One way to think about the big changes in US politics over the last 40 years is through the framework of institutions. Conservatives have successfully attacked institutions of knowledge (civil service, media, universities) and solidarity (unions) they viewed as antagonistic. 1)
Conservatives captured or built their own own institutions (NRA, think tanks like Heritage, Federalist Society, conservative media). This has worked in the sense of allowing them to create, popularize and establish legal frameworks around their preferred policies. 2/
While successful politically, the conservative deinstitutionalization has been bad for governing, in a way we are seeing play out right now. Highly politicized administration + SCOTUS high on the unitary executive theory + incompetence/indifference is a very bad combination. 3/
On the progressive side, the deinstitutionalization of unions left it without a focal organizing group, replaced by a more specific issue-driven & demographically diverse coalition, but one less disciplined & harder to manage, see e.g. the fierce spats on the very online left. 4/
These are my amateur political-historian takes. Welcome other takes and suggestions. 5/
This feels like one of those moments when a movement whose DNA is contrary to the basics of governing drops the pretense.
It is a pandemic, and here is the senior elected official in the United States is calling for what will be read as protest by some, violence by others.
It is a pandemic, and here is the senior elected official in the United States is calling for what will be read as protest by some, violence by others.
