Policy Isn't Made in a Vacuum

Perhaps my biggest frustration with the GOP is that aside from cutting taxes, they stand for literally nothing and offer no solutions to make Americans lives better. One of my biggest frustrations with Democrats is that they don't even try to call the GOP out on this, but I digress,...

Via Andrew Sullivan, Nick Beaudrot writing at Donkeylicious makes note of a GOP thats skills at policy are so atrophied as to make them useless,

Lately I seem to be having conversations with wonkish right-of-center types who have this-or-that idea about how to design a simpler, more efficient, and more effective policy to deal with taxation, climate change, health care, whatever. But it always stops there. No one talks about managing the transition. No one talks about convincing Mitch McConnell to back these ideas. No one talks about sixty votes. No one talks about the interest group dynamics in Washington. No one even talks about working for a decade to elect members of Congress who might be more amenable to these sorts of policies. It's just policy in a vacuum. Which is an interesting intellectual exercise, but not a legitimate substitute for governance, an ultimately messy endeavor.

As we are reminded on a daily basis, the Dems could certainly use some help at crafting meaningful and beneficial public policies in all these areas, but lawmakers have no interest.