The politics of race are shifting, and politicians are struggling to keep pace

Race has been a defining issue in American politics since before the country formally came into existence, a dividing line marked by generations of struggle and conflict. Today, the issue is back at the center of a national debate, this time amid shifting attitudes and heightened expectations that are demanding […] Read more »

Democrats, Biden look to accelerate Southern political shift

From Mississippi retiring its state flag to local governments removing Confederate statues from public spaces, a bipartisan push across the South is chipping away at reminders of the Civil War and Jim Crow segregation. Now, during a national reckoning on racism, Democratic Party leaders want those symbolic changes to become […] Read more »

Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him

President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial […] Read more »

How The GOP Chose To Be A White Party

In general, the Republican Party gets between 5 and 10 percent of the Black vote and less than a third of the Hispanic vote nationally. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Clare Malone discusses the series of choices the GOP made, spanning decades, that made it an overwhelmingly […] Read more »

Cracks in the Republican Party establishment are getting bigger

Throughout Donald Trump’s chaotic, turbulent, and unconventional presidency the other leaders of the Republican Party have stood by him to a remarkable degree. … Early May saw some small cracks in that support, mostly among the Republican governors who did not side with Trump on re-opening up the economy early. […] Read more »

Trump Wants a Backlash. Can He Whip One Into Shape?

The public response to the demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd is now beginning to take shape more clearly along familiar ideological lines — in ways that are likely to propel politics this year and beyond, dividing left and right as Democrats and Republicans take opposing stands on the […] Read more »