Abraham Lincoln said that “public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.” But in a polarized polity, can public opinion ever check presidential power? Our research suggests that it can. But Congress has an important role in jump-starting this popular constraint. CONT. Douglas […] Read more »
Why More Democrats Are Now Embracing Conspiracy Theories
Even as Democrats decry the false claims streaming regularly from the White House, they appear to have become more vulnerable to unsupported claims and conspiracy theories that flatter their own political prejudices. The reason isn’t just that a Republican now occupies the White House. Political psychology research suggests that losing […] Read more »
Apocalypse Now: What’s Behind the Volatile Mood of Today’s American — and European — Voters
AGE OF ANGER A History of the Present By Pankaj Mishra Across the world, a spirit of anarchy is in bloom — an aimless desire to smash the liberal order, with only the distant, inchoate hope that a better world will emerge from the wreckage. That spirit apparently motivated many […] Read more »
The Theory That Explains The Anger Of Our Political Moment
Suddenly, people are more in favor of the Affordable Care Act than are against it. For the first time, more people believe Obamacare is a good idea than think it is a bad idea, as a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed. … There are a few reasons the […] Read more »
The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump
All wars have unintended consequences, including culture wars. … In an article to be published in the June issue of Perspectives on Politics, “Trump and the Xenophobic Populist Parties: The Silent Revolution in Reverse,” Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris put their case in blunt terms: “Postmaterialism,” they write, “eventually became […] Read more »
Party Trumped Policy in 2016
President Donald Trump adopted a variety of controversial and unorthodox foreign policy stances during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has moved quickly to begin implementing many of these policies – including a border wall with Mexico, a ban on immigration from certain majority-Muslim countries, and withdrawal […] Read more »