How Democracies Die
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“[Each senator] has vast power”: Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 100.
such dysfunction did not occur: Ibid., p. 101; Wawro and Schickler, Filibuster, p. 41.
“exist as a potential threat”: Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 101.
Matthews’s seminal study: Ibid.; also Donald Matthews, “The Folkways of the United States Senate: Conformity to Group Norms and Legislative Effectiveness,” American Political Science Review 53, no. 4 (December 1959), pp. 1064–89.
Courtesy meant: Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, pp. 98–99.
“it is hard”: Quoted in Matthews, “Folkways,” 1959, p. 1069.
“your enemies on one issue”: Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 98.
“dictates at least a semblance”: Ibid., p. 99.
“If a senator does push”: Matthews, “Folkways,” p. 1072.
“It’s not a matter of friendship”: Quoted in Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 100.
No institutional tool: On the origins and evolution of the Senate filibuster, see Sarah Binder and Steven Smith, Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the United States Senate (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997); Wawro and Schickler, Filibuster; and Koger, Filibustering.
Yet this rarely happened: Wawro and Schickler, Filibuster, pp. 25–28.
“procedural weapon of last resort”: Binder and Smith, Politics or Principle?, p. 114.
only twenty-three manifest filibusters: Ibid., p. 11.
A modest increase in filibuster use: Wawro and Schickler, Filibuster, p. 41.
Sarah Binder and Steven Smith: Binder and Smith, Politics or Principle?, p. 60.
Filibuster use remained low: Ibid., p. 9.
“advice and consent”: Horwill, The Usages of the American Constitution, pp. 126–28; Lee Epstein and Jeffrey A. Segal, Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); Robin Bradley Kar and Jason Mazzone, “The Garland Affair: What History and the Constitution Really Say About President Obama’s Powers to Appoint a Replacement for Justice Scalia,” New York University Law Review 91 (May 2016), pp. 58–61.
This has not happened: Horwill, The Usages of the American Constitution, pp. 137–38; Kar and Mazzone, “The Garland Affair,” pp. 59–60.
Only nine presidential cabinet nominations: Epstein and Segal, Advice and Consent, p. 21.
“unbroken practice of three generations”: Horwill, The Usages of the American Constitution, pp. 137–38.
more than 90 percent: Based on Kar and Mazzone, “The Garland Affair,” pp. 107–14.
Highly qualified nominees: Epstein and Segal, Advice and Consent, p. 106.
The ultraconservative Antonin Scalia: Ibid., p. 107.
And on all seventy-four occasions: Based on Kar and Mazzone, “The Garland Affair,” pp. 107–14.
“the heaviest piece of artillery”: James Bryce, American Commonwealth (New York: Macmillan and Company, [1888] 1896), p. 211.
“partisan tool for undermining electoral officials”: Keith Whittington, “An Impeachment Should Not Be a Partisan Affair,” Lawfare, May 16, 2017.
The legal barriers to impeachment: Ibid.
“The House of Representatives should not”: Tushnet, “Constitutional Hardball,” p. 528.
His use of executive orders: Data from Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, “The American Presidency Project” (2017), http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/executive_orders.php?year=2017.
His decision to seek: Constitutional scholar Noah Feldman describes the court-packing scheme as “one of the most remarkable pieces of constitutional one-upsmanship ever tried.” See Feldman, Scorpions, p. 108.
The advent of the Cold War: Edward Shils, The Torment of Secrecy (Glencoe: Free Press, 1956), p. 140.
McCarthy took the national stage: Richard Fried, Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 122.
“I have here in my hand”: Quoted in ibid., p. 123.
Moderate Republicans were alarmed: Ibid., p. 125.
“Keep talking”: Quoted in ibid., p. 125.
“Pick up your phone”: Quoted in Robert Griffith, The Politics of Fear: Joseph McCarthy and the Senate (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1970), pp. 53–54.
“Pink Lady”: Iwan Morgan, Nixon (London: Arnold Publishers, 2002), p. 19.
“Red Pepper”: Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 70.
McCarthy repeatedly impugned: Fried, Nightmare in Red, p. 22.
Eisenhower initially resisted: David Nichols, Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy (New York: Basic Books, 2017), pp. 12–15.
Even Nixon: Morgan, Nixon, p. 53.
“was at pains”: Ibid., p. 57.
“kept the McCarthyist spirit alive”: Geoffrey Kabaservice, Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 126.
press as enemies: Morgan, Nixon, pp. 158–59; Keith W. Olson, Watergate: The Presidential Scandal That Shook America (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003). p. 2.
anarchists and communists: Jonathan Schell, “The Time of Illusion,” The New Yorker, June 2, 1975; Olson, Watergate, p. 30.
“We’re up against an enemy”: Morgan, Nixon, p. 24.
“at war, internally”: Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), p. 667.
The Nixon administration’s path: Morgan, Nixon, pp. 160, 179; Olson, Watergate, p. 12; Perlstein, Nixonland, pp. 517, 676.
“dozens of Democrats”: Morgan, Nixon, p. 24.
The administration also deployed: Perlstein, Nixonland, p. 413.
Nixon’s criminal assault on democratic institutions: Olson, Watergate, pp. 35–42.
“bipartisan search for the unvarnished truth”: Quoted in ibid., p. 90.
nearly a dozen Republican senators: Ibid., pp. 76–82.
Cox requested that Nixon: Ibid., p. 102.
Rodino had sufficient Republican support: Ibid., p. 155.
Nixon held out hope: Morgan, Nixon, pp. 186–87.
“Ten at most, maybe less”: Olson, Watergate, p. 164.
America’s full democratization: Eric Schickler, Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932–1965 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016).
the greatest challenge to established forms: Also see Mickey, Levitsky, and Way, “Is America Still Safe for Democracy?,” pp. 20–29.
CHAPTER 7: THE UNRAVELING
“If Scalia has actually passed away”: This reconstruction below of the social media response to Scalia’s death is based on two sources: Jonathan Chait, “Will the Supreme Court Just Disappear?,” New York Magazine, February 21, 2016, and “Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dies: Legal and Political Worlds React,” The Guardian, February 14, 2016.
“What is less than zero?”: Ibid.
the first time in American history: Kar and Mazzone, “The Garland Affair,” pp. 53–111. According to Kar and Mazzone, there are six occasions in American history—all prior to the twentieth century—in which the Senate has refused to vote on a president’s Supreme Court nominee. In all six cases, the legitimacy of the appointment was open to question because the nomination was made after the election of the president’s successor or because the president himself had not been elected but had succeeded to office via the vice presidency (during the nineteenth century, there was a constitutional debate over whether vice presidents who succeeded to office were truly presidents or merely acting presidents).
every time a president: Based on Kar and Mazzone, “The Garland Affair,” pp. 107–14.
“Boy Scout words”: Text of speech reprinted in “To College Republicans: Text of Gingrich Speech,” West Georgia News. Reprinted: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/newt78speech.html.
House Minority Leader Bob Michel: Ike Brannon, “Bob Michel, House GOP Statesman Across Five Decades, Dies at Age 93,” Weekly Standard, February 17, 2017.
Winning a Republican majority: Ronald Brownstein, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America (New York: Penguin, 2007), pp. 137, 144; Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 65.
Gingrich launched an insurgency: Matt Grossman and David A. Hopkins, Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Interest Group Democrats (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 285.
“used adjectives like rocks”: Brownstein, The Second Civil War, p. 142.
He questioned his Democratic rivals’ patriotism: Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism (New York: Basic Books, 2016), p. 35.
“destroy our country”: Quoted in James Salzer, “Gingrich’s Language Set New Course,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 29, 2012.
“the things that came out of Gingrich’s mouth”: Quoted in Salzer, “Gingrich’s Language Set New Course.”
Gingrich’s former press secretary Tony Blankley: Gail Sheehy, “The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich,” Vanity Fair, January 12, 2012.
Gingrich and his team distributed memos: Mann and Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, p. 39; James Salzer, “Gingrich’s Language Set New Course.”
“Gingrich Senators”: Sean Theriault, The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
“transformed American politics”: Quoted in Salzer, “Gingrich’s Language Set New Course.”
Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole: Michael Wines, “G.O.P. Filibuster Stalls Passage of Clinton $16 Billion Jobs Bill,” New York Times, April 2, 1993.
Filibuster use: Binder and Smith, Politics or Principle?, pp. 10–11; Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, pp. 107–8.
“epidemic” levels: Former senator Charles Mathias, quoted in Binder and Smith, Politics or Principle?, p. 6.
the annual number of cloture motions: Data from United States Senate. See https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm.
House Republicans refused to compromise: Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, pp. 109–10; Grossman and Hopkins, Asymmetric Politics, p. 293.
“on a technicality”: Whittington, “Bill Clinton Was No Andrew Johnson,” p. 459.
In an act without precedent: The 1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson was a far more serious affair, involving a high-stakes dispute over the constitutional authority of the president. See Whittington, “Bill Clinton Was No Andrew Johnson.”
“just another weapon in the partisan wars”: Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, p. 122.
He demonstrated this: Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner Take All Politics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), p. 207.
“If it wasn’t illegal, do it”: Quoted in John Ydstie, “The K Street Project and Tom DeLay,” NPR, January 14, 2006.
“Time and time again”: Sam Tanenhaus, “Tom DeLay’s Hard Drive,” Vanity Fair, July 2004.
“because it has been a home”: Brownstein, The Second Civil War, p. 227.
“We don’t work with Democrats”: Tanenhaus, “Tom DeLay’s Hard Drive.”
President Bush governed hard to the right: Brownstein, The Second Civil War, pp. 263–323.
Harry Reid and other Senate leaders: Ibid., pp. 339–40.
Senate Democrats also began to stray: Todd F. Gaziano, “A Diminished Judiciary: Causes and Effects of the Sustained High Vacancy Rates in the Federal Courts,” The Heritage Foundation, October 10, 2002; Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, pp. 164–65.
the New York Times quoted: Neil Lewis, “Washington Talk: Democrats Readying for a Judicial Fight,” New York Times, May 1, 2001.
the Democrats turned to filibusters: Tushnet, “Constitutional Hardball,” pp. 524–25; Epstein and Segal, Advice and Consent, p. 99.
“one of the great traditions”: Quoted in Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, p. 167.
the number of filibusters reached: Data from United States Senate. See https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm.
the informal practice of “regular order”: Mann and Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, pp. 7, 50.
The share of bills introduced: Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, p. 172.
“long-standing norms of conduct in the House”: Mann and Ornstein, The Broken Branch, p. xi.
140 hours of sworn testimony: Brownstein, The Second Civil War, pp. 274–75.
The congressional watchdog: Ibid., pp. 274–75.
widely shared norm: Tushnet, “Constitutional Hardball,” p. 526.
In 2003, Texas Republicans: Steve Bickerstaff, Lines in the Sand: Congressional Redistricting in Texas and the Downfall of Tom DeLay (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), pp. 132, 171.
Texas Republicans drew up: Ibid., pp. 84–108.
The new map left: Ibid., pp. 102–4.
“was as partisan”: Quoted in ibid., p. 108.
They remained there: Ibid., pp. 220, 228.
DeLay flew in from Washington: Ibid., pp. 251–53.
“the most aggressive map”: Quoted in ibid., pp. 251–53.
“taking up arms for Al Qaeda”: “First Democrat Issue: Terrorist Rights,” The Rush Limbaugh Show, January 10, 2006. See https://origin-www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2006/01/10/first_democrat_issue_terrorist_rights/.
defends Joseph McCarthy: Ann Coulter, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003).
“intrinsic to [liberals’] entire worldview”: Coulter, Treason, pp. 292, 16.
“There are millions of suspects here”: “Coulter Right on Rape, Wrong on Treason,” CoulterWatch, December 11, 2014. See https://coulterwatch.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/coulter-right-on-rape-wrong-on-treason/#_edn3.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: For a summary of these attacks, see Martin A. Parlett, Demonizing a President: The “Foreignization” of Barack Obama (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014).
The Fox News program Hannity & Colmes: Grossman and Hopkins, Asymmetric Politics, pp. 129–30.
“unless Obama proves me wrong”: Parlett, Demonizing a President, p. 164.
“totalitarian dictatorship”: “Rep. Steve King: Obama Will Make America a ‘Totalitarian Dictatorship,’ ” ThinkProgress, October 28, 2008.
“palling around with terrorists”: Grossman and Hopkins, Asymmetric Politics, p. 130.
“launched his political career”: Dana Milibank, “Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame,” Washington Post, October 7, 2008.
Her racially coded speeches: Frank Rich, “The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama,” New York Times, October 11, 2008.
its opposition to Obama: See Christopher S. Parker and Matt A. Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013); also see Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of American Conservatism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Georgia congressman Paul Broun: “Georgia Congressman Calls Obama Marxist, Warns of Dictatorship,” Politico, November 11, 2008.
“you don’t believe in the Constitution”: “Broun Is Asked, Who’ll ‘Shoot Obama,’ ” Politico, February 25, 2011.
“has become a dictator”: Mann and Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, p. 214.
followers stressed repeatedly: See Parker and Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In.
“This was not a shift”: Quoted in Parker and Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In, p. 2.
“THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD!!!”: Quoted
in Jonathan Alter, The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), p. 36.
“I do not believe Barack Obama”: Quoted in Parker and Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In, p. 200.
“the first anti-American president”: “Newt Gingrich: Obama ‘First Anti-American President,’ ” Newsmax, March 23, 2016; and “Gingrich: Obama’s Worldview Shaped by Kenya,” Newsmax, September 12, 2010.
“I do not believe, and I know”: Darren Samuelson, “Giuliani: Obama Doesn’t Love America,” Politico, February 18, 2015.
“I do not know”: “Mike Coffman Says Obama ‘Not an American’ at Heart, Then Apologizes,” Denver Post, May 16, 2012.
“birther enablers”: Gabriel Winant, “The Birthers in Congress,” Salon, July 28, 2009.
U.S. Senators Roy Blunt: Ibid.
“I have people”: “What Donald Trump Has Said Through the Years About Where President Obama Was Born,” Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2016.
his high-profile questioning: Parker and Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In, p. 210.
37 percent of Republicans: “Fox News Poll: 24 Percent Believe Obama Not Born in the U.S.,” FoxNews.com, April 7, 2011.
Forty-three percent of Republicans: “Poll: 43 Percent of Republicans Believe Obama is a Muslim,” The Hill, September 13, 2015.
a Newsweek poll found: Daniel Stone, “Newsweek Poll: Democrats May Not Be Headed for a Bloodbath,” Newsweek, August 27, 2010.
“absorb as much of the Tea Party”: Quoted in Abramowitz, The Polarized Public?, p. 101.
Well-funded organizations: Skocpol and Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of American Conservatism, pp. 83–120.
Tea Party–backed candidates: “How the Tea Party Fared,” New York Times, November 4, 2010. Also Michael Tesler, Post-Racial or Most-Racial? Race and Politics in the Obama Era (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), pp. 122–23.
the House Tea Party Caucus: “Who Is in the Tea Party Caucus in the House?,” CNN.com (Political Ticker), July 29, 2011.
“threat to the rule of law”: “Ted Cruz Calls Obama ‘The Most Lawless President in the History of This Country,’ ” Tu94.9FM. See http://tu949fm.iheart.com/articles/national-news-104668/listen-ted-cruz-calls-barack-obama-14518575/.