If We Say Something Often

Normally What Happens In A New Presidency Is The President Has A Big Agenda, And Congress Is Full Of People With Human Weaknesses. And So The President Indulges The Human Weaknesses Of Members Of Congress In Order To Pass His Agenda. This Time It's The Other Way Around. Donald Trump Does Not Have Much Of An Agenda. Congress Burns With This Intense Republican Agenda And So Does Congress That Has To Put Up With The Human Weaknesses Of The President In Order To Get A Signature On The Things It Desperately Wants To Pass.

One Of The Reasons I've Been Interested In The Us Health Care Is That Here Is Something You Can Do, That Could Lift One Of The Largest Burdens Of Worry From The Shoulders Of Tens Of Millions Of People For Whom The Rest Of The Economy Isn't Working. A Lot Of The Things That Are In Obamacare That Republicans Don't Like Were Deliberately Put There To Force Republicans To Negotiate. Republicans Wouldn't Negotiate, So We Got Obamacare With All Of The Fur On It. Once It's There, Of Course, It's Very Hard To Take Health Care Benefits Away From People, As The Republicans Discovered.

The Monster Has Escaped Elba!" "the Tyrant Has Landed At Cannes!" "bonaparte Meets The Troops." "napoleon Approaches Paris." "his Imperial Majesty Has Entered The Capital.

Elites Are Inevitable In Politics. That Is How Politics Is Going To Work. The Question Is, Are Your Elites Responsible, Public-spirited? Do They Think About The Interests Of Others, Not Just Themselves? And The Story Of Western Politics Since The Beginning Of The Century Is That As Elites Become More Separated, More Selfish, As They Leave Behind Their Populations And Don't Think About Them, They Become Discredited. And The People Look For Alternatives. But The Alternative Is Worse. Those Rules Of The Game Protect Us All. And They Are More Precious Than Almost Any Political Outcome.

Venezuela Has Gone From Being A Democratic Country 15 Years Ago To Being Totally Not A Democracy Today. Usually That De-democratization Doesn't Take The Form Of A Heavy Handed Police State.