If there ever was a time to talk about “taking the country back” it was the time of Jesus– but that wasn’t anything he was concerned with. Jesus spent his time rejecting political power and instead, invested into building an other-worldly Kingdom where the power-rejectors are actually the greatest. Jesus saw his Kingdom, not political rule, as being the solution to all the ills of earth.
American Politics: Why the Thrill Is Gone
Policies and their consequences should be the main story, tactics the footnote. Coverage of a candidate’s positioning on this or that issue should include a reminder of the context: notwithstanding No. 6 above, the differences between the two parties are clear, stark, and uniform across almost all issues.
Krugman: Political Party Positions matter more than Personality
.. there has never been a time in American history when the alleged personal traits of candidates mattered less. As we head into 2016, each party is quite unified on major policy issues — and these unified positions are very far from each other. The huge, substantive gulf between the parties will be reflected in the policy positions of whomever they nominate, and will almost surely be reflected in the actual policies adopted by whoever wins.
For example, any Democrat would, if elected, seek to maintain the basic U.S. social insurance programs — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — in essentially their current form, while also preserving and extending the Affordable Care Act. Any Republican would seek to destroy Obamacare, make deep cuts in Medicaid, and probably try to convert Medicare into avoucher system.
Any Democrat would retain the tax hikes on high-income Americans that went into effect in 2013, and possibly seek more. Any Republican would try to cut taxes on the wealthy — House Republicans plan to vote next week to repeal the estate tax — while slashing programs that aid low-income families.
Any Democrat would try to preserve the 2010 financial reform, which has recently been looking much more effective than critics suggested. Any Republican would seek to roll it back, eliminating both consumer protection and the extra regulation applied to large, “systemically important” financial institutions.
And any Democrat would try to move forward on climate policy, through executive action if necessary, while any Republican — whether or not he is an outright climate-science denialist — would block efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
.. In either case we’d be sure to hear many assertions from political pundits that the candidate doesn’t believe a lot of what he says. But in their cases this alleged insincerity would be presented as a virtue, not a vice — sure, Mr. Bush is saying crazy things about health care and climate change, but he doesn’t really mean it, and he’d be reasonable once in office. Just like his brother.
Shadow Government and the Eclipse of Democracy
Obama championed a “don’t look back” stance toward the Bush administration, refusing to prosecute possible violations of laws prohibiting torture and other crimes. On the other hand, his Justice Department has prosecuted more journalists under the Espionage Act than all other administrations before it.
.. Conceptually, it is loosely based on the ideas of nineteenth century British journalist Walter Bagehot whose book, The English Constitution, argued that political institutions may exist primarily as veneers, their power lost to “efficient” institutions that act largely behind the scenes.
.. Glennon refuses to see this as a conspiracy by national security elites to seize power. Instead, the bureaucratic imperative is at work, with agencies defending their budgets and prerogatives against all comers. They engage in pervasive fearmongering, often divorced from systematic risk assessment. They classify huge amounts of information, require confidentiality of employees, and prosecute whistleblowers. They cultivate a massive complex of media supporters and corporate hangers-on, feeding on government-approved leaks and contracts.
.. The federal judiciary is populated with judges largely sympathetic to or having roots in the Trumanite network. Courts such as the FISC operate in secrecy, without real adversarial procedures, and with predictable results—rubber stamping executive branch requests for more surveillance.
.. In Glennon’s view, our lack of civic virtue—our unwillingness to inform ourselves about the issues and to hold elected officials and in turn unelected security officials accountable—has allowed Madisonian institutions to atrophy. Yet, as Glennon acknowledges, it is rational for individual Americans to know little because their impact can be so limited.