Partisanship, Policy and Polarization

(Bloomberg View) -- 1. Today's must-read is from Jennifer Victor at Vox on what's gone wrong with U.S. partisanship. I have a few nitpicks, but I highly recommend this one to anyone who thinks about parties -- or cares about U.S. democracy. On campaign finance, I think I agree with how she puts it: "Outside" groups are most often party groups, but nevertheless there are advantages to the system when formal party organizations can be involved, and therefore our campaign finance laws, at a minimum, should not inhibit money going through those organizations. I'm not as pessimistic about the current levels of competition as Victor is, but I agree that what she has identified is a very real danger. And I think attention must be paid to asymmetric polarization and the dysfunctions peculiar (at least for now) to the Republican Party. But this is an excellent look at the importance of parties and the dangers in where the parties are right now.  

2. See also Jennifer McCoy at the Monkey Cage on polarization.

3. Seth Masket at Pacific Standard on Kellyanne Conway and the 2016 election. There's a larger point here to be made, I think, about political entrepreneurship, policy and partisan consultants. We used to talk about senators who would seize on national issues as part of a campaign for president. Perhaps what we're seeing now is the same thing from campaign professionals. I'd like to see the idea explored.  

4. Rick Hasen on how Neil Gorsuch benefited from a form of affirmative action.

5. Mike Konczal at Vox on the current Republican road map for undoing financial regulation given that they almost certainly can't pass their bill to repeal Dodd-Frank. 

6. Greg Sargent on one big source of Donald Trump's awful public opinion numbers: It's the unpopular policies! And how he goes about attempting to enact them. Nice. I'll add: Yes, all Trump wants is to "win" and he doesn't care about details. Ideally, however, that should be a good combination. His drive to win should push him to dump unpopular provisions and embrace popular ones; it should allow him to buy off interest groups by changing bills to remove provisions that are most objectionable to opponents while adding pieces that move neutral groups toward support. The problem, of course, is Trump doesn't do any of that because it requires a solid knowledge of both policy and the relevant groups, and he hasn't demonstrated either so far.

7. My Bloomberg View colleague Noah Feldman on the Trump administration's decision to junk American Bar Association ratings for its court nominees.

8. And Jonathan Chait on Trump's conflicts of interest and using his office to enrich himself.

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Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.net.

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