Donald Trump’s enduring appeal in the Republican presidential contest has the GOP in a quandary, as it’s forced to contend with voters fed up with party politics. Some 50 years ago, another vociferous candidate put the scare in traditional power brokers. George Wallace fired up crowds with a similar anti-establishment […] Read more »
A Party Divided Is a Party Defeated — Usually
The question is no longer whether the GOP will be torn apart by the 2016 nominating process but how badly hurt its presidential nominee will be and whether defeat in November will be inevitable. The answer depends on the nominee and on the ultimate extent of the divide. But there […] Read more »
1968: Ball of Confusion
If you lived through 1968, you can’t forget it — even if you want to. It was the worst of times, a year from hell, marked by savage warfare in Vietnam, political assassinations, urban riots, and militancy of all sorts. People talked seriously about whether the United States would hold together. […] Read more »
The Trump and the Restless
I promised myself I wouldn’t blog about Donald Trump. But Ron Fournier’s piece about Trump’s candidacy calls for a facts-infused response. Fournier claims that Trump’s candidacy signals “restlessness” in the electorate, specifically among protest voters. There are three main problems with this analysis: lack of specific data about citizens’ actual […] Read more »