When roving bandits appear on the scene, you begin to miss the old stationary bandits: Jonathan Rauch wants to bring back the political Establishment of days past, by revisiting primary and campaign-finance laws that were meant to curb the role of party regulars. [The Atlantic]
Bonus, Terry Teachout: “In a totally polarized political environment, persuasion is no longer possible: we believe what we believe, and nothing matters but class and power. We are well on the way … the gap that separates the two Americas has grown so deep and wide that I find it increasingly difficult to imagine their caring to function as a single nation for very much longer. …The main obstacle that stands in the way of the soft disunion of America is that Red and Blue America are not geographically disjunct, as were the North and South in the Civil War.”
2 Comments
“The political establishment is not offering me precisely the candidates I want to see. They’re evil! The process is entirely corrupt! A system of primary elections will bring about the new millennium!”
Some time later….
“The system of primary elections is not offering me precisely the candidates I want to see! They’re evil! The process is entirely corrupt! A political establishment will bring about the new millennium!”
Rinse and repeat.
Bob
Political hacks, machines, big money and back room deals, Rauch’s characterization of establishment politics, produced a Bush dynasty and an emerging Clinton dynasty. Thanks to primaries the sclerotic two-party establishment may have been purged forever by Trump and Sanders. In dismissing Bernie as a delusional outsider who does not know how to govern, Rauch displays his own ignorance and bombast. His fame as a writer is that of a provocateur.
Charlie