very good summary

David Leonhardt
Op-Ed Columnist

Recommend reading it. Here are some some comments [original text indented.]

he writes

The biggest priority for today’s Congressional Republicans is shrinking the size of government so they can cut taxes for the wealthy.The biggest priority for today’s Congressional Republicans is shrinking the size of government so they can cut taxes for the wealthy.

yes. It is arbitrage. Sell off the government and public property, distribute to the rich, and be prepared to leave the country. This is common talk in Washington, D.C. among the connected even with weak connections. I miss being in DC where I imagine the conversation is 24 hours  each day on what is happening to Trump and th e country. Exhausting but compelling. I miss it.

So from the periphery responding to leonhart’s excellent summary.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, managed to win the presidency on an agenda that promised robust government programs in health care, retirement and other areas.

slightly overstated. DT said a number of times he wouldn’t touch those programs but nothing like robust defense of them. . This who were anxious about soc sec and medicare felt reassured, hence this was a deep lie.

Something was going to have to give, and it’s long been clear that the something would be Trump’s campaign promises. Trump doesn’t actually care much about the working class and has quickly abandoned his earlier commitments.

Yes but striking, this article does not touch on climate, automation, war. The way in which we avoid the core agenda for a kind of fake news core prime agenda  is the real news.

So the problem is that Donald represents no ideas, only winning. The Republican leadership has leveraged nostalgic anxt into support for the super rich. So the Dems and the Rep each represent really about 3% of the population with anything like solid support. The rich for Republican, the Professional class for the democrats. Hence th country is ungoverned and ungovernable.  Is there any constitutional path that is attractive? The road to Pence, the road to Ryan? A small minority cannot govern legitimately a huge quasi democracy. Hence the lack of a constitutional path is unnerving us all.