… It is pretty safe to say the reason Biden won the party nod is that once Bernie Sanders elbowed aside his colleague Elizabeth Warren and effectively consolidated the Left, panic set in among the centrists, and voilà: Doubts about Biden disappeared and the nomination was his, precisely because he […] Read more »
Most Americans Agree on Four Foundations of Democracy, but Execution of Those Ideals Receives Failing Grades
While Americans have high ideals for what makes up our democracy, a new Grinnell College National Poll shows our country gets failing grades when it comes to executing those ideals in real life. The poll, a partnership between Grinnell College and J. Ann Selzer of Selzer & Company, was released […] Read more »
Biden’s smart bipartisan message
Many commentators seem fascinated, even perplexed, by President Biden’s efforts to define bipartisanship as support from Republican voters instead of from GOP lawmakers. They seem to have missed the political rhetoric of the last 20 years, while also failing to grasp how bipartisanship works in the public mind. … Politicians […] Read more »
The Fate of Biden’s Agenda Hangs in the Balance
Every 10 years, after the collection of census data, states are required to redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts to ensure that they remain equal in population. The process — as readers of this newspaper know — is vulnerable to gerrymandering, in which districts are redrawn to give favored […] Read more »
Why Republicans aren’t likely to budge on gun control
The political script following the recent mass shootings in Boulder, Colorado, and Atlanta feels all too familiar. Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, want Congress to pass gun control legislation, most notably universal background checks, while Republicans are balking. The motions are so familiar that I wrote an article three […] Read more »
Why Biden has an immigration policy problem
The US-Mexico border crisis is one of the first noncoronavirus-related issues to break through the news cycle during President Joe Biden’s administration. Republicans are playing up the surge of people trying to cross the border, while Democrats are hoping that Biden can figure out a way to deal with it. […] Read more »