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Articles by Chris Deaton
Republicans Get Angry When You Do the Right Thing
IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, Republican congressmen Ken Buck and Chip Roy, among a smattering of their House GOP colleagues, have done “the right thing” when tested. And, as is now normal in the Republican party, they were attacked for it. When I say “doing the right thing,” I’m not referring to a standard as demanding as that of Kant, the ultimate snitch, who would point an unarmed bank robber toward the vault strictly because lying is bad.
Are We Headed for Two Demagogic Parties?
AMERICAN POLITICS HAS ALMOST ALWAYS been a two-party system, although the parties in that system—their names, platforms, and voting coalitions—have shifted many times. Since the latter half of the twentieth century, the country has been in what political scientists call the Sixth Party System—which is to say, the sixth period of relatively stable coalitions. Scholars don’t agree if this equilibrium still holds or if it’s in the process of fracturing and reassembling into a Seventh Party System.
The Republican Party’s Motivated Reasoning
Professionals in political communication often talk about having “credible messengers” to speak to and persuade an audience. An advocate for some belief or position could have the most logical and compelling argument in all of Athens—but unless that person has the audience’s trust, his message is unlikely to land. Of course, individuals have their own reasons for trusting what others say.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the High Church of Grievance
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is near-certain to win the Arkansas gubernatorial election in 2022. She could make her campaign about virtually anything. She could say that her first priority as governor will be to lure the Houston Astros to Little Rock. Or to ban the use of Brazilian sugar in sweet tea. None of it would matter. It wouldn’t matter because she would say those things in her ads against a background image of Donald Trump in a flight jacket, a picture that’s worth a thousand campaign pledges.
OPINION: Why this could, and should, be the year to recalibrate shared war making authority
Republican Tom Cole (left) and Democrat Jim McGovern have a shared interest in congressional war powers. Marcum is a fellow at the R Street Institute, a center-right think tank.
Block Trump from office with the 14th Amendment's aiding an insurrection exclusion
Taking Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at his word, the buck for former President Donald Trump’s incitement of the U.S. Capitol mob should stop somewhere — just not in his house. “He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said on Saturday evening, after enough Republican senators voted to acquit the former president of an impeachment charge. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation.” Stipulated. But we still have a Congress, too.
Block Trump from office with the 14th Amendment's aiding an insurrection exclusion
Taking Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at his word, the buck for former President Donald Trump’s incitement of the U.S. Capitol mob should stop somewhere — just not in his house. “He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said on Saturday evening, after enough Republican senators voted to acquit the former president of an impeachment charge. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation.” Stipulated. But we still have a Congress, too.
Block Trump from office with the 14th Amendment – HotAir
First, is there a procedural problem? No. Forty-four Senate Republicans voted that Trump’s most recent impeachment trial was unconstitutional, but a Section Three vote is entirely different. There is no constitutional roadblock to taking up congressional enforcement of a constitutional provision itself. Second, is the idea constitutionally unassailable? Yes. Section Three, about aiding an insurrection, relates to a judgment of Congress, not a criminal court.
Why I Am Leaving the Republican Party
It was 1958. I had turned 21, just a year past graduation from the University of Oklahoma, member of the student senate, one of the “Ruf-Neks” who lead the football team onto the field at the start of every Sooners game. In other words: a typical Oklahoma college student. Atypically, however, I was also a member of the Young Republicans, almost certainly the smallest club on campus. After a brief stint as a reporter on a small-city daily, I returned home to Oklahoma City and registered to vote.
Rubio: Conservatives Who Back Trump Will Say 'My God, What Have We Done?'
March 14, 2016 at 5:05 PM Marco Rubio warned Monday that there will be a "reckoning" in the conservative movement for those backing Donald Trump. Speaking with radio host Mike Gallagher, Rubio frankly criticized the Republican frontrunner and the voters who "fell into" supporting him. Here is a partial transcript: There is going to be a reckoning here.
Let's Talk Solutions. - The Bulwark
America has a Problem. This problem is of a nature that we do not even have a vocabulary sufficient to describe—no portmanteau or Germanicized club sandwich of a word that combines “undemocratic” and “disgraceful” and “unprecedented” and “mein Gott.” All we have to go on is that we’re facing a capital-p Problem. And this sort of ineffable Problem does not have neat and obvious solutions.
Teaching Our Merciless Racial Politics to the Next Generation
The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. —William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice When did we become so merciless? I’m not talking about the 18-year-old kid, featured in a New York Times , who elected to torpedo a fellow student over a three-year-old video clip—though what he did was cruel.
The Best Response to Trump: Report Well
John Diaz, the editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, called it. At the invitation of the Boston Globe, hundreds of newspapers were set to publish editorials on Thursday with a unified message for their readers: The press is not the enemy of the people, and the president is wrong to say that it is. Diaz anticipated backlash from Trump.
Beholding Trump in Full
Try to imagine that your political adversaries are motivated by interests other than selfishness or an orgiastic desire to banish everyone with your views to the island of Saint Helena. Now . . . if you were successful, you should introduce yourself to Eric Plutzer and Michael Berkman of Penn State University, who have had a tough time finding your kind in their research of Americans’ political attitudes.
The Social-Media Tail Wags the News-Media Dog
Facebook serves two useful purposes: maintaining contact with extended family and monitoring developments in the culture war, like a scout on a recon mission into the dark heart of the News Feed. These two activities converged last week when I noticed that a family member had shared a report about the children’s cartoon PAW Patrol, which features a crew of anthropomorphic dogs working a variety of emergency-services jobs to protect the fictional community of Adventure Bay.
Trump and Xi Are Both to Blame
Presenting only one side of an argument “doesn’t mean that your premises are false or irrelevant,” the philosopher Peter Suber wrote, “only that they are incomplete.” By that standard President Trump’s defenders—and some of his critics, too—have made only partial attempts to identify culprits for the extent of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
School Shootings Spread Like a Virus. The Media Can Help Stop Them.
Hours after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, Zeynep Tufekci spent part of her evening calling out major media that aired video of students trembling while the noise of gunshots ruptured the air. “This is a snuff film,” she said of one such clip, which was embedded atop a New York Times story. The video’s headline: “Filming a Rampage: Students Capture Florida School Attack.” News consumers are accustomed to seeing such harrowing footage.
'Veep' Is a Cathartic Show For an Awful Political Age
The cathartic and palliative HBO political satire Veep has been a weekly spoonful of Mylanta to soothe our stomachs this emetic election year. The show's recently concluded fifth season chronicles the browbeating Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the titular former vice-president, laboring to overcome unthinkable electoral events, staff upheaval and her megalomania to become the nation's first elected female president.
Our Animal Planet Media
The Media Research Center's NewsBusters website has carved out a beat identifying odd discrepancies in how much the press covers one topic relative to another. During primary election season, for instance, it reported routinely on Donald Trump's saturation of the nightly news, rendering his now-vanquished Republican primary competitors afterthoughts. The comparisons can be arbitrary and the conclusions subjective, but the information often illuminates where our media wants to focus its cameras.
Newt Says Trump Is 'Unacceptable'
August 3, 2016 at 2:29 PM One of the finalists to be Donald Trump's running mate is now calling the GOP nominee for president "unacceptable".
Feinstein in '06: 'Democrats Support the Border Fence'
January 6, 2017 at 6:45 AM Republicans plan to use a 2006 border security law supported by more than half of Senate Democrats to fund the wall President-elect Donald Trump pledged his administration would construct, Politico reported Thursday. The Secure Fence Act mandated double-layer fencing between particular ports of entry from just east of San Diego all the way to the southern tip of Texas, totaling hundreds upon hundreds of miles.
Ryan, Republicans Aim Big with Obamacare Replacement
House speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that the House GOP's new Obamacare replacement is focused more on quality than quantity. That's true, as far as the substance goes. But as far as the number of proposals in the health care package is concerned, quantity doesn't take second place to anything. The comprehensive platform released as part of Ryan's "A Better Way" agenda unifies several Republican priorities from recent years with a couple of popular Affordable Care Act carryovers.
Coal Use Will Increase 15 Percent Worldwide by 2040, Report Says
The U.S. government is forecasting that the world's coal consumption will increase almost 15 percent in the coming decades, despite new regulations that will slow the industry significantly stateside. The new estimate from the Energy Information Administration assumes that the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP) takes effect. The Supreme Court stayed implementation of the new regulatory plan this February, pending judicial review.
BOOK REVIEW: 'Jail Blazers' by Kerry Eggers
ANALYSIS/OPINION: JAIL BLAZERS: HOW THE PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS BECAME THE BAD BOYS OF BASKETBALL By Kerry Eggers Sports Publishing, $26.99 Losers can co-author history if their story is compelling enough. While the Portland Trail Blazers of the late 1990s and early 2000s never became NBA royalty, they were hall-of-fame drama queens with a combustible mix of talent, ego and destructive behavior that lit up the court.
Life’s About to Get More Difficult for Chuck Schumer
When Republicans captured the House from Democrats in 2010, the most conservative members and activists took it as a cue to oppose President Obama without compromise. It stretched Speaker John Boehner between the many hardline members of his caucus and the need to govern with a Democrat in the White House—and eventually ripped apart his tenure.
Let’s Make Politics Local Again
Republican senators Ben Sasse and Mike Lee agree that the growth of national politics, in government and in cultural influence, is negative for the country. But the two men have complementary assessments of the details: One is based on social decay, and the other is based on Washington, D.C.’s accrual of power.
Distracted Conservatives Are Making It Easy for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Medicare for All would cost in excess of $3 trillion a year. One of its leading advocates once wore a $3,000 suit for a photo shoot. Loud voices in conservative media are making a bigger deal of the second number in their assessment of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—and don’t get them started on her gaffes. Their fixation on personal trivia is typical of the country's minute-by-minute politics.
The 2018 Midterm Elections and Tribalism in American Politics
The Associated Press announced on Wednesday afternoon that Democrat Andy Kim had squeaked out a victory against incumbent Republican Tom MacArthur in New Jersey’s 3rd District. It was a symbolic result in the narrow view of recent history: Democrats tried to make the 2018 elections about preserving core parts of Obamacare, and MacArthur led negotiations (from House Republicans’ moderate flank) to create a salable bill to repeal the law.
The Democrats Won Big-But Without Their Rising Stars
As many statistical models and pundits predicted, Democrats took the House with ease on Tuesday night, and they made significant gains in governorships across the country. But the candidates who won didn’t ride fame from viral advertisements or hype. For the most part, those guys lost; the winners instead were relatively anonymous. Take Texas. If “one tweet, one vote” were the standard by which candidates were elected, Rep. Beto O’Rourke would be a new senator.
Swearing In
President Donald Trump certainly did his part in setting the table for the current state of public discourse. Make what you will of his agenda: His successful campaign has transformed the substance of political speech.
Mike Braun Topples Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Flipping Key Senate Seat to Republicans
Indiana businessman Mike Braun knocked off moderate Democratic senator Joe Donnelly, multiple news networks projected around 9 o’clock on the east coast Tuesday night, helping Republicans’ chances of keeping the Senate on a night Democrats had to have almost everything go right to flip the chamber. Braun, who prevailed in a Trump-centric primary over Reps.
Obama Knocks the Press, Even as He Has Stonewalled It For Years
President Obama delivered a lecture at a Syracuse University event Monday night, in which he instructed the class of assembled press to do their job. It's not just the Senate Judiciary Committee that has been on the receiving end of that particular harangue, it seems. His remarks at an award ceremony for political reporting criticized the journalism industry for failing to hold politicians accountable, as if he's been of much help.
The Economy Only Matters in Presidential Elections. This Ain’t One of Them.
In less than a week’s time, national Republicans are likely to feel they can’t get no respect for an improving economy. The jobless rate has continued its downward trend from the Obama years to an amazing 3.7 percent in September, the lowest it’s been since the 1960s. Wages in almost every non-farm sector (except manufacturing) have ticked up since January 2017—and that goes for the working classes, not just their bosses.
If Mike Kelly Loses, the Tea Party’s Voice Is Gone
Pennsylvania representative Mike Kelly trails his Democratic opponent Ron DiNicola 51-47 percent in a new Susquehanna poll of the four-term congressman’s Republican-leaning district. The commonwealth adopted a new congressional map this election cycle, making Kelly’s territory in the northwest part of PA the new 16th district, instead of the previous 3rd district.
The Health Care Narrative Is Beyond Rescue for Republicans
The Associated Press reported Sunday some accurate, if incomplete information about Sen. Ted Cruz’s health reform proposal. “Cruz’s plan,” the story reads, “… aims to lower premiums for healthy people.” The article provided no additional details, either specifics or their presumed consequences, about his idea. It’s true that the Cruz measure would reduce the cost of insurance for younger, relatively lower-risk consumers.
Administration Gets Around to 'Actively Reviewing' a Plan B in Syria
A State Department official testified Thursday morning that the administration was considering "some new" options to address Russia's activity in Syria at the request of President Obama, some seven months after Secretary of State John Kerry warned of a "plan B" in the event that an agreed-upon diplomatic solution failed.
European Court of Human Rights Says Austrians Can't Blaspheme Islam and Muhammad
An international human rights panel agreed with an Austrian court’s decision Thursday to fine a right-wing speaker for suggesting that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a pedophile. This was, they said, a violation of the country’s statute that criminalizes “disparaging religious doctrines” in public.
Republicans and Pre-Existing Conditions: A Complicated Love Story
A way to understand the Republican party’s relationship with Obamacare is to separate it into two periods: Before Pre-existing Conditions (2010-17) and After Pre-existing Conditions (2017-). In the years B.P.C., Republicans did not talk much about the Affordable Care Act’s protections for consumers with pre-existing health conditions.
Kevin McCarthy Introduces Bill to Fund Border Wall But It May Be Too Late Already for Trump
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy introduced legislation on Friday to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection $23.4 billion to build a border wall with Mexico. The amount, McCarthy says, brings total funds for the project to the $25 billion that President Trump has requested. But Congress would trickle the money to CBP over a period of seven years, and each year’s allocation would be available for five years after the appropriation.
Michael Bloomberg Switches to Democratic Party Ahead of Possible 2020 Presidential Campaign
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning that he was changing his party affiliation for the third time this century. “Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat,” part of the post read, “because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs.” Also, perhaps, because it’s the only way he can achieve his on-again, off-again aspirations of winning the White House.
Romney to Deliver Speech on Presidential Race Thursday
Mitt Romney will deliver a speech at a Utah college Thursday morning on the 2016 presidential race. A press release reads: MITT ROMNEY TO SPEAK ON THE STATE OF THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL RACE Salt Lake City -- On Thursday, March 3rd, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney will address the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah on the state of the 2016 presidential race. Event: Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum When: Thursday, March 3rd, 2016 9:30 a.m. MT/ 11:30 a.m. ET
Senator Elizabeth Warren Uses Accountable Capitalism Act and SEC Legislation to Preview President Elizabeth Warren
There’s a quip attributed to LBJ that needs updating for 2020. “Whenever most senators look in a mirror, they see a president,” it goes. Elizabeth Warren’s mirror is a piece of legislation. The Massachusetts Democrat has introduced measures in recent months to transfer corporate governance to Washington and mandate social responsibility, by whatever definition it takes.
Former FBI Director James Comey Plays Politics in His New York Times Op-Ed on Brett Kavanaugh
Former FBI director James Comey endorsed the agency’s capability to impartially investigate allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, writing in a Sunday New York Times op-ed that the bureau is staffed with “people who just want to figure out what’s true.” Such an angle could lead readers to believe that his purpose was to provide an unvarnished overview of his old employer’s work in circumstances like these.
The Republican Party Has Gotten Stronger-But Only Internally
The volume of public opinion data about politics and the upcoming Midterm elections was nudged off-balance by a recent Gallup poll finding that the Republican party is the most popular it’s been in eight years. Almost every indicator in sight (the economy does look pretty good, you know) implies that the GOP is in dire straits.
The Tiger Effect Returns
There’s a chance you’ve hit it big when your name becomes an adjective. In the case of Tiger Woods, “hit it big” is literal: In a video game series bearing his name that ran between 1999 and the late aughts, a “Tiger shot” was when a gamer hit a driver in the sweet spot with more than 100-percent power (essentially, in car terminology, red-lining).
Why Did Eric Swalwell Go After Susan Collins?
On Thursday morning, California representative Eric Swalwell mocked Sen. Susan Collins for noting during a radio interview that her office had received some “pretty ugly voicemails [and] threats” in relation to the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. “Boo hoo hoo,” Swalwell wrote, in a since-deleted tweet. “You’re a senator who police will protect. A sexual assault victim can’t sleep in her home tonight because of threats.
Can Ben Sasse Actually Drain the Swamp?
Judging by the substance, Senator Ben Sasse has made a forceful case that an ethics reform package he introduced on Thursday would help unclog Washington’s “swamp.” Draining the capital of conflicts of interest is not a rhetorical task—it requires a frank diagnosis of the city’s institutional failures, but also an aggressive response to them. Perhaps it’s good timing for the Nebraska Republican that “he says what he thinks” is such a compliment of a politician these days.
Les Moonves Never Set the Record Straight About Donald Trump Being 'Damn Good for CBS'
CBS Corporation announced Sunday night that chairman and CEO Les Moonves will depart the company, amid reporting from Ronan Farrow about sexual assault and harassment claims against the long-tenured executive. Moonves’s most infamous dabbling in politics the last few years was his highly publicized comment in February 2016 that the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump was “good” for business.
Ben Sasse Says He ‘Regularly Considers’ Leaving the Republican Party
Republican senator Ben Sasse, a critic not only of President Donald Trump but of his own political party, said on Saturday that he has considered leaving the GOP on more than one occasion. The Nebraska lawmaker responded to a Twitter user who asked if he would think about following her example of ditching the Democratic party to become an unaffiliated voter.
More Admin Officials Deny Authoring the ‘Anonymous’ <i>NYT</i> Op-ed
Speculation about the identity of the anonymous author of an op-ed article sharply critical of President Trump started almost immediately after it was published. Since then, several high-level administration officials have publicly denied they wrote and submitted the essay to the New York Times.
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