The term “tribalism” has become ubiquitous in discussions of modern-day political conflicts. It’s a useful metaphor because it’s grounded in historical fact. For most of our species’ history, humans lived in tribes, and there’s evidence that these groups sometimes battled for scarce resources. This ongoing struggle shaped our primitive brains, […] Read more »
Don’t fool yourself. The political center won’t recover anytime soon.
British media and political elites are chattering about a possible new, centrist party forming after 12 members of Parliament defected from the Labour and Conservative parties. Such speculation from elites is understandable, as the defectors’ anti-Brexit stance largely mirrors their own. But, once again, they are missing the forest for […] Read more »
How the border wall divided the GOP
President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, intended to allow him to build a wall on the southern border without Congress approving funds, has sparked intense debate within the Republican Party, just as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) warned it would weeks ago. … The Republican divide over the national […] Read more »
The GOP distanced itself from Steve King. Is it signaling a shift on Trump?
… So long as the president remains overwhelmingly popular among Republican voters, there’s almost no chance that Republican officeholders would take serious steps to curb Trump as they have curbed King. However, the example of President George W. Bush’s second term showed that congressional Republicans can desert their leader quite […] Read more »
White right? How demographics is changing US politics
Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University When Donald Trump was campaigning to become the U.S. president, much of the discussion about his growing popularity focused on so-called “angry white males,” who had been struggling through years of declining economic opportunities. Their frustration led some of them to adopt and espouse white […] 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 »