Left Outside:

People don't believe they live in the same world as politicians. A lot of the time they're right. For housing, employment, cost of living, and economic security, things are much worse than the political establishment think. But on so many other matters it is voters who have become unmoored from reality. And it is in these areas -- these vitriolic, common sense causes -- that battle lines are being drawn.

Tomas Rocha:

When the time comes to develop hypotheses ... the only acceptable -- and fundable -- research questions are the ones that promise to deliver the answers we want to hear.

Tom Hamburger and Alexander Becker:

Over the past decade, a new business model has taken hold at Brookings. In the past, Brookings was funded for the most part by no-strings-attached grants from large foundations and individual philanthropists. That became problematic. Foundations began to place more restrictions on their grants, part of a challenging new trend facing Brookings and other academic institutions in which donors increasingly specify their expectations as part of what they call "impact philanthropy."

Taffy Brodeseser-Akner:

When the Influencers wield maximum influence, Rami Perlman says, "all boats rise," cupping his hands and raising them from low to high.

Felix Salmon:

The people complaining about the lack of a smoking gun have missed the point. The scandal is precisely that 'twas ever thus: that the Fed was captured, is captured, and probably always will be captured by the banks it regulates.

Amy Davidson:

Sane people or those not raised for it don't seem to want to be politicians anymore. The G.O.P. may not like what it's seeing, but it's a bad sign if a major party just stops looking for new voices. The same holds for the Democrats. The goal might be to fend off populists and malcontents, but the effect may be to engineer mass disillusion in politics. The public doesn't look at the candidates, lined up for a debate, as proud parents do, just pleased if one is tall and handsome. They can also forget the whole thing, and walk away.

Megan Smith:

The American government will be whatever we all make of it.

Decius:

It's important to understand that it isn't Congress that must change -- it is us.