During the 2016 election, many observers from across the political spectrum saw Donald Trump’s candidacy as a direct challenge to the Republican Party’s ideological orthodoxy. Reporters described Trump as an “insurgent populist” running on a policy platform that “cuts across party lines . . . [and is] anathema to movement […] Read more »
Expert Survey on American Democracy: July 2017
Our July 2017 survey (the third in a monthly series) confirms a great deal of pessimism about American democracy and increasing concern over the past two months. From June to July, ratings worsened on nearly every dimension, with especially large shifts on elections and political rhetoric. Democracy experts see American […] Read more »
Extreme candidates lose because they boost the other party’s turnout, research finds
Extreme candidates for the House of Representatives do worse than moderates because they mobilize the opposing party to turn out to vote, according to new research from Andrew Hall and Daniel Thompson of Stanford University. CONT. Sahil Chinoy, Washington Post Read more »
The political donations made by Robert Mueller’s team are not evidence of bias
… Justice Department rules prohibit taking political affiliation into account when filling career positions at the agency, including those in the special counsel’s office. These rules are designed to ensure that legal investigations aren’t partisan affairs. … If Mueller followed the law and hired lawyers without taking their political ideology […] Read more »
Social Liberals Nearly Tie Social Conservatives in U.S.
Gallup’s annual measurement of how Americans describe their views on social issues finds social liberals nearly tying with social conservatives for the fifth straight year. This is a change from 2001 through 2012 when social conservatives had the clear lead, including by 17-percentage-point margins in 2009 and 2010. CONT. Lydia […] Read more »
The Real Civil War in the Democratic Party
… The economic-left-versus-center debate has always been primarily an elite one. Among the Democratic rank-and-file, the more consequential divide is between those willing to trust the existing establishment and those who want entirely new leadership. It’s a divide that Democratic Party leaders ignore at their peril. As part of a report […] Read more »