In a matter of weeks, President Trump has twice struck deals with Democrats in Congress that have left many of his supporters flummoxed. … But the informal DACA agreement with Democrats is unlikely to be the move that splinters his re-election coalition. Partnering with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on […] Read more »
Why the wiring of our brains makes it hard to stop climate change
… Humans aren’t well wired to act on complex statistical risks. We care a lot more about the tangible present than the distant future. Many of us do that to the extreme — what behavioral scientists call hyperbolic discounting — which makes it particularly hard to grapple with something like […] Read more »
The Asymmetric Politics of Trump’s Dreamers Deal
Late last night, Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi triumphantly announced that they had reached an agreement with President Trump over dinner at the White House under which Trump would support legislation shielding the “Dreamers,” immigrants brought unlawfully to the U.S. as children, from deportation in exchange for […] Read more »
Trump Says Jump. His Supporters Ask, How High?
… Michael Barber and Jeremy C. Pope, political scientists at Brigham Young University, reported in their recent paper “Does Party Trump Ideology? Disentangling Party and Ideology in America,” that many Republican voters are: malleable to the point of innocence, and self-reported expressions of ideological fealty are quickly abandoned for policies […] Read more »
Why Republicans Can’t Govern
You might think that securing the White House, Senate, House of Representatives and a majority of seats on the Supreme Court would enable a party to practically dictate laws and policy. But so far, unified government hasn’t worked out too well for Republicans. … There are several things that a […] Read more »
Are Americans becoming more conservative or liberal (right or left)?
There is a lot of confusion about whether we’re seeing significant ideological change in the United States. With Trump and the re-appearance of white nationalism in the public spotlight, many people are wondering if conservative (right-wing) ideology is on the rise. One can find many influential outlets endorsing this notion. […] Read more »