Are the Republicans more vulnerable to the internal veto problem than the Democrats?

This is a follow-up to Monday’s repost “The GOP needs the crazies more than the crazies need the GOP. ” The whole piece is relevant, but in terms of this discussion, here’s the money shot.

 Probably since 2008 and certainly since 2012, pretty much every nontrivial faction of the GOP has held veto power which means the question is no longer who has it, but who is willing to use it. The Tea Party was the first to realize this. Now the alt-right has caught on to the dynamic as well.

I see your point, but given that the 2 parties have approximately equal support (OK, maybe the D’s have 51% and the R’s 49%, but it varies from election to election and they’re both close to 50%), doesn’t your argument apply to the Democrats as well? Indeed, wouldn’t it apply to both parties most of the time for the past few decades? I agree there’s something new in recent years with the crazies and the Republican party, but I can’t see how it could be simple math. 

Let’s see if I can shore up my claim.

                                            Sometimes 50 x 100% > 100 x 50%. Sometimes it’s not.

Though I’m tempted to push back a little bit more, we can let the equal support stand for the sake of argument, but what exactly (Read more…)