Governments would never let it happen.
The Biden administration’s legislative progress has stalled in recent months. Negotiations over a traditional infrastructure program stop and start. The $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill for other spending priorities is far from guaranteed. Intransigent Democratic senators have shown no signs of relenting on the filibuster. While Biden has already secured several grand accomplishments, it is now clear to many liberal activists that his presidency may not be as transformative as they had hoped back in January.
As a result, there has been more talk about a golden age when a Democratic presidency did enact the…
Our leaders should be praised for taking bold actions to benefit Americans.
President Joe Biden has done something his three predecessors could not accomplish. On July 6, AP reported that American troops had left the influential Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. The withdrawal marked the symbolic end of the United States’s two-decade presence in the country. Only a nominal group of 1,000 troops will remain to protect the U.S. embassy and the airport in Kabul. The Taliban has taken advantage. It quickly started to gain territory and has made it clear that it hopes to retake the entire country…
It will hopefully set the stage for the future green investments the country needs.
There is still some uncertainty about the fate of Joe Biden’s infrastructure package. Two weeks ago, bipartisan negotiators reached a compromise. They found a package of traditional infrastructure spending that they could agree on, meaning items like roads, bridges, and overpasses. Democrats took their health, education, and green spending proposals out of the bipartisan bill with the hopes of passing such a bill through reconciliation at a later point. This delicate dance has been upset at various points by legislative negotiators and by Biden itself. …
It may be the best chance Republicans have to flip the Senate. Democrats should take note.
The Republican Party has already begun to consider its strategy for the 2022 midterms. Instead of acting to improve the country, Republicans have spent months trying to find the best way to attack the president and win back the House and Senate next year. There is a decent chance that they will not have to run any sort of campaign to win back the House. Historical trends and the structure of the American political system mean that the party in power almost always loses…
Probably not.
2020 was objectively one of the worst years of the past century. American life expectancy declined for the first time in twenty years. A world-altering pandemic shut down life, leading to millions of layoffs and nearly half a million deaths in a span of nine months. The daily news brought an onslaught of stories about lockdowns, case numbers, and ineffective leaders at every level of government. There was a racial reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked weeks of protests and publicized the appalling state of policing towards African Americans. 2020’s presidential election relieved millions…
Even if you lose, you’ll be famous for a while.
Andrew Yang, a person who has never held a political position and did not vote several times in the past two decades, has dominated New York City’s mayoral race over the past year and has a good chance of becoming mayor in January.
Many observers reading this sentence are instantly reminded of Donald Trump. In 2016, Trump became the first political neophyte who was not a general to ever be elected president. His rise led to prolonged anxiety about the nature and future of the American electoral system. …
There is still more they could do.
The Republican Party is currently realizing that it has not, in fact, gotten rid of Donald Trump as its leader. Over the weekend, numerous outlets reported that several Trump allies had suggested the possibility of a military coup to reinstall Trump as president. The 45th president himself believes there is a chance this may happen. Maggie Haberman reported that Trump thinks he might be able to return to office in August, even though none of his supporters have laid out a legal or reasonable way for this to happen.
Long-term political predictions drive doomscrolling and clicks. They are not helpful.
Democrats are, as always, allergic to success. They have just won their first governing trifecta since 2008. That trifecta has led to a significant legislative victory and the possibility for more over the next 18 months. President Joe Biden has led the country through the nadir of the pandemic and is starting to preside over significant economic growth. Two of his biggest challenges, the border crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have cooled in recent days.
And yet, Democrats are as despondent as ever. Instead of remaining happy that they…
It’s not easy to buck a party in 2021.
Last week, Liz Cheney was voted out of House Republican leadership for her refusal to accept Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Her crime was not criticizing him on January 7th or expressing misgivings about him throughout February. She was sanctioned for continuing to emphasize the danger Trump still poses to the republic. …
It may be hard to admit that the rise of Donald Trump really was a singular event.
Two weeks ago, a political media moment occurred that gave many observers a flashback to the Trump presidency. The CDC issues guidelines on April 27 stating that outdoor mask usage outside of close groups was no longer necessary. Many liberals and conservatives had supported this change for months due to new research about the lack of outdoor coronavirus transmission.
But Fox News host Tucker Carlson took the suggestions further. He insinuated on his 8 P.M. television show that people should call out and…
Eric Medlin
I’m a writer interested in the intersections of history, ideas, and politics. I publish every week. www.twitter.com/medlinwrites
