Politics

We’ve previously noted that polls show that Americans are in a “pre-revolutionary” mood, that less than 1 in 5 Americans think that the government has the “consent of the governed”, that government corruption tops the list of Americans’ fears, and that 3 times as many Americans supported King George during the Revolutionary War than support our OWN Congress today.

You might assume that such statements are over-the-top … or that the results come from partisan pollsters.

Saturday’s debate showed very clearly that the other “establishment” candidates competing with Rubio in New Hampshire don’t buy into the theory that they should step aside for the good of the party. On the contrary, Christie went out of his way to damage Rubio, and Kasich and Bush were more than happy to benefit from that. None of them accepts that Rubio is the default or obvious choice, and one reason for that seems to be that they’re all in agreement that he isn’t remotely prepared for the presidency when compared with any of them.

Rusty Reno explains why so many middle class whites are having a populist moment:

The relative success of Trump and Sanders shows that they’re rebelling against both left-leaning and right-leaning political establishments. That’s not because of identity politics. It’s because they’re in the best position to see the new character of our leadership class.

More:

This Bloomberg News story is emblematic of our time, and what it says about the relationships among the GOP leadership, religious conservatives, gays and lesbians, and Wall Street. And it is critically important for conservative Christians to read it and understand what it means.

The story is about Rep. Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who chairs a powerful House subcommittee. More:

With Iowa in the rearview mirror, New Hampshire dead ahead, and miles and miles of nominating contests to go, the Brookings Institution’s Elaine Kamarck has performed a valuable service by getting into the weeds, describing the mechanics of how America picks its presidential nominees, and explaining how we got here. Primary Politics leads the reader to conclude that process is policy.