Four of the five living U.S. presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter — are in Austin, Texas, this week commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act. They are in Austin because of the major role of President Lyndon […] Read more »
As Civil Rights Act turns 50, most Americans appreciate its importance
As the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act nears, almost eight in 10 Americans, including most whites and blacks, say passage of the 1964 act was a very important event in U.S. history, 17 percent call it somewhat important, while just 4 percent think it was […] Read more »
The Color of His Presidency
… Race, always the deepest and most volatile fault line in American history, has now become the primal grievance in our politics, the source of a narrative of persecution each side uses to make sense of the world. Liberals dwell in a world of paranoia of a white racism that […] Read more »
No Country for Old Mores
… History doesn’t look kindly on those who stand against equality. Yet, that’s where conservatives have chosen to stand, much to my dismay and their detriment. The pace of Americans’ changing attitudes has been breathtakingly swift and shows no signs of abating. In fact, a report by the nonpartisan Public […] Read more »
Party polarization is making us more prejudiced
… I examined American National Election Studies data and found that partisan and ideological identities (and particularly the alignment between the two) are capable of powerfully driving what I call social polarization. This type of polarization is made up of three major effects, each of which occurs independently of our […] Read more »
Gallup: A review of the year’s major findings, from politics to well-being
Gallup.com chronicled Americans’ responses to the major issues and events that will define 2013 in the annals of history, from Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. government spying to the federal government shutdown, to the possibility of war with Syria. Gallup’s editors and writers explored what was perhaps the biggest development […] Read more »