Every four years, the party out of the White House grapples with the question of who they want to serve as their standard bearer. And, like clockwork, the first thing they think about is what went wrong in the previous campaign. Last time, the thinking goes, we put up a […] Read more »
The Democratic Race: Taking a hard look at electability
As the field of Democratic candidates has grown, the list of theories about how to beat Trump has grown even larger. Some people seem to want a candidate who can be as rude and mean to Trump as Trump is to just about everyone but Ivanka. Others think it’s time […] Read more »
The Rise of White Identity Politics
Conservatives and moderates are often dismissive of “identity politics,” by which they mean liberal efforts to motivate voter turnout by raising issues of particular concern to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups in American politics. But it is important to remember that the original identity politics play was […] Read more »
Is Biden Really the Most ‘Electable’ Democrat?
Joe Biden opened his presidential campaign with a sharp, if familiar, message. “I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time,” he said in his announcement video. “But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the […] Read more »
Many Democrats are misreading 2016 to assume that Biden is their best chance in 2020
In the past two weeks, there’s been a divergence in the Democratic presidential primary field. Former vice president Joe Biden has surged in recent polling while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has seen his support slacken. … Why? What is spurring Biden’s surge? One key factor appears to be the perception […] Read more »
Men Invented ‘Likability.’ Guess Who Benefits.
If the supposedly unlikable Hillary Clinton didn’t break the highest, hardest glass ceiling in 2016, she made enough cracks in it to encourage others to try again: Six women are competing for the Democratic nomination today. But guess what? We don’t seem to like them either. … Likability: It is […] Read more »