Why Should We Not Expect Self-designated Environmental

Elites Are Inevitable In Politics. That Is How Politics Is Going To Work. The Question Is, Are Your Elites Responsible, Public-spirited? Do They Think About The Interests Of Others, Not Just Themselves? And The Story Of Western Politics Since The Beginning Of The Century Is That As Elites Become More Separated, More Selfish, As They Leave Behind Their Populations And Don't Think About Them, They Become Discredited. And The People Look For Alternatives. But The Alternative Is Worse. Those Rules Of The Game Protect Us All. And They Are More Precious Than Almost Any Political Outcome.

A Novel Makes It Possible To Understand Not Just Events, But The People Who Control The Events; Not Only Their Choices, But Also Their Motives.

Civil Unrest, Civil Turmoil Is Not A Challenge To President Trump. It's A Resource For Him. He Needs To Create An Image Of A Polarized Country In Which The People Who Are Against Him Are Somehow Alien Or Anti-system.

One Of The Things You Can Learn From A Figure Like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Is That If You Take All The Resources Of The State For Yourself, You Don't Build Much Of A Constituency And You Have To Rely On Repression, And Repression Is Difficult In The Modern World.

Normally What Happens In A New Presidency Is The President Has A Big Agenda, And Congress Is Full Of People With Human Weaknesses. And So The President Indulges The Human Weaknesses Of Members Of Congress In Order To Pass His Agenda. This Time It's The Other Way Around. Donald Trump Does Not Have Much Of An Agenda. Congress Burns With This Intense Republican Agenda And So Does Congress That Has To Put Up With The Human Weaknesses Of The President In Order To Get A Signature On The Things It Desperately Wants To Pass.