Last month the Pew Research Center released a poll showing that Americans are losing faith in their system of government. Only one-fifth of adults surveyed believe democracy is working “very well” in the United States, while two-thirds say “significant changes” are needed to governmental “design and structure.” The 2016 election […] Read more »
What We Can Learn From the Demise of Trump’s Infrastructure Plan
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed what had already been apparent for months: Congress is not going to enact infrastructure legislation this year. In its early weeks, Trump treated infrastructure investment as a major goal of his presidency; as recently as January’s State of the Union […] Read more »
Which Side Are You On?
… The politics of economic self-interest that underpinned the New Deal era have been supplanted by “expressive partisanship,” a form of “affective polarization,” as political scientists put it. What does this mean? “A distinctly social type of polarization that includes political prejudice, anger, enthusiasm, and activism” has superseded political conflict […] Read more »
Unable to Excite the Base? Moderate Candidates Still Tend to Outdo Extreme Ones
Donald J. Trump’s rise to the G.O.P. nomination and eventual presidential victory gave heft to the idea that extreme candidates can beat moderates by galvanizing their party’s base. That premise is shaping competitive races in both parties. But an analysis of more than 30 years of House general elections suggests […] Read more »
2016 Elite Cues and Public Misperception about Crime
The overestimation of crime rates is one of the most enduring and prevalent misperceptions in the U.S. Despite evidence clearly pointing to declines in various measures of crime in essentially every year over the last few decades, majorities of Americans during this same time span have consistently said crime has […] Read more »
Will Asian Americans make California even bluer in November?
Can Democrats flip congressional seats in some of California’s traditional Republican strongholds, to help them retake the U.S. House? They’re pouring resources into seven congressional races in California, hoping to ride the potential “blue wave.” These swing districts include a growing base of Asian American voters, nearly a third of […] Read more »