NORMAN ORNSTEIN

Radicals don't care about the institutions. They are looking for an ideological crusade. Traditions don't matter.

You have to find a deal where each side can say “we held firm on what matters.”

Conservatives want smaller government. They want to focus on market-based solutions wherever one can. They want to have as little regulation as possible. But in general, they recognize that government must play an important role for a society to operate.

A tax code becomes an instrument of social policy.

The best way to get your audience larger and more consistent is to be more divisive and more radical and criticize those who cater to or kowtow to other forces.

In a parliamentary system, the opposition would make an explicit case against the governing party’s policies and hope that voters shift their support in the next election, But in a non-parliamentary system such as ours, a unified opposition can try something different. It can keep those policies from being implemented, often through means that leave few fingerprints.

Government is inevitably going to play a very significant role in infrastructure, and in a country with a federal system where vibrancy and economic health depend on interstate commerce, it's not going to be private enterprise or state governments that will give you things like an interstate highway system.

Conservatives want smaller government. They want to focus on market-based solutions wherever one can. They want to have as little regulation as possible. But in general, they recognize that government must play an important role for a society to operate.

The best way to get your audience larger and more consistent is to be more divisive and more radical and criticize those who cater to or kowtow to other forces.

Radicals don't care about the institutions. They are looking for an ideological crusade. Traditions don't matter.

Government is inevitably going to play a very significant role in infrastructure, and in a country with a federal system where vibrancy and economic health depend on interstate commerce, it's not going to be private enterprise or state governments that will give you things like an interstate highway system.

A tax code becomes an instrument of social policy.

In a parliamentary system, the opposition would make an explicit case against the governing party’s policies and hope that voters shift their support in the next election, But in a non-parliamentary system such as ours, a unified opposition can try something different. It can keep those policies from being implemented, often through means that leave few fingerprints.

You have to find a deal where each side can say “we held firm on what matters.”