The pandemic isn’t just a health disaster. It’s a disaster for cities and states, where the money to run government that normally comes in every year has evaporated. Congress may or may not help.
Despite the fact that only 38% of Americans say they think the Democratic and Republican parties are doing ‘an adequate job,’ they’re unlikely to disappear.
An expert on Watergate says that today’s House Republicans have taken precisely the opposite position than the GOP took in 1974 on the president’s power to withhold documents from Congress.
Democracies survive if political norms and traditions are upheld. So the recent actions of GOP legislators in Wisconsin and other states to hamstring incoming Democrats put democracy at risk.
The GOP’s handling of sexual assault allegations against prominent GOP figures has led some to conclude that the party does not respect women. But GOP women are sticking with their party.
Chris Edelson, American University School of Public Affairs
Congress is supposed to be a check on presidential power, but party politics has muted Republican criticism of Trump. Restoring balance means making a radical change.
Republicans in Congress today are different than GOP figures who challenged President Nixon during Watergate. GOP leaders now stand in contrast to those who once chose country over loyalty to one man.
The speaker of the House is the most visible and authoritative spokesperson for the majority party in the House. But their role goes beyond politics to everything from accounting to procurement.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State