Presidential tweets and Democratic representatives: The partisan chasm

President Donald Trump’s tweets attacking “The Squad”—four freshman Democratic Congresswomen who have criticized him – may have made them better known. The four women of color remain popular with Democrats in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll. Democrats have positive opinions about all of them. In addition, Democrats are on board with […] Read more »

A new poll shows why Trump attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — and why it could get even uglier

Regardless of whether you think it was racist for President Trump to urge four nonwhite (and mostly non-immigrant) Democratic freshman congresswomen to “go back” to their countries, the practical effect is clear: He’s pitting himself against these minority women to help him win reelection in 2020, no matter how ugly […] Read more »

Trump Sets the 2020 Tone: Like 2016, Only This Time ‘the Squad’ Is Here

With three days of attacks on four liberal, minority freshman congresswomen, President Trump and the Republicans have sent the clearest signal yet that their approach to 2020 will be a racially divisive reprise of the strategy that helped Mr. Trump narrowly capture the White House in 2016. … While the […] Read more »

Parties Face ‘Crackup’ as Outsiders Wield Social Media Against the Establishment

On the night that he conceded defeat in 1992 after the most successful independent presidential campaign of the last century, Ross Perot made it clear that he was not done shaking up the established order. “Believe me,” he declared, “the system needs some shocks.” So perhaps it was only fitting […] Read more »

Nancy Pelosi, Impeachment, and Places in History

… The basic historical error behind suppressing an impeachment inquiry confuses the genuine crisis surrounding Trump with the manufactured one that engulfed Clinton. In 1998, the House Republicans, lacking public support and all but assured that the Senate, though it was controlled by their own party, would not convict Clinton, […] Read more »