Page 14 - Jonathan Bernstein News Today

"Democracies require the vote for all citizens, or at least all who are capable of minimal levels of participation."

Longshot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is proposing to raise the voting age from 18 to 25, with exceptions for those who serve in the military, work as first responders,

The House speaker must line up enough votes in his fractious caucus; that may not be possible.

Traders don’t believe that Congress is foolish enough to allow a default, and even if one were to occur, they are signaling it would be short-lived.

From the commentary: There are plenty of reasons to worry about the state of US democracy. Small money isn’t one of them.

Yes, more money than ever is being spent on campaigns, but much of it is coming from small donors.

America is hurtling toward a historic and potentially cataclysmic default — and its best hope for avoiding it may be one of the least popular men in Washington: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Don’t mistake passage of a plan to raise the debt ceiling for progress. The bill, passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives […]

The Senate minority leader is positioned to work with his caucus to find a deal acceptable to moderate Democrats.

He can forge consensus amoung his caucus but nothing that will allow dealmaking between the parties.

"Giving the extremists influence beyond their numbers within the party makes it less likely that common ground can be found on other important subjects, whether it’s immigration or foreign policy or veterans’ issues."