Links and a Nice Song for Sunday, November the 11th

Here's a nice song!


-Dylan Matthews interviewed Sasha Issenberg about innovations in Get Out The Vote operations, and why the Democrats have more success than Republicans. This is what people are talking about when they say that Obama had a better "ground game". One thing really stood out in this interview: political scientists want to work with Democrats, and that's a concrete disadvantage for Republicans. There are consequences to disdaining the work of eggheads.

-Matt Yglesias has some interesting things to say about the relationship between racial politics and the welfare state.

-John Cook at Gawker makes a good point about demographic analyses of the election. American politics will change as demographics change, but "minority votes" are an exercise of agency, just like any vote.

-Jon Chait and Jonathan Bernstein both love democratic politics. I wanted to highlight those posts because I think that their writing illustrates something important: loving democratic politics isn't the same thing as wanting to make the world a better place, and it certainly isn't the same thing as being interested in the nuts and bolts of good policy or a vibrant, tolerant culture.

Cynics are repelled by that kind of love for democracy, and idealists are disgusted by it.

But when you love democratic politics as it is, as a messy clash of interest groups, you understand how you can engage in political action through interest groups that care about making the world a better place, implementing good policy, and maintaining a vibrant, tolerant culture.

I hope you all have a good Remembrance Day