Category: Commentary

June 24, 2014

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform has spent the past year assembling a “blueprint” for electoral changes and congressional reforms to encourage greater citizen engagement in the political process. It should, however, be no surprise that a report from a Washington organization headed by former members of Congress would take a decidedly insider view of what needs to be done to reform our politics and would offer, by its own admission, only “incremental” reforms.
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June 19, 2014

Gallup’s finding that only 7% of Americans have significant confidence in our ineffectual and polarized Congress explains why much of the public seems to have tuned out politics and why so many people don’t think it matters whether they vote. But David Wessel is right to sound the alarm. Ultimately, a dysfunctional Congress threatens the nation’s future. As Mr. Wessel wrote, numerous domestic issues need to be addressed, as does the crisis in Iraq. President Barack Obama will have to work with members of Congress in both parties to determine a way forward.
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June 18, 2014

Will the poor presidential ratings revealed in the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll affect how the U.S. responds to the crisis in Iraq? Just 37% of Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign policy, an all-time low for this survey. A majority of Americans–54%–say they believe he is no longer able to lead the country and get things done. Americans are evenly divided–50-50–on whether they believe the Obama administration has competently managed the federal government.
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June 12, 2014

A new Pew Research Center survey on political polarization proves what most people already know about this nation’s political life: that Americans engaged in the political process and who identify with a party are more polarized than they have been in two decades. The extensive survey of 10,000 Americans is the largest study of U.S. political attitudes ever undertaken by Pew. Intense partisans believe people in the opposing party “are so misguided that they threaten the nation’s well-being,” the study found.
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June 11, 2014

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s unexpected defeat in Virginia’s Republican primary has led many people to wonder how challenger David Brat could have pulled off such a decisive victory without warning signs showing up in Mr. Cantor’s internal polling, which had predicted him easily winning re-election. The reason is that Mr. Brat won by enlarging the primary electorate in this solidly Republican 7th District, which runs north of Richmond.
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June 11, 2014

Many will chalk up House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprise primary defeat to the tea party. But there was no national tea-party presence or spending in the contest, though conservative radio host Laura Ingraham did appear in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District last week on behalf of challenger David Brat and suggested tongue-in-cheek that the president should have traded Rep. Cantor for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl instead of five Taliban leaders.
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June 10, 2014

Five states are holding primaries Tuesday–including South Carolina, Maine and Virginia–but if the primaries so far this year are any indicator, we should expect low turnouts and little voter enthusiasm. Most voters seem unimpressed with what both major parties are offering, and they are signaling their dissatisfaction by not showing up
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June 10, 2014

South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham tops the list of Republican senators once thought to be vulnerable to a tea-party challenge this year who are now expected to easily win reelection. The South Carolina primary is Tuesday, and a recent Clemson University Palmetto Poll found Sen. Graham leading a field of six challengers by a commanding margin: 40 points. In second place is state Sen. Lee Bright, polling at nine points. None of the other five challengers garnered more than 5 percent in the poll.
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June 6, 2014

In his speech at Normandy, President Barack Obama said America’s commitment “to liberty, our claim to equality, our claim to freedom and to the inherent dignity of every human being … is written in the blood on these beaches, and it will endure for eternity.” We have come to expect that sort of rhetoric from U.S. presidents, but it’s not clear that sentiment accurately reflects President Obama’s view of American foreign policy.
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June 3, 2014

Among the eight states holding primary elections Tuesday is California, where the open “top two” primary election is worth watching. California is an incubator of ideas and trends. In 2012, it used the top-two system in congressional races, and now it has expanded to all statewide races. Rhodes Cook has described its top-two system as an effort to get more centrist candidates on the ballot. But this system has several other important goals.
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