Happy Birthday to Nancy Cartwright, 56.
With some good stuff:
1. John Ahlquist and Margaret Levi, "The decline of union membership and what it means for politics."
2. Andrew Sprung on Tafts, McCarthys, and Cruzes. The current Taft's claim of "adult" status for Republicans is pretty iffy over the 20th century period he's talking about -- and I wouldn't have suggested it for someone writing about the party of (to put it more crudely in this context than I would in others) the part of Anglo men.
3. I found this Philip Bump post on tech and ACA helpful.
4. Rick Hasen on Posner and voter ID.
5. Yes, tax deductions and exemptions really do benefit those who benefit from them at the expense of the nation and, therefore, other taxpayers -- as Dean Baker points out in the case of Ted Cruz's health insurance.
I'm not sure I quite understood that item on unions but the decline of labor unions has changed politics and the Democratic party. Apart from the obvious ways--money, manpower and organization in elections--and apart from the specific issues that would be higher in priority now, like the severe and still growing income gap, the dominant unions made it less likely that a loop of cockeyed information could remain so closed for so many--there was counterweight to the John Birch Society view of things that isn't as strong for their contemporary equivalent, the tea party.
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