David Atkins

More bad news on the Greece front in Europe: the Eurozone has refused to extend bailout provisions for Greece: A Eurogroup statement said Greece had broken off negotiations over a new bailout deal “unilaterally”. Late on Friday, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum for 5 July over the terms of any new deal. […]

Flailing about for some sort of cogent conservative reaction to the Supreme Court decisions this week, National Review apparently allowed Ted Cruz to scribble out some meandering prose on its website. That may have been a mistake. Ted Cruz’ solution to “judicial tyranny”? Direct election of SCOTUS judges. No, really. But let’s set aside the […]

With the American South so radically conservative and politically divergent from most of the rest of the country, it’s easy to forget that it was not always so. The American South used to be much more politically nuanced and politically complicated. Obviously, the legacy racism and slavery dominates everything. Southern denials that the Civil War […]

As the predictable conservative caterwauling has risen in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic decision on marriage equality, it’s increasingly difficult to understand just why the religious right cares so much about it. Imagine for a moment that you believe that an angry God is in charge of the entire Universe and everything in […]

Shed a tiny tear for the Marie Antoinettes and wannabe John Galts of California: Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water. People “should not be forced to live on property […]

Hillary Clinton’s campaign put on a beautifully staged event yesterday in a speech replete with progressive themes and throwbacks to FDR. Clinton has been eager to sound a progressive populist note, in part to mitigate challenges on her ostensible left from Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. Much of the rhetoric of the speech was decent, […]

One of the more frustrating aspects of American policy discussions is that evidence from other countries is effectively barred. America is said to be “exceptional” and American problems are said to require “American solutions.” This is quite convenient for big business interests when it comes to, say, universal healthcare: we’re not allowed to consider what […]

Conservatives love to idealize federalism and the power of the states. Unless, that is, those states are doing this conservatives don’t like, such as implementing single-payer healthcare or decriminalizing marijuana. Most on the left understand that the fetishism for state power over federal power comes from an instinct toward localism–after all, conservative states love nothing […]

It’s all done but for the crying on TPP–at least for now. Dave Dayen draws up a good analysis of why it failed and where we go from here. David Frum notes that as long as trade deals are seen as enriching the few at the expense of the many, it’s going to be difficult […]

Joe Nocera has a piece today in the New York Times confirming what many of us have been saying for a while now, including here at the Washington Monthly and at the Political Animal: Scott Walker isn’t a terribly attractive presidential candidate for the GOP, but he would make a vicious and vindictive President. Walker’s […]