Political Scholar Norm Ornstein On What's At Stake In 2020

“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional.” Norm Ornstein wrote that back in 2012. Eight years later, does Ornstein think there’s any way for the U.S. to regain institutional and political stability? We ask him.

Guests

Norm Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Contributing writer for The Atlantic. Contributing editor and columnist for the National Journal. (@NormOrnstein)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

From The Reading List

The Atlantic: “The Smart Way to Fix the Filibuster” — “But rather than scrap the filibuster entirely, the Democrats may want to instead consider reforming the procedure, so that it continues to exist for truly extraordinary circumstances, but ceases to be the easily deployed blockade it is today.”

New Yorker: “For Mitch McConnell, Keeping His Senate Majority Matters More Than the Supreme Court” — “As the Democrats weigh their options about how to stop Mitch McConnell from filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat, one tactic that they should forget about immediately is arguing that it would be hypocritical of McConnell to jam in a new Justice so close to an election.”

The Atlantic: “I’ve Witnessed the Decline of the Republican Party” — “I grew up in a family of Democrats. My maternal grandfather, who had emigrated from Russia to escape czarist pogroms, moved to Minneapolis and became a labor leader, a member of the small ‘kitchen cabinet’ that convinced Hubert Humphrey to enter politics and run for mayor of the city.”

The Atlantic: “The November Election Is Going to Be a Mess” — “American voters face a nightmare in November. The recent stretch of primary elections has raised a slew of red flags of glitches, missteps, incompetence, and worse that could plague the national elections in November.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]