Andrew Prokop — Steve Bannon’s exit from the Trump White House, explained

What will — and won’t — change in a post-Bannon White House.

The establishment and deep state win. Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon gone. What's next?

Vox

Steve Bannon’s exit from the Trump White House, explained
Andrew Prokop

Will Rahn — Commentary: The GOP's coming civil war

Washington Republicans, with their tax-cutting zeal and love of open markets, always saw the GOP base as an extension of themselves. This is the major reason that they never thought Trump could win the primary, let alone the general.

And it was the hope of Ryan’s fellow ideologues that Congressional Republicans would essentially run the government, at least from a domestic policy standpoint, once the GOP retook the White House. As the conservative power broker Grover Norquist said in 2012, the job of the next Republican president would be “to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”

The legislation is indeed ready to sign. But when Norquist made that comment, it’s unlikely he was imagining Trump would be the guy with the pen.

How much of the GOP agenda is Trump really willing to expend political capital on?….

Bannon, meanwhile, has a habit of describing politics as a zero-sum game between competing groups, namely working- and middle-class Americans versus an ascendant elite class. And the populism Bannon talks about is, in a sense, neither left nor right, and instead all about serving the interests of the downwardly-mobile.

“Trump is a builder,” as Bannon said to Bloomberg’s Joshua Green this fall. “And what he’s built is the underlying apparatus for a political movement that’s going to propel us to victory on Nov. 8 and dominate Republican politics after that.” 

And this movement, Bannon has made clear, is not about enacting the Ryan agenda. It’s about displacing Ryanism, and the whole modern conservative project, with populism and economic nationalism.

To paraphrase Old Blue Eyes, "When an irresistible force meets and immovable object, something gotta give, something's gotta give, something's gotta give…"

CBS News
Commentary: The GOP's coming civil war
Will Rahn, political correspondent and managing director, politics, for CBS News Digital

Michael Maiello — The Republican Civil War Has Begun

You can't build a small-government movement on the backs of people you think are welfare cheats

The Rolling Stone
The Republican Civil War Has Begun

Michael Maiello

Mark Thoma — Paul Krugman: Cranks on Top

Paul Krugman gets one right, although he doesn't completely know why, being out of paradigm. The the crazies are so far out of paradigm it's still possible to be vaguely right.

Economist’s View
Paul Krugman: Cranks on Top
Mark Thoma | Professor of Economics, University of Oregon

Brad DeLong — Must-Must-Must Read: Lee Drutman at Vox on the Shape of the Electorate

There is more value added about the 2016 election in this one Lee Drutman Vox article than in everything published by the WaPo and the NYT national news staffs so far this year!…

Populism is rising with Trump and Sanders benefiting.

Grasping Reality
Must-Must-Must Read: Lee Drutman at Vox on the Shape of the Electorate
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

David Edwards — Faith and Freedom Pres. Ralph Reed: Christie has ‘same principles’ as tea party (via Raw Story )

Faith and Freedom Pres. Ralph Reed: Christie has ‘same principles’ as tea party (via Raw Story )

The president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition confirmed on Monday that New Jersey voters will be voting for the “same principles” as the tea party and conservative Christians when they cast their ballots to re-elect Gov. Chris Christie (R) on…

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Kathleen Parker — The crux of Ted Cruz

GOP Establishment goes after Ted Cruz and the Tea Party:

Think back to 2010 and Delaware’s Christine “I’m Not a Witch”O’Donnell and Nevada’s Sharron “Some [Latinos] Look More Asian to Me” Angle. And then, who can forget 2012’s stars: Richard Mourdock, who explained that rape pregnancies are gifts from God, and Todd Akin, who explored the nuances of “legitimate rape.”...

Cruz comes off as smarter than all of the above combined. There’s a reason so many outside the Beltway admire him. To those who feel jilted by the system and insulted by critics, he is a vision of palm trees, dates and fountains. He articulates what they think and feel and, as a bonus, he’s got that Latino thing.

But Cruz is a mirage, an idea conjured in a fantasy that can’t be realized in reality....

To the most important point, the crux of Cruz: The only person who loves Ted Cruz more than Ted Cruz is Barack Obama. It is the White House and Democrats, not Republicans, who have advanced the idea that Cruz is the face of the GOP. Remember when the White House insisted that Rush Limbaugh was the leader of the GOP? These narratives are useful to Democrats because they loonify the GOP, driving voters away from their fiery rhetoric just as intense heat repels any sensible mammal.

Pretty harsh.

The Washington Post — Opinion
The crux of Ted Cruz
Kathleen Parker | Opinion Writer

Joshua Green — A Government Shutdown Just Became More Likely

The crazies are in control. Batten down the hatches. Good news is that the GOP is coming apart at the seams with the leadership neutered and the Establishment severely challenged.

Bloomberg Businessweek

A Government Shutdown Just Became More Likely
Joshua Green