As details trickled into print and pixels about Russian tampering with the election that put him in the White House, a snappish President Trump lashed out in his favored medium. On Feb. 15, he wrote on Twitter: “The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by […] Read more »
So, What Is He Hiding?
In his short White House tenure, President Trump has already set a record for histrionic tantrums against the media — whether attacking CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times or MSNBC for revealing his 2005 tax return, as he did last week. He’s actually pursuing a well-worn path of […] Read more »
Trump’s Supporters Still Support Trump — So What?
In June of 1974, with the Watergate scandal exploding and President Richard Nixon’s approval ratings in the high 20s, the New York Times ran an article that interviewed rural, conservative whites in Holdrege, Nebraska, about their feelings toward the president. These respondents were fierce supporters of Nixon and did not […] Read more »
America Is Safer Than It Used to Be. So Why Do We Still Have Calls for ‘Law and Order’?
By its own historical standards, America circa 2016 is a safe place. The country’s violent crime rate is about half of what it was in 1991. Cities, in particular, have become markedly less dangerous. Less than half as many police officers are killed in the line of duty today as […] Read more »
Presidential job approval ratings from Ike to Obama
Perhaps no measure better captures the public’s sentiment toward the president than job approval. … We looked at Pew Research Center data going back to Bill Clinton, and Gallup data going back to Dwight Eisenhower. These ratings reflect, for example, how views of presidents have become more politically polarized, as […] Read more »
1968: Ball of Confusion
If you lived through 1968, you can’t forget it — even if you want to. It was the worst of times, a year from hell, marked by savage warfare in Vietnam, political assassinations, urban riots, and militancy of all sorts. People talked seriously about whether the United States would hold together. […] Read more »