Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish in Trump’s America

Whether he is out of power or in office, Donald Trump deploys conspiracy theory as a political mobilizing tool designed to capture anger at the liberal establishment, to legitimize racial resentment and to unite voters who feel oppressed by what they see as a dominant socially progressive culture. The success […] Read more »

Biden’s defense of democracy, strong abroad, is struggling on his home turf

Joe Biden has made vindicating democracy the central objective of his presidency. Improbably, he has found more success abroad than at home so far. The President’s signal achievement has been uniting Western democracies in defense of Ukraine against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian aggression. With coordinated flows of military equipment, […] Read more »

Half of Americans now predict U.S. may ‘cease to be a democracy’ someday

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Democrats (55%) and Republicans (53%) now believe it is “likely” that America will “cease to be a democracy in the future” — a stunning expression of bipartisan despair about the direction of the country. … At the same time, however, a large […] Read more »

American Democracy is Under Threat — and Newsrooms Are Mobilizing to Cover It

Think about a “threat to democracy,” and it’s easy to conjure up an image of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — the nation’s very seat of government besieged by rioters convinced that the presidential election was rigged. … While the insurrection was a wake-up call for the nation […] Read more »