… For almost all of American history, White Christians have represented a large majority of the US population and controlled the levers of government power. But that majority had shrunk to just 54% by 2008 when Barack Obama won election as the first African American president and personified the nation’s […] Read more »
Mitch McConnell Would Like Trump to Fade Away
Mitch McConnell is savvy enough to know that when he took the Senate floor to blame Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, he was pouring gasoline on an intraparty feud. As accurate as McConnell’s statement may have been — “There’s no question — none — that […] Read more »
Are voters’ preferences over stimulus checks driven by party loyalty or financial gain?
What happens when a president and Congressional leaders in his own party disagree on important policy issues? This is quite uncommon these days, but in December 2020 and January 2021, it happened. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly differed on a highly salient issue: stimulus checks. […] Read more »
Many Value Democratic Principles, but Few Think Democracy Is Working Well These Days
Few Americans believe democracy is functioning well in the United States these days, even as a large majority agree that core democratic principles like a fair judiciary and a democratically elected government are important to the country’s identity. Seventy percent think President Biden has at least a fair amount of […] Read more »
How the GOP institutionalists are losing the larger battle
We saw two ends of the Republican Party attacked this week. Rep. Liz Cheney successfully fought off an intraparty challenge for her spot in the House GOP leadership. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was stripped of committee memberships by the full House, after the Republicans refused to do it themselves. […] Read more »
How the GOP Surrendered to Extremism
… Kevin McCarthy’s half-hearted slap on the wrist for [Marjorie Taylor] Greene this week was a measure of the GOP’s limited appetite for constructing a clear boundary against extremism. The likelihood that the majority of Senate Republicans will soon vote to exempt Trump from any punishment for the Capitol riot […] Read more »