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8 Sep, 5 tweets, 1 min read
Nothing pumps me up about Congress like watching this old David Mayhew rant from 2017. It's just the best.

c-span.org/video/?c478518…
"There's a platonic ideal out there of a...party that has all it's members on the same page and operates perfectly. It's a fiction!"
"Look, this is a congressional history conference, so at the least we should be thinking history. And we should be thinking about answering the phone when a reporter calls and giving them something that's reasonably true."
[SLAPS TABLE AND SMILES]
"Ask Taft or Hoover or Coolidge about the progressive midwestern Republicans. Those people were impossible to deal with! For decades!"
I should also note that, half an hour before this rant happened, David told me “he didn’t have a whole lot to add and probably won’t say much.” 😂

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More from @MattGlassman312

Matt Glassman Profile picture
13 Sep
People saying "in normal circumstances you'd want clear congressional authorization, but we're in an emergency---and Congress is hopelessly unproductive--- so POTUS has to do it" are a (longstanding) part of the reason we are where we are in legislative-executive power dynamics.
I'm strongly of the belief federal vaccine mandates are constitutional, and I also think they are probably good policy. But I am very skeptical that claiming OSHA authority here is anything close to congressional intent to delegate mandatory vaccination authority is silly.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Glassman Profile picture
6 Sep
No doubt people threatening violence or disruptions to proceedings at school board meetings are out of bounds and should be prevented from doing so, but let's not pretend school board meetings weren't hotbeds of lunatics screaming crazy shit long before COVID. That's not new.
No one should be intimidating public officials, and anyone threatening violence or trying to end meetings via disruptions should be barred and/or punished.

But people waiting their turn to get 3 minutes yelling intense views at the board? That's how local government works.
Like, my standard advice to people who want to make change in their community is to to get off Twitter and go yell at a local official. That's what you do. You do NOT threaten people or try to wreck the process, but you do have to go voice strong opinions.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Glassman Profile picture
2 Sep
Don't underestimate how many state legislators nationwide are terrified of the politics of abortion in a post-Roe world.
Roe and subsequent court rulings have essentially allowed conservative state legislators to escape direct responsibility for abortion legislation, either by ignoring it or taking extreme positions that never become actual implemented law.
Faced with the prospect of actual abortion bans and a conservative base primed by years of position-taking without responsibility, a fair number of legislators are going to feel the squeeze for the first time, as the extreme positions collide with constituent reality.
Read 8 tweets
Matt Glassman Profile picture
28 Aug
In his newsletter this AM, @jbouie has a great short note picking up on something we discussed last week: the Early Republic was a *very* different system than we have now, and many people mistake the antebellum party system for the Founders' vision.

nyti.ms/3BkBgsu
Some of my past thoughts on this:
Rotation in office, loyal opposition, professional politicians, mass parties, party nominating conventions, campaign biographies, campaign songs, patronage machines/jobs, and so forth are inventions of the Jacksonian era of mass white male democracy, not the early republic.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Glassman Profile picture
26 Aug
Again, 18 months ago, this dog could barely walk and was given 3-6 months to live.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Glassman Profile picture
23 Aug
Dem moderate likely looking for minor adjustment, perhaps just fig leaves, that let them plausibly claim they checked liberals.

It’s a game of finding politically safest way to yes, b/c they might have ‘22 trouble if bills pass, but they’re surely toast if Biden agenda crashes.
That is, a lot of this negotiation and showdown is about shaping the public understanding of the politics, not the substance of the bills.
And that’s an important part of politics! It’s not just performance for performance sake, it also has important implications for future arrangements of power, agenda, and policy possibilities.
Read 4 tweets

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