President Donald Trump is taking his case to the American people over why they should back him in the partial government shutdown. His primetime address on Tuesday will be about the “Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border,” he tweeted. But Trump is facing an uphill climb: polls […] Read more »
After a Rocky 2018, Populism Is Down but Far From Out in the West
President Trump’s push for a border wall hints at a problem that populist leaders are facing across the Western world. After a year of setbacks, populist leaders and parties are trying to rejuvenate their fortunes by revitalizing the sense of crisis on which they thrive. But as with Mr. Trump’s […] Read more »
2019: The Public’s Priorities and Expectations
Americans’ policy priorities for this year are dominated by health care and immigration. Over the past year, immigration has risen to the top of the public’s agenda, equal to health care. Despite the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in November, Republicans continue to be more positive about the […] Read more »
What does it mean to be a ‘real’ American?
Are you American? What do you think about when you answer this question? Do you think in terms of citizenship? Cultural attributes? Certain values? When Grinnell College, where we are both faculty members, polled Americans on what they most associate with being a “real” American, the vast majority of respondents […] Read more »
The subset of the subset of Americans to whom Trump’s wall stubbornness is catering
… “The people of the country” don’t agree with Trump on the shutdown or on the wall. We looked at this last month, considering polling that showed that most Americans don’t support building a wall and that most think a shutdown should be avoided. Trump’s discussion of what the American […] Read more »
Trump learned nothing from the midterms. Exhibit A: the shutdown.
Number of the week: A Quinnipiac University poll finds that 43% of voters support building a wall along the Mexican border. A majority, 54%, are opposed to such a wall. If anything, the Quinnipiac poll is an outlier in favor of the pro-wall position. A CNN poll conducted earlier this […] Read more »