I have been thinking a lot about the Tennessee legislature, and the thing I keep circling back to is this post by Kevin Drum on Calvinball.

There are lots of different rules that are fine in theory, but there’s no excuse for changing them just because the opposing party wins an election. That’s what we’re complaining about.

It feels to me like the left is constantly being told they’re ridiculous when trying to hold anyone accountable to rules, standards, or even consistency in ideology, then stuck defending themselves against the same attacks. Sometimes there really is a double standard, and the left is stuck being held accountable for the things they believe in by a right that doesn’t actually believe the same things and won’t hold themselves to that standard. But mostly it’s just Calvinball, where the only thing that determines the rules of the game is who they benefit here, today.

It’s a one-way high speed rail train to the destruction of legitimacy. It’s among the scariest structural failings of our whole system of government.