Many Americans have been shocked recently as Republican senators set serious concerns and supinely vote to confirm patently unqualified and inappropriate nominees for the most powerful positions in government. For secretary of defense, a philanderer with a reported (and unrefuted) drinking problem and a well-documented disrespect for females in combat. A political henchman who promises…
The problem with the Democrats’ response to President Trump’s hostile takeover of Washington is not that Democratic politicians aren’t unified or outraged enough, as if those would accomplish anything. No, the problem with the response is the same as their problem with the last election campaign: a stubborn refusal to talk honestly about the problems…
Contact Steven Pearlstein is the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University and Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Washington. For 35 years, Pearlstein wrote about economics and business for the Washington Post, winning the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for columns anticipating and explaining the recent financial crisis and global…
Cut through all the partisan finger-pointing, set aside all the rationalizations and excuses, and what you’ll find at the root of Congress’s dysfunction is a serious lack of seriousness and self-respect among rank-and-file Members. We saw no better example than Sen. Joni Ernst’s succumbing to MAGA bullying this week by announcing her intention to vote…
Five-day work weeks. Bringing more bills to the floor. More debate with plenty of opportunity for members to offer amendments? Is John Thune channeling the “Fixing Congress” agenda? The Senate’s new Republican leader is certainly sending signals that he intends to restore the upper chamber as a functioning and deliberative legislative body. The tentative schedule…
It’s a bipartisan ritual repeated a dozen times over the last 60 years: In exchange for Democrats agreeing to reauthorize commodity price supports and crop insurance for farmers, Republicans agree to reauthorize the food stamp program that helps feed 42 million low-income Americans. That’s not to say that Republicans don’t use the opportunity of every…
Nothing sustains a political blood feud more than memories of outrageous injustices. Democrats have never gotten over the refusal of Senate Republicans to take up the Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Republicans still nurse a deep grudge over the impeachment of President Trump over a ham-handed and failed attempt to get Ukrainian officials to…
From one angle of view, the Republican sweep of the White House and—as now appears likely—both houses of Congress will offer a temporary reprieve from the political dysfunction of recent years. We’ve had plenty of recent experience with such one-party “trifectas”—Ronald Reagan in 1980, Bill Clinton in 1992, George W. Bush in 2000, Barack Obama…
Americans have pretty much had it with politics. According to a recent Pew Research poll, two-thirds of Americans express little or no confidence in the American political system. Less than half think voting is a very effective way to change the country for the better, perhaps because two-thirds are dissatisfied with the candidates they have to…