Mark Schmitt

The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.

US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.

open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...

I disagree. He's not talking about "Cadillac" insurance policies, generous private plans that were taxed under original ACA. He's never heard of them. He's talking about actual Cadillacs, the car. He's referencing an old talk-radio canard from the 1970s/80s about people on welfare driving Cadillacs.

Love this in @newrepublic.com from the brilliant @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social & @adambonica.bsky.social, but while the headline is, Gen Z is alright, I'm also struck by how little difference there is between those born in 1970 and the 1940 cohort, on racial resentment. Gen X is a political disaster.

It's not the case that Rs have no ideas for health care. They've always had one big idea, which is health savings accounts--regressive, good for the rich, and, like 529s and Roth IRAs, take billions in investment income out of the tax system forever. They deliberately avoided talking about it. 3/3

For years, GOP dodged health politics consequences by proposing nothing. They would get rid of whatever people don't like, without creating a new target. Now they're cutting ACA, cutting Medicaid, and talking about cash vs insurance, HSAs, all unworkable schemes 2/3

Anxiety about *change* to health care has been a key factor in several consequential elections: 1994 (Clinton plan), 2010 (ACA), and (to some degree) 2018 . Even if people are unhappy w/ health care costs and choices, change is terrifying. GOP setting itself up on the wrong side of this dynamic. 1/3

Hemp vote indicates that cannabis is long past being a wedge issue, or even a "social issue," but is now just a parochial ag/revenue issue. Senators from legal states expecting revenue don't want competition from online/gas station hemp products. Many senators from legalized states voted no.

Still upset about no power of the purse language. You truly do hate to see it. The Trump admin undertook the most expansive set of illegal budgetary actions of any president in history, and broadcast as loudly as possible they’d keep doing it, and nothing. Budgetary lawlessness.

Few of us will see the faux-gold applique on the walls. This is the closest to the White House ("the people's house") that most people will get, looking west from 15th St along Pennsylvania Ave., yesterday evening at 5:45 pm

(Photo was from yesterday, 11/6, around 5:30 pm)

This is true, but the challenge, esp for Dems,is how to use a favorable environment (meaning 2 more elections and 3 ugly yrs) to maintain a favorable environment for longer than four years. Not forever, but enough to improve lives sustainably. Thermostatic politics is a disaster if one side is Trump

A pro-affordability, anti-Trump-corruption message unites the party. Every candidate can run on that, and every candidate can have their own take to fit that to their constituents. There's really no need to find fights to pick when the party agrees on more than it disagrees

The minority report of the committee investigating the Iran-Contra scandal, signed by Cheney when he was a member of the House in 1987, is a key document in the theory of an all-powerful president. nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/182...

One underrated aspect of Zohran is that he always wears a suit, always presents himself professionally while still doing fun and approachable retail politics. You don’t have to drape yourself yourself in hypebeast and post thirst traps, you can be fucking grown up respecting the office and be fun

Not to diminish law review articles & law school committee work, but right now law professors should be working collectively on an intellectual & service project of immense, existential importance: building consensus around a revolutionary constitutional framework-of a Reconstruction 2.0 magnitude.

He's going to put his name on it, isn't he?

"He came in here and he trashed the place, and it's not his place."
--Washington Post reporter David Broder to Post columnist Sally Quinn. About Bill Clinton. In a more naive time when "trashed the place" was a metaphor for not going to the right parties.

www.washingtonpost.com/archive/life...

Okay, look, I gotta ask because I feel like I’m having a stroke. Did we switch teams on the democracy versus economics messaging? Because the way I remember it, the libs ran on democracy and the left said they should focus on material issues like healthcare instead and now it’s opposite, I think?

Consequences of Government Shutdowns Podcast Episode · Democracy Deciphered · 09/30/2025 · 17m

For @newamerica.org's #DemocracyDeciphered podcast, I did a short (16-min.) explainer on govt shutdowns. Points at the end on why this is different: 1 Vought layoff threat; 2 Admin will break a deal & rescind spending anyway; 3 Admin got the $ it wants, e.g. ICE. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

"Infrequent voters are voting. It's a very low-trust environment. So the traditional left-right spectrum and going moderate on issues, it's not as clear. Anybody saying, 'I can win the election by tweaking positions" slightly is selling you something," says @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social.

Of all the awful things that Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins did as senators, their joint creation of DHS, in the post-9/11-Iraq frenzy, may be the awful thing with the most lasting bad consequences. A full reorg should be a priority for a future Dem president, but will take time.

If he changed positions on abortion rights, Brown would seem/be a calculating phony. People don't vote for a set of issue positions, but will vote for someone who listens, engages and is straightforward about their views. Lots of people who will vote for Mamdani don't share his issue positions. 2/2

I wouldn't write off Dem senate candidates in OH, IA, NE. All long shots but worth trying. But try a thought experiment: Is Sherrod Brown the strongest D candidate in OH? Of course. He ran 3 pts ahead of Harris and won 3 times. Would he be a stronger candidate if he declared himself pro-life? No! 1/

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

This also goes to a point @donmoyn.bsky.social made last week: College campuses are *uniquely* open, among all American institutions, to debate and disagreement. You can't go to an evangelical church (or any church) or corporation and expect them to give a hearing to an alternative viewpoint.

A New Democratic Think Tank Wants to Curb the Influence of Liberal Groups

I've been involved w/ a number of think tank startups, but this is the first I've seen started with the mission of *not* doing things. There are no ideas here

My only other thoughts were in response to Jentleson's 9/16 op-ed
markschmitt.substack.com/p/the-groups...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/u...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Democracy Beyond Elections: Citizens’ Assemblies and Institutional Reform. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webina... The U.S. has a surprising history of deliberative democracy—from bold experiments in sortition to grassroots-led reforms. Most failed to take root. Citizens' Assemblies - such as those in Bend and Bou...

Please join New America's Political Reform Program, Columbia World Projects, and
@north.america.fidemocracy.org
tomorrow from 11am to 12pm ET for an exciting panel that will explore the past, present, and future of assemblies in America, and their role in broader institutional reform movements.

Jamelle and Ezra also both immerse themselves in context--often historical in one case, process in the other--before writing. They have different perspectives this week (and I'm w/ Jamelle), but are not as far apart as comments make it sound. And they are vastly better than other political analysts.

One of the privileges of my life was to work w/ both @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @jamellebouie.net at @prospect.org in 2008-2011, though they didn't quite overlap. They are not "opposing viewpoints," but are both motivated by curiosity, not just glib "takes," and a commitment to human dignity. 1/2

I offer up “Borgen” as a tv series that political scientists appreciate for getting politics right.