The permanent election.(The Last Word)

One of the things that distinguishes advanced democracies from banana republics is that winners and losers accept the results of elections. Losing candidates and parties don't initiate coups. Winners don't kill off the losers and their supporters. The winning party has an opportunity to govern. Both sides go back to their respective corners--winners take office, losers take other jobs--and wait until the next election to do battle again.

In recent years, however, U.S. politics has shifted somewhat away from this model toward more or less continuous battles. The first stage, ...

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