nation now has a one-party dictatorship. It was many years in the making, President Reagan said: "the government is not the solution, the government is the problem".
An honest tax bill would have been debated in the open and voted on in the open without deceptions and lies and would have been bipartisan.
1
We need a Parliamentary System! Just for starters.
Multiple parties.
All citizens voting!
Paper ballots. Counted by hand. With UN Observers!
End to the Gerrymander.
Short campaigns. Paid for out fo the Public Purse.
Candidates vetted for financial background, mental health, their whole past!
God help us all!
2
The combination of Citizens United and an assault on critical thinking in high schools has assured the donor class that they can get voters to elect politicians despite their work strictly on behalf of those donors and inevitably against those very voters. It's the second half of the equation, the assault on critical thinking, which will bring this problem down through the generations.
11
They are now attacking critical thinking in our universities- and btw- this tax bill makes it impossible for anyone but the rich to go to college- what do you think that will do to our universities and our country?
2
If one thinks critically about the US, one never finds a bottom to it.
1
MANN & ORNSTEIN: “…Republican leaders have been blunt about their motivation: to deliver on their promises to wealthy donors, and down the road, to use the leverage of huge deficits to cut and privatize Medicare and Social Security.”
When Pope Francis addressed Congress in 2015, he reminded legislators that: “You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics.”
Well, that may have been the “chief aim of politics” in the past, when the nation had the Republican leadership of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower, but those days are long gone, unfortunately. Now we have Trump, McConnell, and Ryan providing leadership for the Republicans, and they have little or no interest in advancing the public/common good. This recent tax cut legislation was crafted to increase the good fortune of the well-heeled at the expense of poor and middle class Americans, who obviously do not count for much of anything in the political calculation of the so-called party of Lincoln.
Times have certainly changed in America, and not for the best, which this op-ed documents.
33
The Republican intellectual and moral bankruptcy were decades in the making.
One has to believe that the present Republican party, including the president, has not read, and does not respect the constitution and has never even read the Preamble of the Constitution.
1
Couldn't agree more. But to paraphrase a famous saying, "It's hard to get an elected official to see the truth when campaign donors require him/her to not see it." And since Citizens United, those campaign donors speak louder than ever, and speak increasingly for American corporations, not American voters. Republicans have helped us become the United States of Corporate America, where the wealthy are rewarded with a free ride.
23
Mann and Ornstein are too kind. Noble words: The Republican party must reclaim its purpose. What would that be? I'm 70 years old and I have never seen any other Republican purpose than to favor the wealthy at the expense of democracy. My parents grew up in the Depression and fought in WW2. The Republican Party they remembered fought FDRs New Deal and entry into WW2 like tigers. The Republican Party my grand parents remembered was the supporter and enabler of The Robber Barons of the Guilded Age. What is the purpose the Republican party once had and that it should reclaim now? An ending like this requires a sequel.
70
Mary,
I'm 75 and I essentially got the same story from my parents and grandparents that you got from yours.
Thank you for mentioning the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. The Carnegies, Astors, Rockefellers, Mellons, etc. made their money and are now respected for their contributions to the arts. However, first they used and destroyed people and lands to make that money, and at least in Andrew Mellon's case later came under charges for financial illegality. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932 (during the 1929 Crash and resounding defeat of the GOP) was once quoted as saying that if the wealthy of this nation don't care for the poor, we will turn to a welfare system of the government. (I apologize I have lost the exact quotation.) What he was relying on was the wealthy having sufficient conscience to care for those less fortunate, but even he neglected to do that well enough. One hundred years ago or now,the wealthy do not take care of those less fortunate. How many companies have given a voluntary $15 or $20 minimum hourly wage? The passage of this recent tax bill is one more arrow in the coffin that heads us down the path towards a US version of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Be careful what we wish for. It may be the demise not only of the wealthy class, but much more importantly, of our once-great nation. I so desperately hope I am wrong and that we correct our path before we have American Revolution II.
I see a lot of descriptions of our problems as they are tied to the GOP of today.
Re-describing the situation, while a little fun, is getting us nowhere. The truth is that only one thing will improve the situation. The good people of the USA. Vote and vote your heart out. If we sit home and let the 2018 election pass us by, we will doom our country to this GOP abyss. They will cost this country our education, science, health care, medicare, and medicaid. We will also continue the loss of an effective and unbiased court system. They are already stacking the deck locally and nationally. While we have a one sided government now, we do not have to keep it. But no one from inside the government will fix this.
64
What sustains the arrogance of these people who just pulled off this half-baked transformation of the taxation system? They obviously feel suspended high above the streets we stalk.
I completely agree with this article, but with one glaring exception:
A critical mass of the electorate is broken.
The broken government is the product of the broken electorate.
30% of the electorate voted for this president and congress, 40% did not vote at all. The electorate is broken. Things such as Russian interference, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the electoral college, United Citizens, FOX propanda, etc only works at the margins.
30% of any population anywhere in the world is gullible. Why would Americans be exceptional in this regard? If a mere million more of the Non-voters voted, all of these schemes would be rendered ineffective.
108
I think you miss the effect of leadership on the American electorate. As Mann and Ornstein noted Republican leadership demonized government & what we had for a process. They also demonized the news media, science, educators, and thoughtful debate. They continue to do that today as the complete the transition from our country from democracy to a militarized oligarchy. The electorate is not broken, just lost.
1
Thank you for a dose of reason here. Whenever I hear people bemoaning the sad state of Congress or of the Presidency, I feel a need to point out that WE are the people electing these clowns.
Those who allow themselves to be influenced by the 'fake news' on the left or the right, those who vote for party over policy, those who do not even take the time to vote at all; these are the real villains of the piece.
We have met the enemy and they are us.
No modern democracy can survive the failure of its public schools to debunk belief in magic.
The US has been paying more respect to sillier faith based beliefs for my whole lifespan.
1
Thanks. I wasn't depressed enough.
62
Sympathies, I’m not sure I will never NOT be depressed ever again.
1
Welcome to the Club!
I’ve been so despondent. It’s good to have company!
3
I was.
"House leaders continued to inflame the populist anger of their base to win enormous midterm victories in 2010 and 2014." The damage from this can't be overemphasized. Why is it necessary to inflame anger to get people to the voting booth? Is it simply because the Democrats weren't angry that they failed to turn out to vote in 2010? The consequences of this have been the worst gerrymandering ever, Republicans pushing voting restrictions, and a non-functional Congress.
Why can't people vote when they're happy or indifferent, not just when they're angry? Voting in off-year elections is not just a right, it is a duty to protect the country. It's too bad that so many Democrats neglected their duty in 2010.
40
Emotion can be a strong motivator. Something has to motivate people to vote; it's too bad that a sense of civic duty isn't very common anymore.
I'm not defending those who don't vote, but voting is truly made difficicult in many states. In Colorado, ballots are mailed to each of us. Gone are the days of trying to get off work and stand in line to vote. Absentee voting is also easy. Not so in many other states.
To many voters, politics is like football: you root for your home team. To many red Americans, the GOP and their quarterback, Trump, are the home team. That's about how deep it goes for a lot of folks. I'm not sure how to break this cycle of politics-as-football. I'm suspecting this won't turn out well.
34
Even worse, in my view: politics as blood sport, let alone football. And the Democrats continue to bring a knife to a gunfight.
Thank you Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein. At last an article that doesn't blame both sides when it is painfully obvious that the republican party is totally responsible for breaking congress. Your evidence is laid out and the case was made. They are guilty.
74
If the TARP program, and the trillions of dollars of free money and credit that now looms over us, was not passed we might arguably be in a more sound financial position today.
The largest problem we have in the Congress is career Congresspeople.
Congresspeople stay too long and won't leave. The longer they stay, the less they focus on doing good for the citizens and the more they focus on doing the bidding of the people that will cough up the money to keep them in their seat virtually forever as long as they are good lap dogs.
Take Conyers, for example, 88 years old and plans to die there. He is so enamored of his own power, and the hangers on around him so enamored of being close to power, that they would rather keep him on life support in the back room than see him retire. And none of them knew he liked the chicks so much.
Conyers gained power by just hanging around too long, His power has absolutely nothing to do with capability, Same with McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer, etc. They are all too old and have hung around for far too long.
Seniority reigns in Congress and gives us the likes of Pelosi, McConnell, Schumer, etc.
Term limits are obviously one solution, but a simpler solution would be that the politicians exhibit a little more patriotism and less greed by stepping aside and allowing a new generation to govern.
To reduce the arteriosclerosis of government we need more turnover in politicians and far fewer career politicians.
22
No. We can't just blame term limits. We must look at what Mann and Ornstein have delineated--the dishonesty and lies of a major political party.
We have term limits already, politicians are limited to the number of terms they can please their electorate. Why should I not have the right to vote for a Congresscritter just because he has been in office a certain arbitrary number of times?
As to your point about money, all the cash in the world does not mark your ballot, you do that after reflecting on the quality of the candidates (one hopes).
While he should have been gone years ago, a least Conyers won't be running for re-election.
And if TARP hadn't been passed, you'd be enjoying your "better situation," under a bridge over a nice can of Alpo. Not to mention that you're giving your side a pass on legislation and deregulations that ae going to put us right back where we'll need another TARP.
Not so sure about this. The GOP has claimed a purpose: skim whatever cream they can and feed it to the fat.
The real problem we face with Congress is the bundling of ideologies, where the bundles are pro-life pro-gun, pro tax cuts vs. pro-choice, pro-unions, pro-fairness. No mixing and matching.
If we can take one lesson away from this tax calamity Congress, it should be stop the bundling. Come to Congress not as a Dem or Republican bundle but as a champion of child welfare, an expert with a mission to revamp health care. Then let experts who are focused on one area develop cogent plans to move our country forward safely and effectively. How can we get beyond lumped ideologies?
Let’s have televised debates on focused issues in Congress with expert panels. Only problem is people will have to listen.
8
You can't overlook his point about a major political party that has maintained and increased its power through dishonestly and flagrant lies.
When I was a small child - this would have been late Forties, early Fifties - I asked my mother what the difference was between Democrats and Republicans.
There was a pause, and she said, "It just seems that Democrats are the ones who actually work for people who work for a living." There are things I saw and heard as a child which I have never forgotten, and that is one of them.
Nothing seems to have changed in the reality of the two parties, in all this time. So, when you talk about the Republican party "reclaiming its purpose," just what "purpose" would that be?
38
And I remember feeling so proud of a country was built on the belief of the equality of individuals and the dignity of the common man...We do not even play lipsevice to this anymore.
1
Most of Hollywood is Democratic. Most of the music industry is Democratic.
These are the people who work for a living?
Most of the small business owners are Republican. These are not people who work for a living?
Interesting take on things.
Some seventy years ago your mother was able to explain the difference between the parties in a way even a child could understand, and as you say nothing much has changed since. Yet today there are millions of people writing and saying that the Democrats "have no message" and "don't stand for anything." I wonder how many more decades it will take for lazy and misinformed voters to understand what your mother did way back then.
1
The Republican Party is willing to break our democracy because they are not interested in sharing power. They changed Senate rules to only require 50 votes for their Supreme Court appointment, they attempted to repeal Obamacare behind closed doors, and tax reform has been slammed through the reconciliation process rather than the normal legislative process. When they can't obtain approval for their agenda they are willing to undermine them to the point of failure and then claim they were right as is evidenced by their attempts to crash Obamacare and the appointment of department heads that are openly hostile to the missions of those very agencies. The Republicans have seen the future and they want no part of it.
15
And they have lied to us about their purpose, what they do, what they believe. They should be in jail.
I see the future the republicans are creating, and I want no part of it.
Actually, the Democrats changed to the 51 vote rule.
Getting the Republican Party to reclaim "its purpose," such as it is, or could come to be, is a fool's errand. The Republicans are just where they want to be based on the demands of "their donor class."
"We the People" need to reform the outlines of our obvious dysfunctional federal government, with MORE democracy not less, as follows:
1) Double the size of the Senate
2) Double the size of the House (why should Wyoming's people and their single representative to its state have twice as much per capita "political" power as my representative in California?) Note, this would also inflate the Electoral College numbers, and might have prevented the 2 in the last 5 Presidential elections decided by it, from being decided inconsistent with the Popular vote.
3) Every 10 years at the census, enlarge the House's representative count to account for population growth and redistribution of seats based on the census. No state should have a worse representation per capita than the "best per capita" at that time. Wyoming is the current benchmark for "best per capita."
4) Pass legislation that limits direct funding of all political activities, including PACs to a maximum per individual per year, and make this a low egalitarian limit; why should a rich person get to spend more than an average person?
For those who say that grow the size of the Senate and House would cost taxpayers money, Donors would also realize a cost increase (may be less corruption too?)
5
I would add one more:
5) All Representatives should never serve more than two terms.
This is consistent with how the framers wrote the Constitution.
7
Here's a simpler plan: 1 American = 1 vote. Period. No more electoral college. Puerto Rico and Washington DC get representation in the legislature. Not only would that change everything, but it would be fair, equitable, and utterly democratic. In short--American.
Term limits are a red herring. Constantly changing political leaders only make them all inexperienced and the parties even more important and more corruptible.
1
Thomas and Norman, it is about time when the Democratic party establishment leaders look into the mirrors and accept the fact that their way of running the party is over.
It's really a time when Democratic party has to give up the power to some very young and divergent members of our party and include openly gays, lesbians, transgenders et Al, along with lots of Black,Hispanic and Asians with Muslims as the dominant religion among many of the House members as well as among more than half of the Senate Democrats.
The reason why I'm proposing these changes because our Democratic party has failed to include the above segments of our societies by equally distributing the congressional election tickets to the above mentioned members in 2017's special elections.
Most of the establishment members of the Dem party will argue with me saying the G.O.P., which has a strong hold on the rural America, will romp through the diverse crowd of candidates I mentioned above as the Americans who mostly live in the countryside doesn't have the same qualified schools like in the cities and counties where majority of the Democrats live.
Plus the economic conditions do make those Americans "cling to their gods and guns" rightly proclaimed by Obama but got hammered before his first election in 2008.
Actually Obama almost lost that election because of that very statement that clearly defined the Republican electorates who because of their lack of education, do support fake Christians like Trump.
4
Actually Obama won going away in 2008, and Joe McCarthy would have been proud of that bit about Muslims being the "dominant religion," in Congress.
By the way, the religion's called "Islam," and "Muslims," describes followers of that faith.
1
The GOP vs a Democratic party without a firm anchor that holds the party to a firm set of values, or a leader who can bring us together again has helped create the bed we all lie in now. McConnell, Ryan, and Trump may serve to wake us up though, hoping.
The new tax plan from the GOP is a travesty in many ways, as stated here, it has been in the works though for many years. Gutting social programs, gutting public education, escalating the massive transfer of national wealth upward to the donor class, all contribute to a very possible destruction of the US as a democracy.
Robert Reich is lecturing us daily on the dangers and the possible solutions. I will watch his lecture today on Netflix re: "Saving Capitalism".
I call Florida a 'red' state but a commenter here kindly reminded me that it is actually a 'purple' state with 300,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Given that, we have much to be ashamed of here. How did a known criminal in Gov Scott become Gov twice? How does Rubio the Vacant hold on to a Senate seat for more than term? We HAVE to all vote!
The GOP "has gone crazy" as a prominent black sports figure stated several years ago. Will we continue enabling them?
16
This piece should be read by everyone who regards himself or herself as an American citizen. Many of us have watched this happening with alarm over a long time, and the authors have said much of this before. But with Trump in office and having just seen how the Republicans rammed through their outrageously unfair tax plan with utter contempt for anything resembling a democratic process, it's clear that they have crossed the Rubicon: the Republicans want total power in a nationalistic, heavily militarized, corporate state that will allow them to control all essential aspects of our lives, permanently. As they have showed with their tolerance of Trump, they will stoop as low as it takes to secure that power. Their model is the British monarchy under King George III. It's time for an American Revolution, Part II.
18
Do Republicans as a whole believe that no Democrat should participate in the passing of important legislation? Do they really believe that legislation should be negotiated in secret and that they should prevent Democrats from reading or commenting on legislation? Do we really as a country think that's okay? What would our businesses be if we excluded half the room every time something important was decided? What would our schoolrooms be if half the class were not given the materials or a voice? What have we come to as a nation? This divisiveness is stunning and sad.
10
Out of the ashes may come a great new revival. Keep your eyes wide the chance may not come again. Danger and opportunity are both sides of the same plate.
Be open.
6
We need to remember that the Republican Party does not view government as a means for realizing a public vision. It sees government as an entity to be destroyed. It exists to win elections, not to govern, even at the cost of collusion with hostile foreign powers.
Thus, when in power, its only agenda is to tear things down. It perceives the construction of a wall as "building something," while exploding the national debt, throwing its own citizens off health care, and damaging opportunity for developing the nation's human capital. And this list is just for starters.
The GOP and its deep-pocketed sponsors have effectively taught the country that poking liberals in the eye trumps constructive national development about which it cares nothing.
10
Yes, the authors were wrong in 2006. It was all over in 2010, not 2016, when the GOP turned Congress Republican again along with 2/3 of the state legislatures. Obama made me crazy with his misguided attempts to placate across the aisle while getting nothing in return. The GOP had been knocked down by the American voting public reacting to being betrayed into war and recession by the Bush regime. Dems had the Presidency and Congress. But, instead of digging in and solidifying Democratic gains, Barack and Rahm Emmanuel decided, against all logic and public demand, to pick them up, dust them off and restore their wounded pride. He wanted to work with them for the good of the country. In reply they hatched the birther movement. And used the fact that he was POC to unite and create the alt-right. But Obama was focused on winning a second term. So he sat it out in 2010, his 2008 supporters sat it out with him, stayed home, didn't vote and democracy was lost. Simple as that. He admitted it during his second term, but so what? There's no going back now. And the GOP and their donor/paymasters are never going to be satisfied taking out health insurance and retirement income, even if we paid for it our whole lives. Remember the Biblical parable of the rich man who coveted the poor man's only lamb? It's about the GOP. They want our souls. Merry Christmas.
8
"Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties,..." Oh, they are distinct, indeed! One represents the flailing hopes of getting democracy back on its feet and the other represents the return to aristocracy and serfs.
5
The Republicans get a pass from the common people when they insist that their form of tax reduction is good for the working class. They get a pass when they insist that they are morally superior to Democrats. Yet, they cynically pass tax plans that may be likened to welfare for the rich and they offer little to no criticism of the moral shortcomings of the President and his cronies. Some group, who knows, maybe even the Democrats, need to focus on the ways the Republicans in fact do little to nothing in favor of the working class and are in fact not their friends. Maybe by the insistence that all its member think exactly alike it's impossible for Democrats to be united in progress, but they should at least find a way to be united in opposition so that progress may be attainable.
4
While I agree in part, the narrative in this column is incomplete and one-sided. When the Democrats eliminated the filibuster of presidential nominations, including judicial appointments, in Nov. 2013, it was a game changer for the worse. That shortsighted decision will cost the country for decades to come as Trump packs the federal bench with ultra-conservative judicial appointments. Also, the Democrats had run a viable candidate against Trump or if Hillary could have gotten out of her own way and run a more effective campaign, the country would not be in the mess it's in.
2
It should come as no surprise that the first three letters of the words "conservative", "conniving" and "Congress" begin with "con." While the GOP says that it stands for the little guy, it has now eliminated all pretense of that. It is blatant in its effort to simply rearrange and redirect the power and authority of the federal government for its own benefit. Its distain for the less well off in this country is overt and it no longer even tries to hide it. Why the middle-class voters who put the Republican party in power don't understand this is beyond me.
It's enough to make Bernie Madoff blush, on the one hand, and look like a rank amateur, on the other. After all, in relative terms, he was playing small ball, and ended up in prison for picking the pockets of the wealthy. The GOP has taken the Madoff model to an entirely different level. The "little guy" is now fair game.
4
It's quite easy, at this pivotal moment in our history, to imagine a couple different scenarios.
In one, the Republicans' intransigence and dysfunction is rewarded at the polls by that fourth, unnamed branch of our government - the citizenry, and their recklessness is codified and institutionalized. Trump is reelected, the free press is endangered, political violence accelerates, etc., etc. It's entirely plausible and possible.
In another, the Republicans are thrown out of power in the midterms, Trump is impeached, Pence serves out a disgraced term and people like Jeff Flake and Susan Collins try to rehabilitate the party by excommunicating the Bannonites. History writes it for what it was (as Mann and Ornstein are doing now) and we grow as a nation. Also plausible and possible.
Our choice.
5
The only way the Republicans can hold every office when they represent 35% of the country's voters is by deceit, electoral suppression of minority voters, and this incredibly manipulative playing around with the rules of Congress.
The current governing body ignores the needs of 99% or the population, and the will of nearly 2/3. 2018 needs to be a definitive rejection of the status quo, in the streets and at the ballot box.
4
Agree with the article and with man of the comments. What leapt out, as if in capital letters : 'When Mr. Bush became president, Democrats ... provided the key votes to pass his top priority, tax cuts.If the Republicans have had the starring role in all this, the Democrats have been their willing accomplices. If a future Dem administration wants to repeal this bill likely they will back off fearful that Repubs will accuse them of unconcern for the middle class benefits involved (however minor). So caved Obama and the Dems regarding the Bush tax cuts. When Clinton had a budget surplus and those surpluses were projected to continue and markedly reduce the deficit, Clinton and the Dems caved to Repub cries that this would bring on deflation and loss of jobs and so we got instead a decrease in the capital gains tax and other goodies. If the current tax bill is a response to the demands of big Repub donors, what different can we expect from a Dem party that refuses to give up reliance on its big donors despite Sanders showing that this is not necessary. Dem big donors may be great on the social/cultural issues, but on tax policy they either stand with their Repub counterparts or the issue is a very low priority one for them. And where has Obama been ? Given a reported book contract of $10-50 million, why the need/desire for talks to finance industry folks at $400,000 a pop, following the Clinton rather that the Carter path post-presidency. No, Obama,you can't have it both ways.
4
Thanks. You wrote:
"over the past decade it has become clear that it is the Republican Party — as an institution, as a movement, as a collection of politicians — that has done unique, extensive and possibly irreparable damage to the American political system."
Tragically it is much worse for us all. Having come to Washington in 1965, as a Goldwater Republican, to work in the Public Health Service for Clean Air, my experience has led me to document about 50 years of "legal" climate change. By far mostly due to Republican policies.
See https://www.legalreader.com/50-years-of-legal-climate-change/
2
In 2010, Karl Rove revealed a plan to take the majority of state houses, and give the states the power to gerrymander the congressional districts.
In 2010, the GOP lost control of the party's ability to control the candidates through party funding with what they thought was a victory in Citizens United.
We ended up with safe districts - which reduced the need for compromise candidates, and people funded by increasingly right-wing anti-government groups like Americans for Prosperity.
We gained an internet that allowed toxic ideas and fake news to drive wedge issues and irrational voting.
All of this happened before Trump. Trump is a symptom of the disease. He is the culmination of the dysfunction that lost the GOP the ability to select its own candidates.
Want to blame someone for tTrump look to Karl Rove's attempts to lock in the GOP, Mitch McConnell for making the election all about the Supreme Court for rational GOP voters.
The stranglehold that the 2 parties have on our country is partly due to the Electoral College. It has created the most powerful 2 party system in the world. And can you name one politician from either party that has proposed abolishing it ? The parties like because well it's like going into an ice cream shop and you only have 2 choices, vanilla and chocolate, why would they let another favor in. It would take away from their power. Ah, this system is a vestige of slavery and needs to go. Besides the basic the democratic principle that each person's vote should equal 1 vote abolishing the EC would seriously damage the power of 2 party system and thus possibly also gerrymandering. The EC does more harm to our democracy than we realize.
1
How can you write an article like this without mentioning the Koch organization and Citizens United? For practical purposes the Republican Party no longer exists as an independent entity. That’s why the Republicans refused all cooperation with Obama so as to hold the country hostage for the tax plan just delivered.
As the authors point out, the TARP vote was a kind of watershed. The Democrats and a minority of Republicans had to save the country, because the new Republicans were only interested in their owners. If you want to know reality read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money.
3
Follow that up with Nancy McLean's "Democracy in Chains", William rowder's "Red Notice", and finally Steven Kinzer's "All the Shah's Men" and you will have a good grasp of how and why we are where we are. From England's stealth hand in destabilizing Iran so it's oil companies and imperialistic views could continue to shape the post war world, to the American south's resistance of civil rights movement because they didn't want to have to pay the minority workers more, and feared educating them would (rightly) mean they would no longer pick cotton, to understanding how a lowly American capitalist managed to, in essence, hamstring the Russian oligarchy to the point they would destroy our democracy in retaliation, what we are seeing is the culmination, a perfect storm if you will, of a 50 year crusade to upend the socialist leanings of. government and finally create their Randian utopia.
The Republicans have broken far more than Congress. They've broken all three branches of government. Their rampage is not over.
They've broken a once unified nation into warring tribes.
It's natural to be an American and be frightened, but the whole world should be frightened.
I do not see a clear path forward, and I do not see an end in sight, save for a glimmer of hope in Virginia last month.
However, one thing is clear: we are currently in a state of civil war. The combatants are not distributed as in the Civil War of the 1860s. The Republicans are so far winning the war without firing a shot, but know that they are heavily armed. Over 40% of all guns in the world - the world - are owned by Americans, who make up 5% of the world population.
We are all going to revisit how nations are born. Most nations are founded on ideals, principles, and the rule of law. But all nations are forged in war. America is headed back to the smithy.
We'll each have to decide whether to fish or cut bait. Or to fight for our country or emigrate. I for one do not want to live under their rule.
3
It goes back farther than the 1990s, although that is when it all sped up, namely with the witch hunt of Bill Clinton, beginning with the "Arkansas Project" being formed even before he was elected president. This really began with Watergate. Republicans never got over Watergate. Henry Hyde said, during the impeachment of Pres. Clinton, that the impeachment was in part "payback for Watergate." (So Democrats pay for the crimes of Republicans. That really does seem to be a GOP mindset). And let's face it, the rest of the impeachment was because he won the election. (Most knew that, but with the head-in-the-sand ostrich act this Republican Congress has maintained with Trump, I think there can be no doubt about the crass political abuse of the impeachment provision by Republicans).
Newt Gingrich, Lee Atwater, Tom DeLay, et al, ushered in the "war on liberals/Democrats". The indoctrination of the GOP base that liberals and Democrats are, literally, the enemy, was successful, but it was also necessary to get the GOP to be able to pass Draconian policies, like Reaganomics and this tax bill, which they know harm their own base. The only way that can be done is to provide a steady drip, drip, drip of propaganda to convince your base that what is true of you is actually the case with the opposing party, that they are out to "get them."
It worked, with FOX as the propaganda conduit, and it has now morphed into cult-like insanity.
5
Does it matter that demolishing collegiality is no barrier to the kleptocratic intent of the donors to the polical denizens in Congress. It has been famously suggested that Congress intent is to ensure that its financiers leverage power for their benefit and not for the common man.
The one major change demonstrated by the Republicans is their ability to provide in real life what used to be a fairy tale - “the emperor has no clothes” . It’s in full display for those that choose to see and openly demonstrates the pillaging of the social net under faux pretences.
God speed to the Republicans as they demonstrate the power of the old fairy tale more and more.
Broken congress and who's at fault 2017?
Probably the political situation cannot be grasped unless a comprehensive economic analysis of the United States is made. I'm reading a book titled "Secrets of the Temple" by William Greider published in 1987 about the American economy in general and the Federal Reserve in particular and it seems to be that the U.S. believes overwhelmingly in capitalism as the method of economic advance, but this method is slow, painstaking, trickle down in effect at best, which leads to a strange moral ambiguity among the American people.
On one hand we constantly talk about helping all people, and of course with the left wing party we lean to socialism, but on the other we seem to believe only capitalism is the reliable method of economic and social advancement, thus giving sanction to not only those who try to make the existing system work as best as possible but those who are purely out for themselves, those consumed with wealth and power.
There is a constant tension between capitalistic and socialistic tendencies, and although socialists have morality on their side their economic method is apparently believed questionable in ultimate effect, while capitalists seem to have methodology on their side but at the price of having economy too often filled with unscrupulous characters. It's a strange tension between being against survival of the fittest for sake of us all, but embracing survival of the fittest, capitalism, because it's reliable method.
I am not a young man. A veteran of Nam - 4 years serving. Had my streaks of "conservatism" - Barry Goldwater button on my jacket until I realized his support was just too bigoted and otherwise dangerous to let in the door.
The 60s Civil Rights movement woke me. Still "patriotic" I became socially more liberal and recognized the inequities foisted on us by the establishment.
Nam changed me - I knew for a FACT the government was headed by LIARS - not because of military necessities but because THEY were at war with the People they supposedly served.
Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and the blatant way the GOP decided that gaining power was more important than us the People ended my voting for the GOP.
A man of science I value what comports with reality over fantasy and what works best to reach noble objectives over my desired ideology. Yes I said noble objectives - let's just say read Jefferson's Bible to find those.
I say all this why? To have some credibility as I make this plea. We all better get woke - this is NOT war of conservative vs. progressive.
This is a war of honesty and nobility of spirit vs. the most vile and base instincts.
This is a war of those who care about ALL the People and Humanity vs those who care only about the "elect" in their eyes.
We - a MAJORITY - who believe in the brotherhood of people and truth - must oust the GOP! Later we can sanely and rightly debate how we reach commonly shared noble objectives for humanity/nature.
10
The only solution is the dissolution of the Republican Party. I vowed prior to the 2016 election to vote for no one who chooses to run as a Republican. This included the local races, where many local officials run uncontested as Republicans. I will never vote for anyone running for any Office who chooses to run as a Republican. That brand has been ruined.
10
Stop collecting and start taking ACTION. People who don't like where we are need to JOIN their local chapters of the Democratic party or the League of Women Voters or whatever organization you can find that's committed to fighting and beating this current monstrous incarnation of the GOP. There are groups organizing all over the country, but they need more members so they can actually implement their plans. ACTION! Make actual phone calls, register actual voters, sign actual petitions for actual ballot initiatives to actually undo gerrymandering and elect better representatives. Change may be slow but it can happen if we all row in the same direction and turn this ship around!
"Parties exist to win elections and organize government, and they are shaped by the interests, ideas and donors that constitute their coalitions. Neither party is immune from a pull to the extreme."
The modern Republican party has been thoroughly shaped by the unhealed divisions and hatreds left over from the Civil War and the failed attempts at reconstruction. Nixon's infamous "Southern strategy" nakedly played on racial hatred and southern resistance to the Johnson era civil rights movement. Regan's dog racial dog whistles of Cadillac driving welfare recipients who were always pictured as black women exploited the same divisions and suggested that certain Americans, namely blacks, hispanics, and first and second generation immigrant communities were less worthy of the benefits that flowed to everyone else. Mitch McConnell's blatently racist leadership of rejecting everything President Obama attempted to do was just a punctuation mark on a political party and its constituency now successfully gelled by hatred of other Americans and geographic regions rather than by love of country. History teaches us that the divisions and hatreds caused by civil wars can easily last 1000 years or more and create regional politics and policies that are best expressed as "war by other means." America is truly on the verge of not being American any more and it's high time to begin the national conversation on what, if anything, is worth saving and uniting around.
1
One could make the case that the problem actually began with Ronald Reagan whose 1980 candidacy was built on 'Government is the problem'. The great fabricator also swapped arms for hostages (Iran1980), illegally sold them to finance the Nicaraguan Contras, and created the largest debt in the history of the world (tax cuts and the doubling of military spending). And who can forget "Just say No' as a medical response to AIDS? So the playbook really hasn't changed all that much: blame the poor for being poor, blame the sick for being sick, and most importantly always have a scapegoat ready and waiting where you can direct the emotions of the disaffected.
2
Anyone paying attention knows deep in their hearts: tax bill process marks end of Democracy as we know it.
5
"Reclaim their purpose"?
Sirs, they have found it! It is to destroy the country for the benefit of the ALEC crew so their wealth will trickle down on the Republican party elite.
Pretty simple, really. It is economics 101: pure self-interest.
5
I see this all as the natural progeny of 'Citizens United'.
As disheartening as current trends are , We who believe that our country belongs to Lincoln's people and not the bondsmen, shall on the strength of decency ultimately prevail, but it's going to take time and money.
After all, 'Citizens United' was a split decision and inherently weak as it is unholy. but combined with it's guardians, it has become a very tough little machine that will go of itself.
But let's not be distracted and I, for one, won't shut up any more until we render proper maintenance to our country and mold like this and all it's diseased spores have been bleached from our charter.
3
The writers of this column overlook the unholy alliance of the GOP with Evangelicals, Pentecostals and other fundamentalist religious sects that has formed over the last six decades, if not longer.
Once upon a time both political parties stood on the side of science, reason and logic in America and its public policies. Belief in a supernatural Supreme Being has no place in political or social discourse and policies, but the GOP has increasingly used the faith of fundamentalists to drive a wedge between moderate Americans and the "true believers" who would base our government on some holy book or religious dogma.
A religious Fantasyland being has become prevalent among many with a belief there is an old man in the sky with a grey beard and a clipboard, noting every perceived sin while meting out judgment and religious justice. The GOP has successfully manipulated public opinion regarding guns, God and government to the point that the SCOTUS will hear a civil rights case under the guise of religious and "artistic" freedom. A bakery open to the public will not serve certain elements of the public, just as slavery and segregation were once justified by a Bible.
Readers in thrall to the alt right Fantasyland will disdain this column. They like the taste of the kool aid of false issues being ladled out by Breitbart, Drudge, Hannity, Limbaugh, et. al., while disdaining facts in mainstream media as liberal propaganda, with a secret socialist agenda behind the media and Democrats.
2
'Conservative intellectuals' is now the plural of oxymoron. Old trout 'conservatism' is dying. Its intellectuals float about like annoying ghosts from Merry Christmas Past. They have had every chance to identify 'conservative' healthcare, before and after "Repeal Obamacare."
These authors conclude "The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose." So, milquetoast. Instead, try a last run for redemption: "State your purposes - exactly." Of course, the GOP won't. That's why Trump could fill that void with his lies and then won the primary.
The Republican Party sticks to its formula whereby its politicians assure people that they are 'loyal' to their cause; and that's enough for life-long Republicans. Neither the Party nor its sheep will change. Change involves risk. Change involves work.
Trump and Company are scourging our lives of health, of green tree limb, and now our pocketbooks. However, many were new arrivals and never sheep; and they now know his lies. At 2018 primary time, decomposing old trout will complete their "life-long cycle" as fuel for blantly racist and plotting fascists. The Bannon Metamorphosis.
Liberalism or progressivism is difficult to sustain---it is a political stance that demands flexibility in thinking and continually pushes you out of your zone of comfortable beliefs. In this respect the Republicans will always have an advantage since their platform rarely if ever changes---this tax plan for example is warmed over Reaganomics + a Wallace lite racism. The GOP won't really even consider real conservative policies that offer "progressive ends." Presently, and as we look into the near future, there is no sign in the Republican party of a paradigm shift in thinking about the health and welfare of our nation in a time where our survival as a nation depends on the ability to quickly shift paradigms.
1
If anybody wonders why the US Congress is considered to be a joke, the cynical behavior of the GOP this week should stop all argument. They’re not “deliberating”, or soberly considering the fate of the country. No, they’re playing Calvin Ball. With our lives.
2
An eco Mac downturn usually results in legislators ruling the country losing elections...
I could not agree more. The restructuring of the republican party cannot even begin to happen until the enemies of our democratic process have been removed form office...and hopefully locked up. This would include drumpf, pence, mcdonnell, ryan, and the rest of their band of thieves of the democratic process.
1
I am in agreement. The best evidence is when the GOP refused to have hearings over Obama's Supreme Court pick. You can not refuse to do your job and actually be doing your job.
3
It was pretty well known that Trump was unfit to be our president. And besides the decline of our party system, another question I have, just how hated is Hillary Clinton that she didn't win the electoral college vote?
2
There were Republican senators who could have saved further decline of the American political system by standing up speaking up and vote accordingly. McCain, Collins, and Flake come to mind who clearly see the historic decline but give away the country for scrapes. They would not even have sacrificed their political futures. Instead of coming out as true political heroes who stand up refusing to vote for any major legislation in this climate and with this process they are going down with a whimper further enabling a dangerous and incompetent president. History describing the decline of the USA will not be kind to them.
2
Paraphrasing Leonard Cohen, I'll offer a cold and a broken Amen. There are forces at work in this country --and they didn't start with Trump-- that will burn down our institutions and trash our most sacred values, all for the sake of "winning" and getting ever richer. As this commentary illustrates, these forces operate through an array of proxies in government and the media. In many ways, the key piece facilitating our fall from grace has been the rise of a right wing media propaganda machine that has seduced the credulous and, just as importantly, caused many more to simply turn away, muttering vague generalities about fraud, corruption and untrustworthy politicians. The people and forces pulling these strings have always been here, and they have had their brief moments of dominance. But the goodness of most people and the moral values embodied in our traditions have in the past risen to turn the arc again toward justice. It feels now though that decency and our better angels are no longer enough to carry the day.
3
"The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose" one says to rats at a food trough willing to gorge until they and everything burst.
They will not willingly 'reclaim its purpose.' The question now is: Is there time too much time and not enough compunction before the next elections? Because every day we watch the constant erosion of the checks and balances on our separation of powers and the abilities of citizens to be heard.
2
I can't disagree with the op-ed. The problem is deeper than just the Congress, though. There's an electoral rot taking place as well, which allows the GOP to manifest its madness. What's happened to voters, notably rural poor whites, who would so easily vote into power a party that so obviously is contrary to their best interests?
2
The Republican Party has no commitment to this country or its citizens. Its office holders have broken their oaths time and again, most recently in the early morning hours Saturday, to protect its citizens from enemies domestic, and foreign.
They alone have enabled economic collapse time and again, most recently in 2008 with their “tax cuts.”
May a pic be on them and their houses, may they die a painful death, and may God bless America.
The Republicans are merely trained seals pandering to the media and the wealthy. They don't get the money or suffer the harm. The problem comes from the laziness of the American people and the short-term thinking of the wealthy, either of which can fix the problem in not much more than one stroke...
Everything the article states is true. However it ignores a major factor in regards to congressional dysfunction. The Democratic Party became 'Republican Light' - beholden to the same Wall Street and corporate interests as the Republicans. When the Democratic Party insisted on nominating Hillary Clinton - a remarkably unpopular candidate (for a whole host of reasons) it threw away the election. Until the Dems relearn the lesson that 'its the economy, stupid' and embrace universal economic policies that uplifts the lower and middle working class instead of making 'identity politics' and demanding ideological purity on gun control and abortion it will continue to fail. The Democratic Party's dual failure - lack of emphasis on bread and butter economic issues and over emphasis of divisive identity politics and social issues has turned off millions of voters who either become too apathetic to vote or become vulnerable to fake populist con-men like Trump. Yes the Republican Party has become the yes men and servants of its wealthy donors who embrace Social Darwinism - but the Democratic Party has lost its way. It is a pale imitation of the once dynamic party of FDR whose main goal was economic and social justice for all Americans.
2
The Roman Empire rose and fell. The sun never set on the British empire, then it did. Now the end of the American century. So this is what it looks like when empires fall!
2
Better late than never, but it would have been great if this had been written and published long ago. Perhaps when McConnell and others met on the evening of Obama's first inauguration and decided there would be no bipartisan cooperation. Perhaps when it became clear that Trump would be the Republican nominee. Perhaps when the first revelations that the Trump campaign had serious connections to Russian spycraft.
It was all out there, but the NYT preferred to report extensively on BUT HER EMAILS as driven by the very right wing media condemned here, and on every Trump rally and absurdity rather than the extensive policy positions of Hillary Clinton.
This is a good start, but you need to acknowledge your part in allowing the Republicans to destroy our government.
2
Republicans have turned Congress and the government ON the people. We the people are suppressed by so-called "elected" officials who are supposed to represent us, not repress us.
The problem is, to serve the people, a democracy depends on an informed public presented choices and the facts about the choices. The Republicans have worked with their right-wing media to misinform the public, lie about the choices, turn facts into alternate facts, turn the mainstream media into fake news.
Republicans have elevated a charlatan creep to the highest office in America. That is the fulfillment of their purpose. Only the people can decide when enough is enough. Then the people must act. But the ballot box is no longer a viable means to end Republican tyranny.
2
Yes, thank you Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein...I printed this article. I will forward it to others. This is journalism.
This piece by Mann and Ornstein expresses thoughts I've been mulling for years. Where to lay the blame for the deterioration in discourse and governing over recent decades. Gingrich clogged the wheels of government making compromise a bad word in perverting an chamber designed to govern. Murdoch made it okay to profit from abusing the public trust when the 'fairness doctrine' was allowed to expire. McConnell chose party over country politicizing process in the Senate at every opportunity serving the interests of donors over voters. Limbaugh made it okay to be unpatriotic proudly declaring 'why would I want Obama to be a successful president?'. 'W's administration normalized incompetence, lying and dealt a blow to the perception of government's ability to serve the people's needs. The Koch brothers fueled an insurgent movement to undermine democratic 'will of the people' in favor of private (and personal) profit. There are many others who have played bit parts in contributing to the appalling current state of discourse and governance - Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Wayne LaPier, Sean Hannity, Julian Assange, Mark Levin, Glen Beck, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and on and on. The unmistakable thread that runs through these players is loyalty to the cause of the GOP founded on power, fame and/or greed. The founding fathers, so revered by 'Right', would be saddened to see their framework so thoroughly exploited and damaged. The GOP have put our democracy in existential peril.
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Under this president and abetted by Republican corruption we are now officially no longer a democratic republic. We are not a billionaire oligarchy - of the 1%, for the 1%, by the GOP.
Only one party set out to actively and intentionally destroy a government. That was the GOP. This was allowed by the media and by the same voters who have brought us Trump. There is no equivalency with any other party in that seditious action by the GOP.
1
If people want to know what comes next just look at the policies proposed by the Koch brothers when they were unsuccessful in the run for office in 1980. Then you will know. As they are the paymasters of the puppets who are implementing today's policies it will come as no surprise that the next target is the social safety net. Social security and Medicare are next up because the deficit will be the next bogeyman. I wonder how many poor, uneducated Republicans will think "America Is Great Again" after that happens?
You can't equate the Democrats with the Republicans for sheer vileness and taking a wrecking ball to the political system. But the Democrats have been deeply complicit by trying to be Republican-lite (Bill Clinton should be remembered, and despised, for repealing Glass-Steagall, welfare deform, NAFTA, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and trashing habeas corpus), and then nominating an ultra-Establishment candidate in 2016 who represented more of the same. Not to mention not fighting back when they should have and could have.
The corporate takeover of the U.S. government is now complete. Billionaires and corporate leaders used the GOP as their tool. The incompetent Democrats allowed it to happen by using a Republican-lite strategy -- adopting similar policies but not quite as crazy. With the lone exception of the ACA, neither party has attempted to address the concerns of the majority of Americans.
We no longer have a democracy.
We need a fix. And that fix is to take redistricting out of the hands of politicians and instead have it done via a bipartisan commission. Gerrymandering is killing democracy.
Much of what the article says is true, but I suspect there is a larger truth in play. It is very hard to recall what a wretched decade the 1970's was. And I do not assert this only as a died-n-the-wool New Yorker, miserable as that decade was here. It was just a time of nothing quite going right. In retrospect it was the beginning of the end of the vaunted primacy of the United States. Long weak nations or, more properly, peoples, were emerging from centuries-long doldrums--pace China and India--(the watchword of the second half of the twentieth century surely is Mao's "China has stood up"). The nations and peoples devastated by World War Two had finally overcome their near destruction. The United States finally faced real competition on all fronts and had lost the will and ability, during its quarter century of unearned and unquestioned supremacy, to compete in a new world (remember the oil shocks of the '70's?!?) At the same time the United States had lived through an unprecedented population tsunami, the age of the "baby-boomers". Unhappily, unlike Canada to our north, we took no steps to prepare for the aging of the baby boomers, but now we are broke, both monetarily and spiritually. Instead of "The Affluent Society" and "The End of History" we have intellectual sloth and spiritual ennui. Those who couldn't get started during the '70's were always determined to "get even" and, boy, have they, with a vengeance!
>
It's working fine for them and their donors. For how long remains to be seen. But there will be great sufferings, hardships and a trail of tears before it can be changed.
Man is hopeless and deformed creature.
When when all the scandals are well documented, and history shreds the period of the trump administration, posterity will see how fragile democracy really is. That is, if history is allowed an honest look back, and big brother is not our god.
"The Republican party must reclaim its purpose." Why when its working so well for them? I don't see a revolution while we are all so comfortably anesthetized by our virtual realities. Maybe when we loose net neutrality and the majority can no longer afford to get their fix people will storm the castle. I have never felt so hopeless.
I'm glad the false equivalency that BOTH Democrats and Republicans are to blame for this decline of our political system is no longer being furthered. Although things may seem dire to many of us, know that Republicans overplayed their hand with this tax bill. They have enabled Trump, so as to get this horrible legislation passed and you could call this a 'win' but a win which will be the source of their demise as well. In their haste to pass something, anything, they nudged the sleeping, formally complacent, giant, 300 or so MILLION of us, the masses, the MAJORITY of the American public. As we were woken unexpectedly, we are VERY grumpy and incensed to see that the house is in disorder. So, Republicans, nihilistic supporters, enjoy this empty victory, as the tidal wave, with the name "Justice" bears down on DC. We aren't falling asleep again any time soon.
Despite despite being 70 and familiar with a range of people and captivated by politics, until trump was elected I held onto a naive faith in what I thought were shared values—equality under the law, decency toward each other, adherence to the truth, and pride in America's past and enthusiasm for its future. I despaired over the SCOTUS decision that helped elect Bush and feared the results of his blunders. I rejoiced over Obama's victory and the character of the man while being angered by the republican commitment to block his every move. Trump's victory after a campaign any thoughtful American would decry as vicious was a kick in the gut. He is the antithesis of what I believed in. He is also the result of the republican intransigence and embrace of venality and hypocrisy.
Gingrich, Cheney, McConnell—these and those who followed them are the ones who represent the descent of what was once a party of good men and women.
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None of what this opinion bemoans would have happened without the voters' consent. (As for creating a better voting system, that is up to legislators elected under the existing system, so why would they want to change that?)
So who votes? Everyone, including the numerous who have no business to shape the course of this country, for the simple reason that they are ignorant of even the outlines of the issues. And they are quite proud of their ignorance.
While we all are born ignorant, there are institutions created to improve that situation. Not just the schools, but also the information/entertainment media in all their various manifestations, into which most of us are plugged into practically 24-7.
And who is in firm control of this vast machinery that --- quite clearly --- has created a voting public that gave us, without coercion, the leadership to which this article objects so eloquently?
It is not Republicans, not the "deplorables" of HRC, but those who like to refer to themselves as the "best and the brightest" of this land.
To add insult to injury, they even make their claim to such time-honored labels as "liberal" or "progressive."
Who will provide the bigger, better brains we need?
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So what do we do about this? I feel so powerless.
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It's sickening to listen to Trump and/or his base claim the appointment of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as a Trump achievement.
Mitch McConnell's deeds are a long list of evil and destructive acts against our democracy, but his refusal to even vote on Merrick Garland was the final, the worst slap to democracy and reasonable governance of my lifetime. And I'm a Truman baby. And I lived through Watergate.
What drives McConnell?
Who owns him?
It can't be merely greed. One can satisfy greed without destroying Congress and hence our democracy.
Told you before, McCain can never be trusted. He's as erratic as jumping bean.
But I'd like to sit down with Susan Collins and ask her when, exactly, she lost her mind, too.
This is an excellent piece. Thank you.
But it really started with the actor from Hollywood, right wing Ronnie, who started the slow process of destroying the New Deal and the Great Society -- not to mention the deconstruction of the administrative state.
I'm scared for my adult children, and I'm scared for all of us.
And the generals are banging the Korean war drums.
I'm hanging on to the good news of the Flynn flip by a thread.
No, it started when the right wing slaughtered John Kennedy. The Warren Commission absent in their duty to investigate, run by the man whom Kennedy had recently fired was completely negligent in its duty.
The title of this piece should be expanded to be more accurate:
"How the Republicans Broke America"
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My view of the fiasco that is the inept, self-serving government that has been forced upon us comes from a place of incredulity. How can a segment of society support a literal regime that not openly operates against their interests and strips them of their wages, dignity, and jobs, it uses them up and casts them aside when they are through taking everything they have to fuel their self-serving agendas?
Truly mind-boggling.
1
Everything written in this article is 100% correct. The Republican Party-before-country is a clear and present danger to America. Irreparable damage may indeed have been done already.
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This article really lays out all the facts of the republican perversion of our system. I have never before heard such vitriol coming from my right-wing friends! Everything Obama and the Clintons did was wrong and everything the Bushes, Reagan and Trump did was right! This has to be stopped! The Democrats might not have been perfect, but the open conversations didn’t contain the level of hatred we see today. If more Democrats can get elected to curb the lopsided approach, it just might save us from slipping into an autocracy!
Well said. But what now can we DO to defeat these horrible people rife with actions that in some ways will kill us all. Let's not just say we see the truth, and seethe with anger but do nothing..
It is not Trump and it is not the Republican Party that is taking us down the path we are on. It is the American electorate. The notion that a course correction will come from some fit of responsibility at the top is a fantasy. If a course correction comes, and there is no guarantee it will, it will come from the electorate and it will be driven by the pain and misery that is being visited on an ever increasing segment of our population. It will be spurred on by the greed and hubris of the fat cats who are eager to take us into another economic calamity. And when that happens, the electorate will be faced with a choice - put some time and effort and thought in to the job of being a citizen and vote regularly and responsibly, or throw a temper tantrum and continue down the path of autocratic leaders and eventually to a racist, fascist state.
I don't know which way that will go, nor do I believe anybody else does, but I am fairly confident of one thing, the fat cats will put their money on the side of kleptocracy and they will have no problem finding minions to do their biding at the polls. Even that is not a sure thing, but that has been the way things have broken for most all of recorded history.
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There will be a great reckoning in 2018.
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If the republicans would read these gentlemen’s books they would learn what thorough scholarship and what a fact is.
Many authors in the last 20 years have described the donorization of American politics.
The canaries have been singing for decades but no one s listening!
The GOP is the party of the New Royals. They declared war against democracy when Saint Ronnie destroyed Patco and have been gunning for our country since then. The Powell Memorandum proves this. First they took over the Republican Party, then the courts then the Presidency.
The only counter to this is another revolution. It is time to take to the streets, march on Congress, flood the mails, emails, and phone lines with protest. March. March. Resist. Flood the offices of your Congressman in their districts and in Washington. Vote against them when they next run for Congress.
March, resist, vote. Kick the Bums out.
The deliberate or at least obvious feature of most purported journals of information are the current choice to ignore the national devastation of electing Barack Obama. Even allowing he was empaneled on a misguided wave of minority angst and affirmative action fervor we, normal citizens, can not erase $10,000,000,000 in debt, crumbling infrastructure, declining quality of life for our most vulnerable and the rise of the political and crony elite.
Criticizing the current administration is fair game but your disgusting and feces soaked slip is showing.
It is truly time for a citizens' General Strike. Mass actions in the streets, civil unrest. Time to re-read Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and get to the hard task of saving or country, democracy, and truly representative government. Watching all of those smiling, ghoulish, back slapping hideous white men and their female collaborators celebrating the "win" that will destroy so many U.S. lives, communities, lands and waters, and institutions has me completely enraged. And I am ready to channel and use that rage. Let's get to it, citizens.
The Republicans did not just break congress, a quaint notion too timid for today's actual reality. They have destroyed the very idea and ideal of America. Mitch McConnell is a traitor worse by magnitudes than the corrupt, hateful, hypocritical Gingrich. I won't be around to see the end, but unless the lazy, disinterested non-voting (mostly younger) public who has permitted a small, vocal, intolerant minority to hijack their very way of life wakes up, they will be living and dying in an Ayn-Randian Faux-Christian dystopia. There is still time to try McConnell and Trump as traitors. It is the least they deserve.
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The Republican Congress is no longer Constitution. It kept all Democratic members from any participation in legislation at the same time it kept the public in the dark. Representatives of well over half the citizens of the nation were locked out. Rich donors and lobbyists had the inside track.
This is now a kleptocracy and a dictatorship by a minority. No hearings, late analyses and complete denial of the impact of this atrocity of a bill on healthcare, middle and lower class citizens, on education. 13 million lose their ACA, 9 million poor children lost CHIPs, and costs will rise 10% on premiums while medical deductions almost disappear. This kills people.
The attacks on blue states could not have been more vicious. These are the economic engines of the country that already support red states. The tech industry in California contributes far far more to the country than the coal industry. This is cutting off your nose to spite your face. These are areas of global leadership for the future. Otherwise we have third world impoverished status with zero infrastructure repairs.
Targeting education is vicious also. Where is the future if you force students out of college?
Cruel, greedy and kleptomaniac Republicans. They seem to want to destroy everyone but the wealthy and corporations. This is their March to the Sea leaving a swath of devastation and bodies while they loot the country. Done in secrecy in the dark like all evil deeds.
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Please please please people, VOTE.
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A Kleptocracy and a "dictatorship" which got democratically elected, and which -terrifyingly enough- might get reelected, thanks to ignorance from a large group of voters, who elected Trump, and laziness from an even larger group of voters, 97 million citizens, who did not vote. The US is looking more and more like Venezuela, where Chavez got legally elected three times, and managed to almost run the country to the ground. Even his death did not improve the situation, as Maduro came along and only made things worse. We are witnessing the "Venezuelization" of the US.
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Excuse me...
As long as the Senate, or the House for that matter, follows their organizing rules, they are operating within the Constitution.
Note, the Constitution clearly states that both houses of Congress are entitled to establish their own rules for the conduct of their business.
Making such allegations as you have shows a reckless disregard and a stunning lack of understanding of our Republic, its founding documents, its institutions, and its processes.
When you start from a patently false premise, you inevitably end up with a false conclusion no matter how perfect your logic might be.
If there has ever been a time for Democrats to gain control of at least one house of congress it's now. Trump is running a kleptocracy and GOP legislators are his tail-gunners. The 2018 mid-term elections must be a referendum on this outrage and we need to stop the bleeding.
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Some voters won't understand the impact of their political decisions until they actually feel it. They're the Urkel voters, ready to ask, as they look at a smoldering mess, "Did I do that?" but only if they can't find someone or something else to blame.
At least these writers admit their error. I have yet to recall a single Times columnist who during the 2016 primary campaign described Bernie Sanders as being the Democratic equivalent of Donald Trump admit to being so erroneous in their view that one can no longer take anything they write seriously.
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" The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose."
That isn't going to happen sometime soon because everything the Republican party has been doing for years (especially 2017) shows and tells most, how much purpose they have (now at an accelerated rate) and no one should kid themselves that they don't know what they stand for and are doing.
Everything Republicans have been and are doing are not mistakes. They are fulfilling their purpose by all those and these things they are doing now...
... on purpose.
They have nothing to reclaim, they are just taking as much and as many things from others (You the people...a very large majority of them) they can get, lie about, steal and redistribute to the very much fewer , who are leading their Agenda, which is rapidly becoming the only one in town.
Aided and abetted by the "Great Pretender"
I
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Collapse is always heralded by the ruling class going into a frenzy of looting.
1
Next year, the GOP will be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.
Then, trump will Be I preached.
Then this tax debacle will be repaired.
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The federal judiciary will probably resemble the La Brea Tar Pits by then.
I tried to read the top 5 comments from the NYT view and found all were 100% in agreement with the OPINION piece. Isn't it wonderful that the choir sings in unison?
I decided to check out the recent entries from the 523 comments...and again a wonderfully cohesive set of ideas were espoused.
It is a Sunday morning and it is so wonderful to have the NY Times leading the choir!
Yes, all those Republican ideas are terrible as I don't want to upset the comment group. If the Dems cannot overtake both houses in 2018, who will you blame then? Trump is clearly a misguided missile but demonizing a political party seems like the democrats have nothing to offer other than environmentalism, identity politics and throw the capitalists out the window.
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Clean the House (and Senate) in 2018.
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Biggest tragedy is the loss of the center. Just listen to the Republicans, or even the posters below.
The choice for most Americans is no longer between people like Hubert Humphrey and Gerald Ford, but between Michael Moore and Steve Bannon.
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democracy is now replaced by plutocracy
How do the Republicans get away with what their latest outrage against the people -- this "historic tax heist"? The rise of conservative mouthpieces like Fox News has enabled Republicans to push America into oligarchy without being harmed at the polls. These Republican propaganda machines do their best to obfuscate the true meaning of Republican actions and, at the same time, serve a pabulum of race-baiting, nativism, and welfare bashing to sate their viewers and distract them from the oligarchy that is being established around them.
Donald Trump has branded the New York Times as “failing.” The Time’s readership is at an all-time high, so in one obvious sense, Trump is just spewing more tweet nonsense. Yet in another sense, he is correct. In years past, presidents and Congressional leaders would have cause to fear the headlines and editorials collected in today’s Sunday paper, bashing their tax bill as a giveaway for the wealthy. But no more. Republicans today understand that their core constituency at best pays little attention to media outlets like the Times, and at worst, deeply distrusts its reporting. So Republicans are free to do the bidding of the wealthy while more than half of the country will hear from Fox News that tax breaks like manna from heaven are on their way to help middle America.
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You want to “fix” Congress?
Repeal the 17th Amendment. Go back to what the Founders envisioned: Only the House should be popularly elected. The senate is there to protect the state’s interests and are picked by the governors. They can be recalled easily too.
Problem solved.
1
The Republican Party has lost its way. Let us speak plainly about the racism that has been the foundation of Republicanism since the Nixon years. The Southern Strategy Nixon launched was designed to benefit from Southern State backlash to the civil rights movement. It was a watershed period in creating the Red State phenomenon that is the base of the Republican Party, particularly when Christian fundamentalism is added to the mix. The election of our first black president charged the Republican base with the hatred that the Republican leadership used to great effect by launching eight years of rock-solid Congressional obstructionism that no white presidential opponent had ever experienced. This atmosphere of hatred and racism paved the way for the rise of Trump - a life long racist and bigot himself.
The Republican Party is now completely owned and operated by wealthy donors like the Kochs, Mercers and Murdochs. As long as taxes for the super-rich are slashed, they are happy to let the poor and the weak die in the streets for lack of healthcare.
The corrupted Republican Party also engages in massive voter suppression and gerrymandering and is quite willing to profit from Russian subversion of our electoral system without batting an eyelash. Republicans now stand behind the most ignorant, vulgar person to ever occupy the Oval Office. Yes the Republican Party has lost its way in a sea of dark money and rejects everything this country has fought and died for.
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Ultimately, people have vote.
After turning their eyes from every undemocratic and kleptocratic behavior of the Trump administration, the GOP has essentially neutered themselves from criticizing a Democratic president on virtually anything they might do in a future administration.
Yes, but they have no plans to ever allow another election. Democracy is what they most hate - it would be the end of them. They know this and are securing their power in perpetuity. We could see a President-for-Life Don Jr. Am Not Kidding.
Please please please let this be the final nail in the GOP coffin.
Number one, the Democrats--at all government levels--need to do a better job of winning elections. Your basic complaint is that the Republicans are better politicians than the Democrats. It is not really a valid criticism of one party to say that it only wins because it does a better job of campaigning. Number two, how many thousands of editorials and columns does the NYT think it needs to print cussing out Don Trump and the Republicans? Really, it has printed thousands of them in the last 18 months. Thousands. The NYT has about 10 columnists who are wholly consumed with criticizing Don T. And numerous guest columnists doing the same thing. What is accomplished when every day we can read 10 columns cussing out Don T? A couple a day would be good enough, I think. I mean, your columnists repeat each other, and repeat themselves.
1
Americans get the government we deserve. If Americans would get off their behinds and actually vote, things might change. The percentage of Americans who vote is abysmal. According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. ranks #27 in percentage of the voting-age population who actually vote. We rank very high in percentage of the registered voters who actually vote, but we are abysmally low in the percentage of the population that is even registered to vote.
Ahead of us are: Belgium, Sweden, South Korea, Denmark, Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Finland, Italy, France, Germany, Mexico, Austria, UK, Hungary, Canada, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, and Estonia.
Behind us are: Luxembourg, Slovenia, Poland, Japan, Latvia, Chile, Switzerland, and Turkey. No other countries were listed.
If we can't even be bothered to register and vote, shame on us all.
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They broke a lot more (Moore) than congress.
These two gentlemen have for at least the past five or six years been presenting evidence that led them to describe the Republican Party as a radical insurgency. They have never put the word "fascist" between radical and insurgency but in essence that's what they've been saying. Nobody listened. No matter how obvious it became that one party had become ferociously corrupt, anti-democratic, and coarsely authoritarian, nobody listened. No matter how ruthless and brutal the party's financial supporters became, no matter how clearly and loudly they announced their purpose, nobody listened.
Despite the seers' last sentence, it's now too late. The republic is gone and nobody is coming to save it. One would say, may it rest in peace, but it won't, and nobody in this country but for the top 4% or 5% will ever live in peace again, will ever be confident in their well-being, will ever have faith in their futures. The 95% will lead increasingly narrow and ugly and diminished lives. Where were the patriots? Where were the American media? Where were the voices of reason? Wherever they were, we didn't see or hear them raise the alarm of protest. The owners of the Republican Party and their casually evil employees on Capitol Hill have committed the grossest of treasons; none will ever pay a price. The rest of us will, unto eternity. The great experiment is over and we live together, with neither power nor grace, in its ashes.
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The GOP's plan for our future is now unfolding in Venezuela and Honduras; use the NYT search for more details.
The Kochs are (foolishly) suing the government of Venezuela for millions; widespread protests against the rigged elections in Honduras are becoming riots in the streets.
However, the revolution is now devouring its own children: CEO's who do not escape in time are being arrested. A warning for our own oligarchs?
This piece is as usual for the NYT, off base.
The problem is the Democrats. It started with Obama who totally refused
to negotiate with Republicans. Those who say he tried are outright liars. Turn about is fair play.
Also, one must note one of the extremely rare wise phrases of Barack Obama: "Elections have consequences".
Hillary lost. Trump is doing exactly what he promised. The liberals are aghast that the USA is a republic!
The Democrats also do not believe in the Constitution and have the gall to
say that Trump doesn't either. If the Democrats DID believe in the Constitution they would simply propose Amendments to the States,
at the very minimum abolishing the 2nd and 10th Amendments,
and parts of the 14th (officially making Whites and Asians denigrated classes). That would be a stunning display of honesty.
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Chomsky correctly labeled the Republican Party as the most dangerous organization in human history. They will hold office, wield power, and cause harm to the USA for many years. The nation has to hit bottom before the people understand the nature of republicanism.
Ronnie the Dimwitted was right, the government is the problem; remember, the American people are the government and as far as I can see, they are the problem.
We fought a revolution over taxation without representation; now we yawn, turn over, and go back to the sleep of denial while the exploiters we vote for rob us blind while they represent the oligarchs (the Britsh monarchy of old, our betters?), their real constituents and give us nothing back in return.
Go back to sleep, dream sweet thoughts; however, when you wake up, be prepared for the real nightmare to begin.
1
The authors claim to be non-partisan despite being registered Democrats. Pretty skeptical of that claim, particularly considering they partnered with EJ Dionne on a book. That is like claiming that you aren't a partisan after writing a book with Sean Hanniity.
Methinks they doth protest too much.
I assure you the answer to this problem is not to widen the gulf between rich and poor. Which is exactly what the Republicans have done here. It most definitely cements the view that Republicans care not for the poor, the middle income Americans, the mentally ill, the opioid addicts, children, women, and minorities. They have clearly demonstrated that the only important Americans are white men of wealth. And no matter how those white men behave, winning for their side is goal number one. They will sow, water, and fertilize the divisions they have created. But with each step they take, they are assuring that an American will step forward to unify the much larger and more diverse base and the lies the Republicans use to advance their cause will not work any longer. And they will not be able to stop the momentum against them. I look forward to it immensely. My only regret: in all likelihood McConnell will be gone and I won't get to see his underhanded smile wiped off his face. Eliminating the legacy of the first black president may have worked once. But there are many more blacks, minorities and women whose outrage is just getting started. I also have a dream today.
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Elections have consequences.
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And if those consequences include persistent incompetence, corruption, continual lies and distortions of events, and reckless or incomprehensible behavior in international affairs, well, we need to be quiet and let it all happen?
There's something going on here, M, and you don't know what it is.......
Yes, and lots of the Trump supporters are about to feel them.
Yes - dire.
Trump and the head of the Senate won. They have it all: the Senate, the House the Executive office, the Supreme Court. They do not honor the constitution, nor do they believe in the rule of law. The only miracle we have is to vote them out and cleanse the Supreme Court.
Chances are slim to save this democracy. Oh and 45 respects Dictators.
"The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose."
Try to imagine a more silly statement. The Republican Party is fighting effectively at local, state and national levels for the economic self interest of its donor class with fervent - if stupid - buy-in from its base. At the local and state levels in most of the country and certainly at the national level, the Democratic Party provides an unorganized club for like minded people to talk to each other and reinforce each other's self identities of relevance. It's difficult to see any other purpose being served or even seriously aspired to.
1
This piece ends in a whimper. I have no hope that the Republican Party will reclaim it's purpose, if it has any recollection of what that was essentially or how to evolve to that.
1
I agree with the premise that there is nothing left in Republicanism on which to begin to forge an American success story. The seeds of democratic norms have all been eaten. It is left to the Democrats to return the American experiment to its founding norms and principles as evolved towards equality.
There is nothing surprising about a pair of registered democrats writing how the Republicans broke congress. Gee, I thought Harry Reid as Senate leader killed that body once and for all when he refused to pass budgets for 3 years, changed the filibuster rule and from the Senate floor made up a later acknowledged lie about GOP presidential candidate and his taxes - and laughed about it.
1
Why is the Democratic Party unable to convince voters despite the blatant greed , selfishness , moral bankruptcy and intellectual dishonesty of the Republicans and their arguments? I start to wonder if the Democrats are just too lazy or lacking in motivation to go out and actually talk to Americans.
Reminiscent of how the democrats pushed through obamacare when they had the majority in both houses. Except this time the roles are reversed
1
Gentlemen, I was with you until you got to the part about the media. Polls after polls have shown that the mainstream media are dominated by Democrats.
CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS and NPR lean left. MSNBC and CNN lean left. And the outnumbered FOX leans right.
The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Boston Globe lean left. The outnumbered Wall Street Journal leans right.
Facebook, Google and Twitter lean left. The outnumbered Drudge Report leans right.
The only sphere in communications where the right has an advantage is in talk radio.
1
After this tax "reform" the GOP will move to cut social programs because they will not like to add a trillion to the deficit....it is normal for the GOP and, in addition, they have to take into account the costs of a war with NK, Iran and/or others!
Mark my word, Trump and his generals will need to start a war pretty soon.....Wag the dog!
Having people that don't " believe " in government, in actual positions of governmental functions, is insanity. That's like having a witch doctor perform Surgery. He may think he's prepared and competent, until the patient DIES. If the GOP Congress members were M.D.s, almost all of them would be committing malpractice. If not negligent homicide.
Just saying.
Yeah, but they always seem to win, don't they?
As if Harry Reid were a paragon of bipartisanship.
1
Regrettably Obama broke our government in his attempt at social engineering and changing the type of country we were originally set up as. Capitalism not socialism. Freedom to work hard and build wealth instead of a nanny state that makes 50% of the population dependent just so the politicians can stay in power. The Dems pushed globalization to hasten the nanny state. Our only hope is the Reps......
1
There's only one solution. The perverse entity that is today's Republican Party must be electorally crushed, and from its ashes an actual conservative party can emerge.
Just wait until the 2020 Census is manipulated to drastically undercount blue districts and blue states. Then we will be a one-party country.
Two points...
1. This is the government we get by having an uninformed electorate (only 1/3 of whom every vote) and care more about the promises of so-called "freedom", while the GOP pols pick your pockets clean. Tell me how much freedom you'll have when you're working for slave wages serving the 0.01% masters...
2. The GOP has not only broken Congress, but also the Executive Branch. Each and every GOP pol that endorsed or ignored the Trump Family Mafia to occupy the WH, destroy our institutions and enrich themselves at our expense are just as culpable.
You may be wrong again. You say that cutting taxes for the wealthy, hobbling the regulatory regime, gutting core government functions and repealing Obamacare without any reasonable plan to replace it is the essence of the Republican agenda.
Could their real underlying agenda be to see to it that the trains don't run on time? Could their objective be to make the government so dysfunctional and chaotic that everyone looses faith in it's ability to function? Could the real target here be representative democracy?
The Republican donor class is sometimes described as being ideologically Liberian. Could it just be ideologically fascist?
1
This is still too weak. The Republicans are the problem. And of story. Citing then out at every level is the one and only solution.
1
I am glad that you did not include Saint Ronnie among the giants of Republican Party. You may want to go back to 1980's with the election of third rate actor, Saint Ronnie for the downward spiral: "Government IS THE PROBLEM.."
Future of the country will get brighter only when all the monuments to Saint Ronnie are removed from this great country. Not until then.
1
I believe that if this continues, as outlined, the Blue states, representing the majority of the American people will have to pull out of the Union to survive and leave the former Confederate States and their minions of evil to go it alone.
4
My experience when making the distinction between the Republicans and Democrats during my conversations with Republicans is their default position that "all politicians are terrible" and this was used over and over again by the typical Republican man on the street especially during the time that Mitch McConnell was stealing the Supreme Court seat by not allowing the Obama selection of Merrick Garland to come to a confirmation hearing.
Now, the default position no matter how bad things get in the current frenetic White House is a shrug and the standard reply of "Trump is still better than Hillary." He is not better than Hillary. He's a traitor to his country as are any of those in his orbit that defend his treasonous behavior which includes the entire Republican party who are enslaved to the donor class.
I have no explanation for the continued defense of Republicans and their horrific policies, obstruction of justice and complete and total disdain for those groups of people which will be impacted by their tax cuts, position on healthcare or destruction of once revered institutions that actually did make America the greatest nation on the planet.
There is a difference between the two parties. In fact, they are so far on the opposite ends of the political spectrum that there is no comparison no matter what anyone says, journalists, pundits the NYT's or CNN. They'll take party over country EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is truly a disgrace and will kill the country.
1
2004 Ron Suskind interview with Karl Rove:
(you journalists are) 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'. NYT 2004
1
It is infuriating that the GOP seems interested only in providing benefits to rich, white men. The rest of us can go pound sand. This is not a democracy, it's the world's greatest kleptocracy. And we let it happen.
1
I’m very grateful that I live overseas, a dual citizen. Any shenanigans like this in Australia — passing a bill with hours-old marginalia, no hearings, no debate — would cause a fall of government.
I’m sad and worried for my friends and family in the US. I’m feeling relieved and serendipitously lucky that life took me to the antipodes. I think I’ll stay here.
2
How do Republicans get away with their latest outrage against the people – this “historic tax heist”? It is the rise of conservative mouthpieces like Fox News has enabled Republicans to push America into oligarchy without being harmed at the polls. These Republican propaganda machines do their best to obfuscate the true meaning of Republican actions and, at the same time, serve a pabulum of race-baiting, nativism, and welfare bashing to sate their viewers and distract them from the oligarchy that is being established around them.
With this kind of cover, Republicans have thus learned that they will no longer suffer at the polls for their outrageous and anti-democratic behavior.
Donald Trump has branded the New York Times as “failing.” Since the Time’s readership is at an all-time high, in one obvious sense, Trump is just spewing more tweet nonsense.
Yet in another sense, Trump is correct. In years past, presidents and Congressional leaders would have cause to fear the headlines and editorials collected in today’s Sunday paper, bashing their tax bill as a giveaway to the wealthy. But no more. Republicans today understand that their core constituency at best pays little attention to media outlets like the Times, and at worst, deeply distrusts its reporting. So Republicans are free to do the bidding of the wealthy while more than half of the country will hear from Fox News that tax breaks like manna from heaven are on their way to help Middle America.
2
The DNC destroyed the democratic party starting w/ Ted Kennedy's loss to Jimmy Carter.
They opted to follow the GOP playbook & have descended into a hollow husk of leadership devoid of the vision that democratic voters had expected and loyally supported purely out of trust and hope.
This analysis is 100% spot-on. Many of us "everyday people" have been noting this (and speaking out against it) for years. But no one has been listening to us, even as we screamed it during the last presidential campaign season.
Honestly, most of the fault lies at the feet of "moderate" RepugniCants who allowed their party to be hijacked. The "reasonable" RepugniCant punditocracy (exemplified by the NYTimes' David Brooks and Ross Douthat) share equally in that blame; they are guilty of the complicity of silence.
Unfortunately, it might be too late to do anything to stop the RepugniCants' destruction. Gerrymandering, court-packing, institutionalizing of oppressive social systems, and the solidification of income inequality are all powerful tools that the RepugniCants have concretized within our culture. Couple those with undermining of belief in fact-based truths and the value of education, and they've laid a solid foundation for authoritarianism.
I fear that the only thing that can breakdown the firewall that they have built will need to be some kind of cultural calamity that befalls our country, such as a war with North Korea or a constitutional crisis caused by the impeachment of Trump.
Dear God, I pray that it will be the latter....
Your tears are delicious
1
The ignorant only react to their wallets. The only way out is an economic crash on the Republican/Trump watch. We’ll all have to suffer except the 0.1%who are immune. Then maybe we can start over unless the damage is too great.
3
Republicans are going to devide this country and that is what they want. They are going to punish the blue states who actually pay for the welfare of red states. Most Red States people do not understand or refuse to understand that without the hard working Blue States they would be destroyed. Instead of contributing to the welfare of country they will keep talking about abortion, transgender, 2nd amendment etc.
2
When the "Times" says "Congress no longer works the way it's supposed to" that is and understatement --- actually the entire 'government no longer works the way it was supposed to'.
The way it works today is more akin to how Germany worked after passage of the "Enabling act" [1933] --- which occurred BEFORE the formal structure of the German democratic Republic metastasized into the Nazi Empire [1934].
In the "Times", even an editorial should not get the cart before the horse.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933#/search
1
At some point the pendulum may swing back to the left and Democrats will again be in power. What do we expect? Unfortunately, some of the same. They will have pent up demands for progressive policies, and they will no doubt be driven at least partly by their own donors.
The conclusion is that we cannot expect to elect different people and expect less partisan results. We need to change the very structure of Congress by enacting rules so that no matter who is elected, the institution functions as the peoples' representation, divided though it may be. There are a few movements out there which propose to amend the Constitution itself -- Move to Amend and Federal Accountability Amendment (see Google or Facebook) are examples -- to restore government back to democracy instead of donocracy. This will take a while. But America is worth saving.
1
The authors do a great service to the dialogue of what is occurring in America today - the Great Dismantling - laying clearly the history of it beginning with Reagan and with McConnell as the real architect and destroyer of the Great Society.
There is little solace in thinking that history will not treat McConnell , Ryan, McCain , Graham and the others poorly - the damage will be done.
This is the end of the empire, the end of our success as a Nation
In the beginning of this great unravelling , I tool solace in rereading and recalling ( I am of that age) the turbulent 60's and 70's, when all seemed hopeless and we were a Nation divided - but this time it is different, Its not merely two opposing views of the world clashing and not unable to see the other side - its a destruction of the foundations of our Nation, a destruction that is so clearly laid by the authors
This time is indeed different and this time there will be no happy resolution. The faith and trust in our institutions I fear are forever gone.
2
Recently The Atlantic reported that Oklahoma has joined Kansas as a deeply red state that, ravaged to the point of bankruptcy by GOP tax cut mania, is slowly but demonstrably changing course. Recent elections resulted in Democratic victories in districts that have for years been solidly Republican, and that went overwhelmingly to Trump. Tragically, the tax bill congress just passed mirrors the destroy-government philosophy behind the dire cuts in those states, and is sure to bring the same, likely far greater, level of destruction to the nation as a whole. Hopefully the damage will not prove irreversible before the people awaken to the reality of the GOP agenda, and what it portends for the future. As many have said, and as is increasingly apparent, the 2018 midterm election, if it does not result in profound change, will likely signal the end of any realistic chance to save our democracy. Those words would sound entirely hyperbolic in any earlier time, but today are perhaps an understatement. I still believe, have to believe, that even with the current extent of gerrymandering, voter suppression, and outrageously false political advertising, if the voters who either cast their last ballots solely out of frustration and anger, and especially the millions who opted to sit out the last election entirely, will pay attention to what is happening and determine to vote next November, this grave situation can be changed. Fortunately, signs are encouraging.
19
Kansas and Oklahoma should be expelled.
If only this analysis had been part of the national discussion when Republicans were deifying Ronald Reagan. Our country has been in cultural and political decline since the Nixon Administration, when the notion of “dirty tricks” became the substance of the Republican Party. This list of demented tactics and policies is much needed in a country that has been gaslighted into stupefaction over decades. But why is it that we fail to analyze the likely joint role Russia played with the GOP in delivering Donald Trump and the Alt-Right to the very center of our democracy?
The tactics practiced by the GOP over 4 decades are precisely the same as those employed by Putin in 1999 - the same tried and true tactics used by tyrants throughout history to hijack governments. The debate we should be having is how and why a compliant GOP looked the other way – or perhaps assisted - so a hostile foreign government could place a rapacious plutocrat in the office of President of the United States.
As the Reagan years extirpated our national ideal of egalitarianism and replaced it with mindless consumerism, plutocrats sprang up everywhere. They became Thomas Friedman’s, “super-empowered individuals” – the Kochs, the Mercers - our oligarchs, and the Murdochs, who, along with Putin, play the same game on a global stage. They now own the GOP and our entire election apparatus. That’s much worse than a bunch of faux Nazi’s parading in costumes.
Our long national nightmare never ended.
12
I see much with which to agree in this piece. A question: what is the solution? We spend a great deal of energy describing the problem. Who is describing the solution?
4
Education, particularly civics.
Eradicate Fox News.
Remove money from the electoral process.
But that will take an uprising in the 2018 midterms and beyond.
Vote every Republican out. They cannot govern, just steal from and grievously harm the citizens they are supposed to represent.
“We used to blame both parties for our poisonous political environment. Not anymore.”
Yup, you can’t blame both. Because the other party — the democrats — are playing truant to Trump’s invite, and are missing in action when it matters most.
They didn’t even bother to introduce an amendment to block ANWR drilling during the tax bill debate.
3
And if the Democrats had introduced the ANWR amendment, what exactly would have been the outcome? It would have been voted down along party lines and would have been yet another forgotten footnote to this disaster of a bill. Given the choices, I don't see any other path for the Dems than to let the GOP take full ownership of the bill, and all the consequences. Painful as they may be.
1
Democrats were frozen out. Every amendment they introduced was denied. Changes were being made in a mad feeding frenzy and Democrats were not even given copies or drafts until 9pm a few hours before the vote. Don't blame Democrats for this monstrosity. They tried heroically (including Sanders).
False equivalences are dangerous.
Thanks very much for pointing out what geniuses you are. I feel so much better now.
1
This is the last hurrah for Republicans, the last "smash and grab" before they are kicked out in 2018 (and hopefully, sent to prison)
3
And - remember - the Republicans also have all the guns.
3
Two watershed moments come to mind: Newt Gingrich's shocking (for the time) ad hominem and obnoxious ddiatribes against Clinton: and Citizens' United. Both had to do with Clinton-loathing. Wherever did that come from (dont give me that sexual philandering jazz, that's a separate discussion). I hope the Supreme Court Justices who thought the American people would be alert to donations and their implications are having some sleepless nights. Like I, a middle class California property owner (modest property at that), am.
3
This editorial should be republished and delivered to every household in America. THANK YOU! I think you have spoken no more--no less-nothing other than the plain, unvarnished truth.
Of course, Mr. Trump is THEIR worst nightmare. Having (as you rightly point out) hollow out as it were--rotted out--the core of our government. . . ..
. .there was nothing to stop him. So (pouting and yelling, tossing that yellow mane of his) he came storming in. Congratulations, Republicans! I wish you joy of him.
. .and the rest of us? He gives us no joy at all.
Nor do you, if it comes to it. Nor do you.
Thanks again, New York Times. Upstanding citizens that you are! Thanks again.
7
Vote 'em ALL out. Every last one. They're all large furry rodents. We no longer have a functioning Congress. Every time I think someone's going to stand up and be counted, they cave. Let's start from scratch next election and see if we can get a cadre that does better than the present one. What we have now can't get lower.
4
Republicans abandoned operating in good faith in the 80s with Reagan's trickle down lies and demonization of the unions. Lee Atwater at least had the good taste to repent on his death bed, but he helped spawn the demons of demonization so that now we have a conservative movement that has taken over and has been poisoning the American people for decades with the idea that anyone who is left of Newt Gingrich is anti-American and is out to destroy our country. They have no business being in our government. They have been breaking it and complaining it's broken for far too long. They know that government is the only tool that can rein in out of control capitalism, which is why they are destroying it. They hate us and want us dead. After they take our money. Pro life, my tuchus.
5
Just what is the end game of the Republican Party of today? Judging by their past efforts to demonize our government capped off by this monstrous tax bill I'd say their goal is to destroy the United States of America! What happened to the party of Lincoln? Can it be that all Republicans are puppets of Putin as is Trump? Who would have thought that our country would have been so easily destroyed from within without a single shot fired!
7
Regardless the rationalizations, what Mitch McConnel has done is not only heartless beyond words with ramming this theft of American's labors through this perverted congress of his making. I'm not religious but what happened to "thou shall not muzzle the ox that that treadth out the corn". Hypocrisy to fatality.
5
Time to “Boycott Trump’s America!” That is the Republican narrative depends on Americans Spending More and More Monet so that the Masters of Wealth can accumulate more and more money themselves. Put it this way — if we don’t Spend It, They Can’t Make It. Every time we spend dough, we feed the Republican Beast. Does not matter what we spend it on, a remodel of the kitchen, a new iphone, participating in Cyber Monday orgies, we support the Republican narrative that all we care about is getting and spending money. Anyone care to join in a “Boycott of Trump’s Americ?”
1
Don’t the last minute changes make this bill ineligible for reconciliation?
1
Democrats are spineless, and Republicans walk all over them. How many decades longer must we read endless hand-in-sand denial of this towering reality?
2
I have often cited Thomas Mann's and Norman J. Ornstein's book "It's Even Worse Than It Looks" in these comments. They are correct. The Republican Party began its descent into its utter rot today in the 1990's, with Newt Gingrich's "we didn't get elected to compromise with Democrats" party ethic. Mitch McConnell also has been a major architect of infamy, and a surprisingly shameless abettor of outright racism against a very good President, Barack Obama. The "tax reform bill" the Republicans just foisted on ALL Americans, not just their deplorables -- and "believe me," far, far more than Hillary Clinton, it is Republicans who see the their own followers as "deplorable," but more importantly, manipulable, fools -- That Republican tax bill is literally going to KILL many Americans. Not since Naziism and Fascism has there been such a nasty group of people than the current crop of Republicans in the United States Congress. Not a single honorable thread runs through any of their murderously tailored suits.
10
I'm thinking that the Republicans may soon come to regret their unwavering support of the Second Amendment.
2
Don’t blame them both anymore? Republican started really breaking Congress with Newt Gingrich.
3
I first felt the shift jn American politics when I was a teenager in 1970s. The Republicans demonized a highly moral
Christian, Carter, and made common cause with southern bigots, the Moral Majority - Falwell, Robertson, etc. Then they elected an actor, Reagan, who believed in voodoo tickle-down economics and made America feel good about itself again. The Republican strategy, with its media outlets, worked to a charm, to hypnotize its taget audience with its lies, and win elections. The GOP gradually retired its wishy-washy compromising moderates - the ones who could still work with democrats - and replaced them with true believers - Newt Gingrich and his cohorts. Today the faithful minions of Fox News would vote for Satan himself if told to so - and they just did. He's in the White House. Christian evangelicals voted in the Anti-Christ by nearly 90%. How ironic, yet not surprising to me.
7
They won't listen and never will and never have. The only thing they understand is violence and WAR! They won't be stopped otherwise. They can run but cannot hide. Leave none. Get all republicans and the rich and the corporations leaving none. Begin now before the tax bill goes any further. Stop them dead.
The beginning and end of a democratic republic is the vote. Denying the dignity and rights of fellow citizens by denying them the vote is the most un-American and immoral action possible in a democratic society. The sabotage of our institutions– denying Obama's ability to appoint a Supreme, endless fillibuster to engineer suffering in the country so that the party out of power can succeed, is a corrollary. I am revolted. Stalin did it with a famine in the Ukrraine. The same Realpolitik is embraced by McConnell. Supporting or tolerating any politician in a party that formalizes this immorality is the same ethos required to support and dine at a restaurant that will not serve African Americans, Jews or women.
What motivates McConnell? I truly don't understand. Power, but power for what? Does he actually desire the rape of our national resources and treasures and the undermining of the physical and economic well being of his countrymen? How does he feel about his actions that placed a fool in the White House who has relinquished American power worldwide, delivered Asia to China and the Mid East to Russia? Is his endgame to allow impeachment to go forward so he can appoint the next series of presidents now that the tax steal is accomplished?
I have become a cynical, hyperbolic conspiracy theorist. But in this theater of the absurd environment, not being so is akin to an Israeli not being a bit paranoid.
5
I think that the only solution to this poisonous political environment is secession, a break-up of the United States. It is clearly a two separate, utterly incompatible countries, and the use of the word "United" is a farce. America is the largest, and phoniest democracy on the planet.
1
Ornstein, Nov 29, 2013...
"Ornstein (not known as a political bomb-thrower) asserted that the most recent congressional crisis — a 16-day partial government shutdown in early October, coupled with a near default on the nation’s credit — was almost entirely the Republicans’ fault. The seeds for the current congressional gridlock were planted when President Obama was sworn into office in 2009, he said, and the time-honored tradition of compromise went out the window."
“Republicans decided at that point that they were going to unify and vote against anything Obama wanted to do, even if they agreed with him,” Ornstein asserted. “You saw it right away with [GOP opposition to] the economic stimulus package.”
Republicans are responsible for so much damage. I could weep for the loss of what could have been done during President Obama's years in office.
If SCOTUS fails to correct the evils of the Republican's Red State gerrymandering project it seems the only option left is to move large numbers of liberals into rigged red districts: it'll cost money but what's money when you're staring the loss of your democracy and your Country in the face. Republicans are not going to change or admit change is needed: they're gleeful, emboldened by what they've pulled off, including titular trump and all his vileness.
https://www.washdiplomat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=artic...
3
This essay would be improved by at least mentioning the role played by Newt Gingrich and by James Watt ("I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans." statement by Watt on November 1981, quoted in New York Times 10 October 1983.)
1
Congress is a joke that isn't funny in any way. The fastest way for the nation to save itself is to increase voter turnout, and vote out the kleptocrats and plutocrats.
RESIST HARDER!
1
The republicans didn't break congress. The deliberate identity politics drove the wedge. This is just a symptom. When our (D) president on the campaign trail alluded to genocide against Appalachia, the seeds were growing. When we overplayed our hand on illegal immigration, they sprouted. Congress isn't broken; we broke American so our rich donors could get our democrats elected instead of their rich donors getting their puppets elected.
I've always blamed only the Republicans because they're the ones at fault.
1
I have to wonder if, in his private moments, Mitch McConnell truly agrees with the points made in this piece. I think he does, in the same way that O.J. knows that he killed Nicole.
You know what you did. And for what? At you going to get rich from this, Mr. McConnell? Are you going to be loved or respected more - or at all - because of this? Why? Why?
1
Could it be because of real fear of Trump? Why? Pure self-preservation? What is motivating their actions? Almost incomprehensible, but certainly worth worrying about.
let's just make this more succinct: The Republican Party must be destroyed if Democracy is to survive.
10
The following – as gleaned from earlier comments to this article – must be overcome,.
• Citizen’s United
• The evisceration of the Voting Rights Act
• The make-up of the Supreme Court
• The (future) make-up of the rest of the Judiciary
• Congressional gerrymandering
• The Senate: Gerrymandering writ large. CA, TX, FL & NY with a population of 1/3 of the nation have only as many Senators as WY, VT, AK & ND (<1%).
• Decline of unions.
(What did I leave out?)
- - -
This DID all start with Nixon, who – ironically – also violated the Logan Act. Through back-channels, he encouraged South Vietnam to walk away from the Peace Talks, sabotaging them. Of course, we cannot fail to mention Reagan’s role in keeping the hostages… hostage… Cheaters. Law-breakers.
- - -
It took generations to get this way.
Likely it will take generations to fix the 7 problems listed above… if we start now.
However, the pathologies of ignorance, poverty, near-poverty, fear, discouragement, apathy, etc. will further exacerbate these problems, and for a while.
More, we’d be hard-pressed to find those who care about such things… also well-versed in the fundamentals of democracy. Hence, a map with a way out – and the concomitant leadership – will be hard to find. The splintered nature of the innumerable progressive organizations are also a problem.
- - -
Democracy? Put a fork in it.
But that doesn’t mean anyone should stop fighting injustice.
Thoughts?
7
And when the economy finally crashes, as it inevitably does due to Republican's looting the Treasury and deconstructing government, Fox News, TV preachers and the well funded liars and hate mongers of the GOP will say it's not their fault. It's God's vengeance on an immoral nation, in which "liberals" have allowed gay marriage and reproductive choice for women.
4
It only gets worse.
2