It’s safe to say that Republicans are already very worried about the Affordable Care Act. The leaked Republican replacement plan was met with withering criticism, while Republican governors are recoiling at the real and political damage it might do to them and their states. Reports abound about GOP legislators getting cold feet on the issue. The […]
David Atkins
Follow David on Twitter @DavidOAtkins. David Atkins is a Washington Monthly contributing writer, activist, and research professional living in Santa Barbara as well as an elected DNC Member from California. He is president of The Pollux Group, a qualitative research firm.
Posted inUncategorized
The Trump White House Tears Itself Apart Over Internal Leaks
This is hilarious: Sean Spicer’s attempt to target his own staff over leaks to the press has itself been, well, leaked to the press.. The Trump White House has been persistently attacking press leaks since well before the inauguration. And it’s true: the leaks have been pouring out fast and furious. Trump has gone to war with […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Trump Administration Still Has No Idea What It’s Doing
We are now over a month into Trump Administration–over 1/3 of the way into the first 100 days honeymoon that new presidents usually receive. And the Trump team still has no idea what it is doing. At CPAC Trump made many pronouncements about the things he was going to do: passing tax reform, repealing Obamacare, building the […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Delaware Special Election Win Shows Energized Democratic Turnout
Democrats already seem poised to turn their outrage into votes.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Make the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Great Again
I have always hated the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Its cozy mix of journalists and the powerful politicians they’re supposed to be holding to account has embodied every populist critique of the relationship between the press and political power. The best thing that ever happened to the dinner was Stephen Colbert’s humiliation of George W. […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Bannon’s Desperate Apartheid Conservatism
Watching the triumphalist parade of Trump Administration officials at CPAC this week, it would be easy to believe that American conservatism has reached new heights of lasting power. Republicans now control not only Congress and the Presidency, but the majority of governor’s mansions and statehouses nationwide. But that would be deceptive. It’s not just that […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
We Can’t Keep Up Four More Years of This
It’s the end of an exhausting weekend of both work and activism, and I apologize in advance that this post is informal, short and shows…well, exhaustion. The fatigue isn’t just temporary, though. It’s starting to be a condition of political life under Trump. Activists and regular people are energized to fight Trump, and much of […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Poor Are Getting Richer in China and France, but Getting Poorer in the U.S.
Thomas Piketty of Capital fame has more research results out. They’re not making headlines in the age of hourly Trump-related outrages, but they should. They’re directly related to why the Menace-in-Chief is in the White House in the first place. It turns out that the bottom 50% of America is doing worse than ever, even […]
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal
Why Won’t Trump Fire Michael Flynn?
That Trump keeps Flynn on board raises the worst sort of suspicions about the administration’s relationship with Putin.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Democrats Can Win White Working Class Voters Without Sacrificing Social Justice
The Democratic Party is in dire straits. It’s not just that Donald Trump and his Republican friends control the White House and both houses of Congress, or that Democrats have been decimated in governor’s mansions and statehouses across the country. As Martin Longman notes, 2018 doesn’t look promising for Democrats in Congress, and 2020 doesn’t […]
