… Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to […] Read more »
Most Americans reject the attack on the Capitol — but millions empathize with the mob
Over the course of the past five years, the labels I use when I create graphics based on polling have grown increasingly dark. From poll questions about perceptions of foreign interference in elections, to impeachment, to death tolls from novel viruses to, now, sentiment about the violent takeover of the […] Read more »
The events of this week show the GOP has a big problem
Let’s state what happened on Wednesday for what it was: an insurrection by supporters of President Donald Trump storming the US Capitol. They were the definition of a mob. The insurrection and the Electoral College objections to President-elect Joe Biden’s election that preceded and followed it were an ugly milestone […] Read more »
Republicans Confront the Consequences of Their Doomsday Rhetoric
The Republican Party’s “Flight 93” revolution tragically, but almost inevitably, came full circle this week in a storm of insurrectionary violence at the U.S. Capitol. Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, an anonymous author, eventually revealed as Michael Anton, a conservative scholar who later joined the Trump White House, described […] Read more »
Trump Helped Take Extremist Views From The Fringes Of Society To A Mob Attacking The Capitol
Faith in the integrity of the presidential election has been concerningly low for months — in large part because of President Trump’s repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him. And on Wednesday, we saw an extreme example of the consequences of that mistrust when pro-Trump extremists briefly […] Read more »
The Wheels Fall Off The Trump Bandwagon
… Trump seems to have met his match. His own political physics has just crashed against the will of the people. Already relatively low on the eve of January 6th, will his approval ratings dip further? Will he back down? We will see. CONTINUED Clifford Young, Ipsos Read more »