I have a @monkeycageblog piece today in @washingtonpost that I think is going to be unpopular with some. The argument is that slimy hardball politics in WI/MI isn't really new, it's just more aggressive. And assymetric. I'll expand on that a bit here.
washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
The article is based on this tweetstorm I did last week.
I just don't see a ton of norm-breaking at the micro-level in WI/MI. State legislative politics is absolutely cutthroat and brutal. I worked in the NYS legislature, and it was basically a banana republic. *Way* worse hardball than anything I ever saw on Capitol Hill.
And so things like overturing referendum or stripping executive power don't stike me much as innovations, but sort of the way things are...norms. I mean, gerrymandering *is* the norm in state legislatures. Partisan majorities screw each other every 10 years.
This is important, because many people are pointing to WI/MI as signs of democratic backsliding; that the constitutional hardball being played there is a sign of an eroding democracy. I'm less sure. A few points here:
First, perception/context matters. I'll be the first to say that WI/MI is unnerving in the context of Trump. He's a complete apologist/admirer of authoritarians, and has created an atmosphere where the strength of our democratic bedrock has been called into question.
But that means we are probably seeing the events in WI/MI in that light. If these same sorts of slimy partisan games were happening routinely over the past 30 years, would you have even noticed? My argument is that, for the most part, they have been.
I mentioned I worked in the NYS legislature, a banana republic. But almost *everyone* who has worked in state legislatures say thes same thing! Harrisburg, Austin, Hartford, Trenton. They are all regarded as sewers of nasty partisan politics. And always have been!
Second, I think party polarization and the nationalization of elections is playing a role here. Scummy partisan politics is a regular feature of politics, but I suspect it becomes a greater feature as polarization increases.
When our politics was last this polarized (post Civil War), the hardball was just incredible. Court packing/stripping. Admitting rotton borough states!
Now, what I do think is highly problematic is two things: first, the intensity of the hardball in WI/MI. This isn't one-off things, it's an entire slate of coordinated hardball moves, like NC two years ago. That seems unusually aggressive and new.
Second, the assymetry of the hardball: this is happening with much greater intensity and ferocity on the GOP side these days. Yes, both parties play hardball, but there's no question the GOP is upping the ante much more fervently.
This, of course, takes it's ugliest form in voter suppresion. I tend to separate that out from all the other hardball moves in WI/MI.
My main fear with WI/MI is not what actually happened---like I said, none of the individual moves seem that out of the ordinary for scummy state politics---but what it will embolden. Both from hardball Republicans, and from Dems who see no choice but to match it.
The true danger of assymetric GOP harball is that it leaves the Dems no good choice: either eat a GOP-advantage due to this stuff, or respond in kind. I already see people wanting to respond in kind---pack the Court, admit new states to balance Senate, etc.
None of that strikes me as *inherently* incompatible with a functioning republic. Hardball politics isn't our ideal, but it's also not an unworkable arrangement. But it's certainly is further from the normative best democracy, where norms of comity support a stable society. /end
