Hardball presidential politics, a little like Mother Nature, has an unforgiving way of winnowing a field and this go-round there is more to winnow than usual with 24 Democrats vying for their party’s nomination. In the wild, it’s called survival of the fittest and that seems an apt description for […] Read more »
A Lot of Candidates May Make It Seem Like Democracy Is Working, But It Isn’t
If you were hiring someone for a vitally important job, would you begin by interviewing 10 applicants at a time, hoping that the ones with the snappiest sound bites might also be most qualified for the job? Of course not. And yet that’s the bizarre logic behind this week’s Democratic […] Read more »
When Facts Change Opinions: A Discussion With Brendan Nyhan
When consuming the news, people bring their biases with them. However, University of Michigan professor Brendan Nyhan and other scholars have found that facts can — and do — change people’s minds when presented under certain conditions. We discuss his research on how to create a more widely-shared understanding of […] Read more »
Electability of Democratic Nominee Outranks Issue Stances
The two dozen Democratic candidates currently vying for the chance to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020 are an ideologically and demographically diverse group, with wide-ranging views on major issues of the day. Yet, given a choice, 58% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents prioritize a candidate’s ability to beat Trump […] Read more »
In Supreme Court census case, chief justice’s priorities are colliding
Two of Chief Justice John Roberts’ top priorities are on a collision course as the Supreme Court nears a pivotal decision this week on the Trump administration’s design for the 2020 census. Roberts has repeatedly declared that he wants the public to see the court as a nonpartisan institution, even […] Read more »
Stark partisan divisions in Americans’ views of ‘socialism,’ ‘capitalism’
Republicans express intensely negative views of “socialism” and highly positive views of “capitalism.” By contrast, majorities of Democrats view both terms positively, though only modest shares have strong impressions of each term. CONT. Hannah Hartig, Pew Read more »