… The Republican health care dilemma has become a microcosm of the larger challenge faced by the conservative movement for the better part of a century. American conservatives are committed to the ideal of limited government power as a means of protecting individual liberty, and have repeatedly promised to achieve […] Read more »
How ‘Elites’ Became One of the Nastiest Epithets in American Politics
… For most of American history, anti-elite sentiment was a matter of up versus down, not left versus right. But about half a century ago, the conservative movement set out to claim anti-elite politics as its own. That meant redefining the term away from class and toward culture, where the […] Read more »
Conservatives Outnumber Liberals by Narrowing Margin
Many more Americans have considered themselves politically conservative than liberal since the early 1990s. That remained the case in 2016, when an average of 36% of U.S. adults throughout the year identified themselves as conservative and 25% as liberal. Yet that 11-percentage-point margin is half of what it was at […] Read more »
The Toughest Death of 2016: the Democratic Norms That (Used to) Guide Our Political System
This past year—2016—has brought us more than a typical year’s share of notable deaths. … But the most devastating death in the United States, the one that will be affecting us the most in the years to come, is that of the democratic norms that guide our political system. Norms […] Read more »
It’s Not About the Economy
… Elkhart is a case study in how Democrats lost the 2016 elections despite the economic resurgence the country experienced under Obama. It shows how, in an increasingly polarized country, an improving economy is not enough to get Republicans to vote for Democrats, in part because they don’t give Democrats […] Read more »
Why Did Planned Parenthood Supporters Vote Trump?
… Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood convened a series of focus groups across the country to better understand people who back the organization but cast their ballots for Trump. … For opponents of Trump, the recordings make for excruciating viewing. They show how myths about Hillary Clinton’s corruption proved more […] Read more »