Over the weekend, a new poll of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race was released. It showed Joe Biden in first place, Elizabeth Warren in second, and Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris following—with no candidate other than these five at more than 2 percent. The poll’s findings are […] Read more »
Here’s what happens when political bubbles collide
Are you trapped in an echo chamber? Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com Alexander J. Stewart, University of Houston and Joshua B. Plotkin, University of Pennsylvania Social media has transformed how people talk to each other. But social media platforms are not shaping up to be the utopian spaces for human connection their founders hoped. […] Read more »
Trump Changed U.S. Politics. Now He’s Changing Political Science
Donald Trump isn’t just disrupting politics. He’s disrupting political science. Since the 2016 election, the president’s unorthodox behavior has breached the ivory tower, forcing professors to rip up their syllabuses, rewrite textbooks, start new lines of research, and craft entirely new course offerings. Professors say Trump has shattered long-held assumptions […] Read more »
The Electoral College is a complex institution that may be making contemporary political conflicts worse
Critics of the Electoral College claim that it is undemocratic and antiquated. Defenders argue that it forces candidates to campaign nationally, and protects the interests of rural Americans. And the fight has recently become a partisan issue. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has called for the elimination of the institution. In […] Read more »
Young people who become involved with political parties keep these ties well into adulthood
For decades, we have known that people affiliated with a major political party are more likely to vote, give money to candidates, and volunteer for campaigns than those with no party affiliation. In fact, being registered with a political party is considered one of the most reliable predictors of whether […] Read more »
Ending the Electoral College Won’t Lead to Tyranny
Back in the days of blogging, there was something called “fisking” – the practice of painstakingly, paragraph by paragraph, examining, critiquing, fact-checking and (since blogs were like that) ridiculing someone’s bad argument. It is possible to fisk a tweet? Because Dan Crenshaw, a Republican member of the House from Texas, […] Read more »