QOTD -- Lessons

 

"... To a degree few of us have appreciated, our political parties have offered our democracy some protection from its vulnerabilities, largely by narrowing the window of just whom can be nominated for president. They have not always been the fairest or most enlightened gate-keepers, but even in the era of primary elections, they’ve generally steered nomination contests toward people with reasonable credentials and experience and away from demagogues and conspiracy theorists.

"When that broke down during the 2016 Republican presidential contest, we finally saw what the parties had been protecting us from. As with previous presidents, a large chunk of the electorate was willing to steer its preferences toward the beliefs of the leader they liked. But now those beliefs included things like: elections I don’t like are fraudulent, undocumented immigrants are subhuman, our streets should be patrolled by armed unaccountable masked men, any investigation into my potentially criminal behavior is a conspiracy by the deep state, vaccines are more dangerous than helpful, and more.

"This past year has reminded us of how dependent our democratic system is on nominees who value democracy, or at least don’t want to be perceived as tyrants..."-- Seth Masket, Director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, in his "Tusk" Substack, on one of the things we learned about American politics in 2025.  In addition to the state of our democracy, Masket also discusses what we learned about the Democratic Party and what we don't understand about the economy.  Good read.