A quick point of clarification about this piece.

I want to be clear that I don’t think Republicans “won” sequestration, in that I don’t think sequestration is any kind of prize, or somehow a worse penalty for Democrats than for Republicans to suffer. Sequestration sucks for everyone. What Democrats lost was a gamble that Republican leaders would fold quickly as sequestration approached or just after it kicked in. Instead, we’re looking at an unstable, unhappy equilibrium where the consequences of the cuts aren’t severe enough to knock either party off its bottom line. Read More

Back in the 1980s and 90s there was this comical line that once Republicans finally cracked the African-American vote Democrats would be out of business forever. In other words, once Republicans got 100% of the Southern whites and all the blacks, Dems would be toast. To which one might say, yeah, that really would be awful for Dems’ electoral prospects. On the other hand, if you have any feel for American politics, that’s just not going to happen. Democrats actually tried; it didn’t work. Read More