… Americans who live in relative comfort are emotionally invested in politics, especially after the election, but in a degraded form of politics that caters to the voyeurism of news junkies and the short attention spans of slacktivists. They are engaging in a phenomenon I call “political hobbyism.” They desperately […] Read more »
Americans say U.S. political debate is increasingly uncivil
Members of Congress are getting positive ratings for the way they responded to the shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, last week. President Trump gets slightly lower — though still net positive — evaluations for his response to the attack, partly because Democrats are less likely to approve of his handling than […] Read more »
A surprising number of Americans endorse violence against the government
Editor’s note: This piece, originally posted on Dec 11, 2015, is being reposted in light of the shootings today in Alexandria, Va. … In 2010, I fielded two national surveys that asked respondents their opinions about the following statements: “When politicians are damaging the country, citizens should send threats to […] Read more »
The demographics of the #resistance
Ninety percent of the protesters at the Women’s March on Washington voted for Hillary Clinton. Liz Lemon/Flickr Dana R. Fisher, University of Maryland; Dawn Marie Dow, University of Maryland, and Rashawn Ray, University of Maryland Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, hundreds of thousands of people have marched on Washington, […] Read more »
Some Of The GOP’s Institutions Have More Reason To Be Loyal To Trump Than Others
As President Trump’s struggles have mounted, the overriding question in American politics has become “who’s still with him?” … So, after speaking with some political scientists and Republican operatives, examining the groups that spent the most money electing Trump and Republicans in Congress and looking at the president’s moves in […] Read more »
Bright Line Watch Survey Report: How is U.S. democracy doing?
From May 11-20, 2017, Bright Line Watch conducted its second expert survey of political scientists assessing the state of democracy in the United States. BLW’s first survey (Wave 1) was conducted at the outset of the Trump administration in February 2017. This report presents results from the second survey (Wave […] Read more »