… A huge body of research has shown that voters were more divided by race and gender views in the 2016 election than they were in previous elections. But it turns out that rather than voters supporting the party that best represents their views about race and gender, the effect […] Read more »
The Harvard Affirmative Action Case and Public Opinion
The court trial now underway in federal district court in Boston, in which Asian-American students, represented by Students for Fair Admissions, are alleging discrimination on the part of Harvard University, highlights the extraordinary complexities that swirl around the broad issue of affirmative action. … Public opinion on this broad issue […] Read more »
Far From Settled: Varied and Changing Attitudes on Immigration in America
On no issue have the political dynamics changed more in the last few years than on the issue of immigration. A country seemingly on the cusp of immigration reform early in President Barack Obama’s second term in the next presidential contest elected Donald Trump, whose anti-immigration positions were central to […] Read more »
Bitter Tenor of Senate Reflects a Nation at Odds With Itself
… To the right and left alike, Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination appears less like a final spasm of division — a sobering trauma, followed by calm resolution — than an event that deepens the national mood of turbulence. The country is gripped by a climate of division and distrust rivaled by […] Read more »
Here’s why confirming Kavanaugh could seriously undermine the Supreme Court’s public standing
Could Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination undermine the public standing of the Supreme Court? Observers such as the Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein think so. “Every time [Chief Justice John] Roberts would lean on Kavanaugh to construct a majority,” Brownstein writes, “the chief justice could further erode the Court’s already eroding public confidence.” In […] Read more »
Republicans Rescued Kavanaugh’s Nomination By Making It About #MeToo
Brett Kavanaugh seemed like the dream Supreme Court nominee for Republican voters and activists when he was nominated in mid-July. He had the résumé and experience to be confirmed relatively easily, but also a clear ideological background that suggested he would join the conservatives already on the high court in […] Read more »