My Regret About the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
And other questions, answered!
Happy Sunday! Welcome to our weekly mailbag feature. This week, I’m answering questions on:
The clash between Donald Trump and the courts
My thoughts on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Why California gets special license write its own environmental rules — for now
Whether changes to election laws played a role in Trump’s 2024 victory
And more!
Let’s dive in…
Q: Whatever happened to shame as a motivating factor in politics, Gabe? Whatever happened to putting country ahead of party? Call me a relic of the 20th century if you will, but it seems like these concepts walked away from us, or we sprinted away from them. I’d love your historical perspective on these changes: why and when things changed and the implications for future elections and policy decisions.
(My high school history teacher asked this question, so I better get this one right.)
Shame is something we feel, but more specifically, it’s something we’re made to feel. The way I see it, our politics have devolved partially because we’ve lost most of the uniting, mediating institutions that were once the primary mechanism to make politicians feel shame about actions they’ve taken, or feel fearful about taking future actions because of the shame that would follow.
Here, I’m thinking of two institutions in particular: