Visiting Professor, University of California, Washington Center

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The Trap Trump is Laying

Defer, deflect and delay

May 18, 2019 • by John Lawrence

Subtlety has never been one of Donald Trump’s strong suits, and I must confess, I have been loathe to attribute great strategic skills to this most incoherent and incompetent of presidents. Yet increasingly, one must begrudgingly acknowledge Trump’s strategy for countering the enhanced congressional oversight resulting from last November’s election. There ...

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Reforming Congress is an Achievable Goal

John Lawrence’s Testimony before the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress

April 6, 2019 • by John Lawrence

Thank you for your invitation to appear today at this hearing, my first from this side of the dais. I want to offer four observations that, along with the advice from these distinguished congressional scholars, may help guide the work of this Select Committee. Despite the cynicism of many critics inside ...

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Good for Grassroots, Bad for Business

How long can the business community in the United States tolerate Donald Trump as president?

January 13, 2019 • by John Lawrence

Back in the mid-1990s, the Clinton Administration embraced a so-called “royalty holiday” for oil companies that developed leases in the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The idea was pretty simple: rather than impose royalties of 12 1/2% to 16 2/3% for developing publicly-owned resources (already paltry by international ...

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Bush Without Tears

Never attempt to define a person’s legacy based on a few incidents

December 3, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The presidency of George H.W. Bush is enjoying a nostalgic portrayal following the death of “41” on November 30. His is being called “the most successful one term presidency in history,” and that description may well endure given the obvious fact that, by definition, one term presidencies have invariably ended ...

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No Shortage of Competition

Challenging Pelosi for leadership in the House

November 17, 2018 • by John Lawrence

A week after recapturing the majority, Democrats have a healthy competition for key leadership positions among a younger generation of House members. That election also quashed the major premise of malcontents insisting on the replacement of Nancy Pelosi as speaker: Democrats won despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent by ...

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A Few Quick Take-Aways

Reflecting on the 2018 midterm election

November 9, 2018 • by John Lawrence

A short blog on the election; it will take a little while to fully digest the results. But some results seem clear and important to note. Obviously, the major news of the day is the Democratic resurgence in the House, with Democrats winning back the majority they lost so spectacularly in ...

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The Democrats’ Dilemma

Looking ahead to 2020

October 27, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Although the crucial mid-term elections are a mere two weeks away, it never takes long before most political conversations turn to the question of the 2020 Democratic nominee. So while the outcome of 2018’s contests is still very much up in the air, let’s focus on an election still two ...

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Picking Less Partisan Candidates

Boosting election participation is tricky, but there are easy ways to reform to produce candidates who reflect a broader swath of voter sentiment

October 6, 2018 • by John Lawrence

September is over, and with it summer, Labor Day, the celebration of National Potato Month… and the 2018 primary election season. Just two month before the November election that could decide the nation’s political course for the next two years, candidates have finally been selected in a process that began in some ...

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What the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings Show

Among other things, the limitations of the Democratic leadership

September 7, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings on Brett Kavanaugh are revealing the extent to which Chairman Chuck Grassley and other Republicans will invent unprecedented procedures to shield the controversial nominee. But the criticism aimed at Democrats by the activist base, for the failure to challenge the nomination with sufficient vigor ...

What the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings Show

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Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

Nancy Pelosi and the future of the Democratic leadership in the House

August 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The dog days of August have arrived (no pun intended with respect to President Trump’s disgraceful Omarosa misogynist insult), and the topic of the week seems to be whether Nancy Pelosi should pack it in after a decade and a half as the House’s top Democrat. As Pelosi’s chief of staff ...

Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points

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The Watergate Babies

What the Congressional Class of 1974 can teach us about political change

August 15, 2018 • by Claire Potter and John Lawrence

It is less than ninety days until election day in the United States, when Democrats hope to achieve one of the biggest sweeps of Congressional seats in recent American history. Many of these Democratic hopefuls are veterans. As longtime political strategist Joe Trippi put it back in March, these are ...

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Trump’s Outrageousness and Democratic Opportunity

Looking ahead to the midterm elections after Trump’s recent international misconducts

August 4, 2018 • by John Lawrence

O.K., pop quiz. Which name does not belong on the following list: Aaron Burr, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, Bob Hope and Donald Trump? After Monday’s eye-popping, breath-taking display of Trumpian obsequiousness and naiveté, the answer is pretty obvious. Old Ski Nose was a patriot, through and through. Not so Donald Trump, whose irresponsible, ...