One of the many paradoxes of the Trump era is that our unusual president couldn’t have been elected, and couldn’t survive politically today, without the support of religious conservatives … but at the same time his ascent was intimately connected to the secularization of conservatism, and his style gives us […] Read more »
The Progressive Playbook: How These Candidates Pulled Off Their Upsets
It has become a familiar pattern this primary season. The day after a surprising victory by a progressive underdog — say Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Andrew Gillum of Florida, Jahana Hayes in Connecticut, Wesley Bell in Missouri or Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts — national audiences rush to meet the […] Read more »
Spoiler Alert: Why Americans’ Desires for a Third Party Are Unlikely to Come True
Third parties are a perpetual fascination of American politics. Each presidential election cycle brings its own new wave of punditry calling the nation to consider whether this will be the year in which a third party finally breaks through, upending a system in which the two parties have existed in […] Read more »
Republicans, Democrats See Opposing Party as More Ideological Than Their Own
Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to view the Democratic Party as very liberal. And the pattern is similar, though less pronounced, in views of the GOP’s ideology: More Democrats than Republicans see the Republican Party as very conservative. CONT. Pew Read more »
Americans Are Shifting The Rest Of Their Identity To Match Their Politics
We generally think of a person’s race or religion as being fixed — and that those parts of identity (being black, say, or evangelical Christian) drive political views. Most African-Americans vote Democratic. Most evangelical Christians vote Republican. But New York University political scientist Patrick Egan has written a new paper […] Read more »
How Brett Kavanaugh will collide with a changing America
Last week’s combative Senate Judiciary Committee hearings over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh looked at times like a flash-forward to the racially infused politics that may increasingly consume the court, and the nation, through the 2020s. If the Senate confirms Kavanaugh, which still appears likely despite sharpening Democratic questions about […] Read more »