Perry Bacon at Fivethirtyeight has a piece on the growth of the progressive wing of the House Democratic party. While the Blue Dogs have revived a bit, the progressives were strengthened much more by the results of 2018. This got me to thinking, always dangerous.
Pelosi will be the Speaker, and she'll have to work to keep her caucus united. Meanwhile, over on the Senate side McConnell will lead a slightly stronger Republican party, which is also more conservative, losing Flake and what's his face from Nevada. And Schumer's Democrats are facing a tough road in the 2020 elections. He'll want to protect his incumbents and try to lay the groundwork to challenge the vulnerable Republicans in 2020.
All this reflects the increasing division of the country, as shown in our elections: the red States went a little redder and the blue and purple areas went more blue, or in institutional terms, the Senate goes conservative and the House goes liberal.
So Pelosi, Schumer, and McConnell will be deeply challenged to get legislation passed, particularly the Dems.
55+ years ago a government professor of mine named Theodore J. Lowi theorized, perhaps not originally with him, that changes in parties didn't happen by the out-party changing their policies but by the in-party dividing and losing focus. Not sure how that theory stands up to today's politics.
[updated to add second link]
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