… Democrats began losing the support of white voters after World War II, particularly in the South. During the civil rights movement, white Southerners left the Democratic Party in droves. Some scholars have argued that changes in the South’s economy caused the party’s decline there. Since wealthier voters tend to […] Read more »
How America’s Demographic Revolution Reached The Church
Long the dominant group in American religious life, White Christians have fallen below a majority of the U.S. population—and they are moving to the right politically as they recede. The result is that, like race and age, religious affiliation marks a sharpening point of distinction between Republicans and Democrats, previously […] Read more »
Are Diversity and Security at Odds?
The first reverberations from the Paris attacks into the U.S. presidential campaign have focused on how to confront ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But the terrorism is also pouring gasoline on the arguments already blazing over America’s identity in a time of rapid demographic change. CONT. Ronald Brownstein, National Journal Read more »
How Much Do Black Lives Matter to the Presidential Campaign?
The onslaught of confrontations between blacks and the police, as well as intense coverage on TV and online of college campus protests and of the Black Lives Matter movement, have decisively affected the Democratic Party’s position on a core issue: the use of force to maintain public order. … These […] Read more »
On police conduct, white and black Marylanders have starkly different views
A deep racial divide exists among Marylanders over who is to blame for violent police encounters and whether the state’s criminal justice system treats African Americans and whites equally, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. CONT. Paul Schwartzman & Scott Clement, Washington Post Read more »
The Two Faces of the GOP
Defying the predictions of just about everyone who watches politics even remotely, the two nontraditional Republican presidential contenders remain at the top of just-released opinion polls. Public polls, it is true, have proliferated, and many are worthy of being ignored. But four of the most respected surveys came out this […] Read more »