ChrisWeigant.com

Archive of Articles in the "Domestic Policy" Category

Trump's Erratic Threaten-Retreat-Threaten-Retreat Cycle

[ Posted Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 – 16:25 UTC ]

We now live in the world of Trumponomics, which might be defined as: "It's like Groundhog Day, except every day." I should specify that this is decidedly not in the sense of the movie of the same name -- where exactly the same things happen every day -- but rather in the sense that each and every day the entire world waits to see which side of the bed Donald Trump got up on: whether he's going to say something so threatening to the economy's future that the stock markets panic, or whether he's going to walk back some previous stupid comment and the stock market will recover a little bit.

Read Complete Article »

Constitutional Questions Matter

[ Posted Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 – 15:53 UTC ]

There's a new poll out from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania which has some interesting data -- interesting both for what the data says about American public opinion as well as interesting because of the specific questions that were asked. Most public opinion surveys limit themselves to a few key indicators (presidential job approval being the biggest one), but this poll seemed designed to address some pertinent current issues in much more depth.

Read Complete Article »

Friday Talking Points -- Epic Failure Everywhere You Look

[ Posted Friday, April 18th, 2025 – 17:15 UTC ]

This weekend will mark the end of the third month of Donald Trump's second term in office. Only 45 more fun-filled months to go!

Sorry if that's a bit disheartening, but at this point it's hard to find much in the way of optimism in the political world. And we're certainly not alone in this view.

Read Complete Article »

Back To SCOTUS?

[ Posted Thursday, April 17th, 2025 – 15:37 UTC ]

With lightning speed, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals just shot down an appeal by the Department of Justice which tried to block a judge from moving forward on a path that may end with finding the administration guilty of contempt of court. It's just another episode in the continuing drama: "As The Constitutional Crisis Unfolds," really, and the next step will almost certainly be the administration appealing today's ruling back to the Supreme Court.

Read Complete Article »

Signs Of Energy From Democrats

[ Posted Wednesday, April 16th, 2025 – 16:12 UTC ]

American politics, for better or worse, is built on a two-party system that is occasionally challenged by independent third parties, who never have much in the way of notable successes. How many members of Congress are there from the Green Party? How many did H. Ross Perot get elected when he launched the most successful third-party bid for the White House in a generation? The answer to both is, of course, "zero." Third parties can change the political conversation in major ways (and occasionally even move the "Overton Window" in a big way), but so far none of them has built up enough success to truly challenge the dominance of the Republican/Democratic dichotomy. Instead, what is much more common is one (or both) of the two major parties being dramatically changed from within.

Read Complete Article »

John Roberts Reaps The Whirlwind

[ Posted Tuesday, April 15th, 2025 – 16:25 UTC ]

I begin today for an unusual (for me) foray into the Bible. Because there are two passages that seem particularly apt for the moment of crisis we find ourselves in. There are many translations of these verses available, but I decided on a traditionalist approach and used the King James Version for both.

Read Complete Article »

China Plays Hardball

[ Posted Monday, April 14th, 2025 – 16:02 UTC ]

As the Trump Trade War lurches onward, with another heaping amount of uncertainty added over the weekend, China just made a move that could have drastic worldwide consequences. They haven't fully committed to playing hardball, but they are certainly signalling that it might be their next step. And (to mix game-playing metaphors), in this particular game, China holds all the cards. They've got a royal flush, and we don't even have a pair of twos to work with.

Read Complete Article »

Friday Talking Points -- It's The Stupid Economy

[ Posted Friday, April 11th, 2025 – 17:40 UTC ]

James Carville's famous political maxim ("It's the economy, stupid") needs updating. As we all ride out the Trump Slump in various ways, what we've got now is: "It's the stupid economy." The people running things are stupid. They are making stupid decisions. They have no clue whatsoever what they are doing, and it shows. Stupid is as stupid does. Welcome to The Stupid Economy, folks.

Read Complete Article »

Time After Time

[ Posted Thursday, April 10th, 2025 – 16:07 UTC ]

Senator Ted Cruz is attempting to tackle a problem, but I for one don't expect to see the problem solved any time soon. That "any time" was a joke, actually, because the intractable problem is none other than time itself. The Senate Commerce Committee (which Cruz chairs) just held a hearing on whether they should (as they're now calling it) "lock the clock" and finally be done with the twice-yearly hour shift in the clock to either start or end Daylight Saving Time.

Read Complete Article »

Trump Blinks

[ Posted Wednesday, April 9th, 2025 – 15:30 UTC ]

I've always thought that Donald Trump picked the wrong 1970s gay anthem as his favorite tune for his rallies. Instead of the Village People's "YMCA," he really should have gone with "Macho Man." Because that's his secret dream -- to be seen as a real tough guy. But more on that in a moment....

Today, as the markets continued their confusion, Trump finally blinked -- on all countries except China, it appears. I say "it appears" since nobody's entirely sure of the details, since there was no formal announcement or well-thought-out policy revealed, instead it was just another knee-jerk social media post with few actual details about how things are going to work now.

Read Complete Article »