Racial tensions surged back onto the American political agenda during the 2016 election. Following numerous mass protests and sporadic riots sparked by the deaths of people of color at the hands of police officers, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took opposite positions on the “law and order” issue. Clinton expressed […] Read more »
Why do so many Americans now support legalizing marijuana?
A man holds up a joint during a 2017 rally to support the legalization of marijuana in Washington, D.C. AP Photo/Alex Brandon Amy Adamczyk, City University of New York; Christopher Thomas, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Jacob Felson, William Paterson University American views on marijuana have shifted incredibly […] Read more »
Could A Slew Of New Congressional Investigations Erode Trump’s Approval Rating?
Investigation season is here. The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, will testify publicly on Feb. 7, which will be followed the next day in the House Judiciary Committee by public testimony from acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. … At their core, congressional investigations […] Read more »
85% of Republicans Reject That Climate Change Is a Serious Problem That Requires Action
The United States remains the only developed democracy where The Climate Change Debate is primarily over whether climate change is real. Most places, the debate is over what to do about it. But not in the World’s Greatest Democracy, where one of the two major political parties our system allows […] Read more »
The Psychology of Political Polarization
Many stories can be told about the 2018 midterm elections, but their mixed results make one thing clear: We are a country divided. Pundits have attributed our historically high levels of polarization to a variety of sources, including the isolating effects of social media, the corrupting influence of dark money […] Read more »
The Midterm Messages That Matter
Ask any political analyst what midterm elections are about and they will respond, “midterms are almost always referenda on the incumbent president,” and the statistics bear them out. … But just how challenging a midterm election will be for a president’s party is largely determined by which party does the […] Read more »