Thankful for paths to reform

… It is a tense time in U.S. politics. Separation of parties along lines of class and race, technological disruption, increasing economic inequality, and bitter and close national elections. This combination of problems is reminiscent of the original Gilded Age. … Perhaps counterintuitively, the parallels make me optimistic about our […] Read more »

An Early Clue on Trump’s Republican Support

If you are one of those obsessed with following the next presidential election, you will consume the weekly or daily or hourly polls, even though you know they have a collective half-life of an ice cream cone in Saudi Arabia. You’ll watch every debate, no matter how early, in search […] Read more »

Higher young voter turnout in midterms changes approach to major political issues

This midterm cycle, young voters turned out in historic numbers and helped Democrats stave off the Republican red wave. They were still a small portion of the electorate, but voters under 30 have shown increased participation in the last few elections. John Della Volpe of the Harvard Kennedy School Institute […] Read more »

Midterm election results reflect the hodgepodge of US voters, not the endorsement or repudiation of a candidate’s or party’s agenda

Voters in the midterm elections decided that the GOP would run the House, while the Democrats would run the Senate. Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images Robert B. Talisse, Vanderbilt University The results from the U.S. midterm elections came as a shock to many. The sitting president’s party typically suffers significant […] Read more »

The House GOP’s Investigation Conundrum

The list of investigative priorities for the House Judiciary Committee that the incoming chairperson, Jim Jordan, sent to the Justice Department earlier this month reads like an assignment sheet for Fox News. … Two months before taking power, the new House Republican majority has signaled that its investigative agenda will […] Read more »