Here’s a lesson on the perils of reflexive reform, in the American federal context, from the Economist’s Lexington columnist last week:

But in taking power from the party establishment [after 1968], reformers unintentionally handed it to activists, who tend to be more extreme than other partisans, let alone the rest of the country. This is particularly true of the Republican Party. Now, relatively small numbers of impassioned voters can end up choosing nominees.

Say what you will about smoke-filled backrooms of party elites and insiders, they’re not much for a circus.

I was surprised to see a profile of Iain M. Banks’s recently published posthumous collection, The Culture: The Drawings (2023), which I was recently gifted, in the Wall Street Journal of all places. It’s nice to see him enjoy continued appreciation.

Speaking of continued appreciation, farewell to Peter H. Russell, Canada’s ranking public constitutional adult-in-the-room. It’s a challenge to imagine the road ahead this year without his reasonable voice.