Today, even scholars of polarization are polarized. This was not always the case. In 1964, Philip Converse of the University of Michigan wrote a groundbreaking paper, “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” that attempted to determine the size of the share of the electorate that could reasonably be […] Read more »
Sharp downturn in overall approval of Supreme Court; opinion on Roe v. Wade has not changed
A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds approval of the U.S. Supreme Court has taken a sharp turn down, falling to 44%, with 55% disapproving of how the Court is handling its job. In March, 54% approved and 45% disapproved. Approval of the Court stood at 66% in […] Read more »
How Gen X Became the Trumpiest Generation
… Gen Xers, which can be roughly defined as those born between 1965 and 1980, came of age under President Ronald Reagan amid the end of the Cold War. The popular image of Generation X has never quite fit in within any easy political framing. It’s the generation that produced […] Read more »
Trump’s MAGA is marching down a trail blazed by the Tea Party
A little more than a dozen years ago, a new movement erupted in American politics calling itself “the Tea Party.” In the midterm elections of 2010, that movement remade Congress and helped the Republican Party to a decade of dominance in electing the legislatures of roughly 30 states. The phrase […] Read more »
Nativist nation
This week saw some political wins (and some losses) for a political worldview promoted by former President Trump and now being promulgated by the candidates he has endorsed in the primaries. Jarringly, these political wins come on the back of the Buffalo massacre that marked one of the most violent […] Read more »
Ping-pong Politics Is the New Normal
… The Democratic Party has moved so far to the left and the Republican Party so far right that not only is the center of gravity in each party heading toward the extremes but the parties are each getting narrower; the ideological distance between the most liberal in the Democratic […] Read more »