The sudden appointment of Robert S. Mueller as a special counsel for the federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia highlights a key question: Which choice poses the greater risk for Republicans in Congress, to support a potential impeachment or to close ranks behind the president? To defy […] Read more »
A forgotten lesson of Watergate: conservatives may rally around Trump
For Americans worried about the state of our republic, Watergate analogies can be a comforting salve. If FBI Director James Comey’s firing is President Donald Trump’s Saturday Night Massacre, then impeachment hearings should be coming down the road — perhaps soon. But even if Comey’s firing leads to a widening […] Read more »
Should Democrats Recruit Pragmatists or Progressives?
A Republican friend of mine recently argued Democrats need to run candidates like former congressman Heath Shuler if they are going to become competitive again as a national party. The Democrats, he insisted, are just too liberal, especially culturally, to win where they must. Given the Democrats’ ongoing debate over […] Read more »
Even The Biggest Scandals Can’t Kill Party Loyalty
There have been lots of questions, especially among liberals, about when congressional Republicans might turn on President Trump, particularly in the wake of his controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey and the reports late Monday that he compromised classified information. The assumption behind these questions is that at a […] Read more »
Americans Say They Want More Government. What Does That Mean?
Much was made of recent polling showing a spike in the percentage of Americans who say they want a more active or bigger government. … Is this a sign that Americans are more comfortable with the big-government populism promoted in the 2016 campaign? President Trump, of course, campaigned on spending […] Read more »
Gun ownership used to be bipartisan. Not anymore.
… Sixty-two percent of gun owners voted for Trump, according to data from the 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES). This was 4 percent better than Romney’s share of the gun owners’ vote in 2012 and 10 percent more than McCain’s in 2008. Let’s note, here, that over the past […] Read more »