When friends of the United States abroad enumerate aspects of our politics they simply can’t understand, I’ve found they often point to the inability of our democracy to deal comprehensively with the mass slaughter our permissive gun laws enable. Every new outrage — including the recent incidents in Arkabutla, Miss., […] Read more »
Primary voters aren’t excited about Biden or Trump. What does that mean for 2024?
The first phase of the 2024 presidential primary season is officially underway, bringing with it a cavalcade of early polling designed to answer a seemingly basic question: whether President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, have the support of their respective parties. That topic, though, is more complicated than […] Read more »
The most consequential election of 2023 is next week
Next Tuesday, Wisconsin holds a statewide judicial primary in which as few as half a million ballots may be cast. This seemingly obscure election can affect millions of lives for much of this decade – and maybe our national election in 2024. Wisconsin is a microcosm of partisan warfare in […] Read more »
The Contradictions of Ron DeSantis
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida hasn’t officially decided whether he’ll seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. But already the contradictions are sharpening between his prospective general-election strengths and his emerging strategy to win the Republican primaries. Many of DeSantis’s boosters are drawn to him as a potential Republican nominee because […] Read more »
Both White and Nonwhite Democrats are Moving Left
Key Points• One of the big stories of American politics over the past half-century has been a growing ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans.• This has also led to more ideological cohesion within parties, including a dramatic increase among Democrats between 2012 and 2020. Democrats are now as ideologically cohesive […] Read more »
Donald Trump did not win in 2016 because the establishment “split the field”
… Conventional wisdom about the 2016 primary has analysts stipulating that dividing the anti-Trump vote will allow him to win the primary again with plurality support, as he did last time around. After all, he only won 45% of the popular vote in the primary; surely if Ted Cruz, Marco […] Read more »