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At this column’s end, American politics is so much dumber than it was at its beginning

The final installment of Informed Dissent.

By Jeffrey C. Billman

Mar 8, 2023

Six years, six months, and probably 300,000-odd words ago, I began what was intended as a short-lived chronicle of the 2016 election. Like most political writers, I assumed Donald Trump would provide a few months of entertainment before his November humiliation...

The decline of the Republican Party didn’t end with Trump’s ignominious exit — it accelerated

Guys like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have nothing to offer but rage

Bullying as politics infected the right long before Trump, and purging him won’t get rid of it.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Feb 14, 2023
Kevin McCarthy will be the least powerful and effective speaker in modern history

It would be funny, in a tragicomic way, if the stakes weren’t so high.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jan 16, 2023
The 10 most important American political stories of 2022: Part Two

The Woke War drags on.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jan 4, 2023
The 10 most important American political stories of 2022: Part One

The end of Roe, the Trump collapse and more.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jan 1, 2023
Democrats say so long to the Senate's most attention-seeking member, Kyrsten Sinema

And don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Dec 9, 2022
Elon Musk's Twitter purchase gives him the power of chaos, not the wisdom for governance

Let's definitely let a South African narcissist define what our First Amendment rights mean

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Dec 7, 2022
Having a gun in your house increases suicides, it increases gun accidents, and it increases homicides

So miss us with the “guns don’t kill people” thing.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Dec 2, 2022
When you elect a bunch of clowns, you end up with a circus

Reap the whirlwind, Republicans.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Nov 23, 2022
While the rest of the country escaped the projected ‘red wave,’ the Sunshine State got caught in the rip current

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Nov 16, 2022
Most Americans haven’t figured out — or worse, don’t care — which party intends to weaken them more

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Nov 7, 2022
Nancy Pelosi's husband is expected to recover. American democracy may not

Although members of both parties attempt political violence, only one party openly and unrepentantly celebrates political violence.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Nov 1, 2022
Swing voters can't seem to connect present events to the instigating events that happened months ago

If the economy is struggling, if gas prices are up, the party in power is punished.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Oct 26, 2022
As next summer’s inevitable debt-ceiling crisis approaches, the petulant Freedom Caucus is already threatening default

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Oct 5, 2022
Evangelical Christianity is no longer a theology — it's a cultural identity in service to the party of Trump

Selling their souls

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Sep 28, 2022
Leave it to Florida's Ron DeSantis to utilize overt racism and abject dehumanization as a national political strategy

The 2024 Republican presidential primary is shaping up to be a battle royale of bullying.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Sep 19, 2022
Fewer Americans than ever profess confidence in the Supreme Court. That’s because we’ve seen them for the political hacks they are

Courting disaster

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Sep 14, 2022
Biden's speech ripping MAGA nation shows he finally accepts that the Republican Party he knew is a distant memory

The prez seems to have hurt the feelings of the 'f*ck your feelings' crowd.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Sep 7, 2022
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida is at the vanguard of states giving teachers the finger

Short-term populism has long-term consequences.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Aug 30, 2022
The extremist positions and jackass bellicosity required to win a Republican nomination are going to cost the GOP seats this year

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Aug 22, 2022
A precarious democracy can’t afford to look the other way while self-serving authoritarians pour gas on a fire

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Aug 15, 2022
It looks like Chuck Schumer learned how to do politics like a Republican

A secret deal with Joe Manchin, passage of the semiconductor bill *and* the reconciliation bill, and a forced self-own for the GOP ... not bad.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Aug 1, 2022
If Biden plans to be a doormat for the new Republican House or the radical Supreme Court, he should bow out of 2024 now

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jul 27, 2022
It is not hyperbole to say the current U.S. Supreme Court constitutes a democratic crisis

It’s time to panic.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jul 13, 2022
After the death of Roe v. Wade, Democrats need to do more than fundraise and say 'see you in November'

Promises to do something eventually aren’t enough.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jun 30, 2022
Today's SCOTUS rulings show that the majority doesn’t care about torching its legitimacy, only about pushing its radical agenda

Republican presidents have won the popular vote once since 1988, yet they’ve appointed six of the Court’s nine justices.

By Jeffrey C. Billman
Jun 24, 2022

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