In the last week:
the Speaker of the US House has made it clear that he will block any bill that addresses immigration
Chuck Grassley pledged to block the child tax credit that (somehow) just passed the House.
This is par for the course for Washington, where—when you take a step back and really watch the place—hardly anything ever gets done. (If it does, it takes place in the first two years of a new presidency).
But we all ogle and obsess every iteration of that nothing-getting-done.
Now contrast that to the flurry of activity at a different level of politics….America’s Statehouses.
In Florida, they’re pushing forth a bill to allow 18-year olds to carry AR-15s (repealing the law they passed after the Parkland massacre)
In countless states, they’re attacking public schools through wave after wave of half-baked laws that privatize public school dollars and erode public education
They’re banning abortion wherever they can
They’re attacking voting rights and undermining direct democracy
And so on
In short, while nothing happens in Washington, the entire right wing agenda is pushed through gerrymandered statehouses at breakneck speed.
This contrast is the precise reason I started writing Laboratories of Autocracy almost three years ago.
And as I explain in the VIDEO above, that asymmetry has been the consistent pattern of American politics for years now. It is the heart of the problem.
But if all we do is focus on Washington, we hardly see it.
So…if those of us who care about having a functional, modern and effective political system don’t readjust our gameplan so that we disrupt this pattern, it won’t ever end.
In fact, it will get worse.
Both my books and this Substack lay out many ways people can make a difference along these lines.
But, big picture, the dilemma should force us each to ask ourselves: is our individual and collective democracy and political work helping disrupt that longer term pattern? Or is it simply allowing the pattern to repeat itself?
If the latter, make an adjustment.
Disrupt the pattern.
ADDENDUM to yesterday: right as I put yesterday’s review of Amicus Briefs to bed, another one emerged that is a MUST READ. Democracy scholars Tim Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and others submitted an absolutely brilliant brief that places Trump’s January 6 actions into the broader context of attacks on democracy in other countries. It’s chilling, but an absolutely compelling argument.
As they write: “Trump’s actions in the wake of the November 2020 election are alarmingly similar to activities that have destroyed democracies in other countries.”
You can read the entire brief HERE.
The Big Picture Pattern...