Just as physicists spend decades seeking to resolve the seeming paradox that a photon is both a wave and a particle, observers of U.S. politics continue to struggle with the reality that Donald Trump is both an exceptionally weak president and an authoritarian threat. Since 2017, many commentators have treated […] Read more »
How the Politically Unthinkable Can Become Mainstream
You may have heard about the Overton window, and that’s not about to stop. With the political landscape shifting in sometimes startling ways, what was once an obscure idea has gained broader relevance. But while the term has been bandied about lately, it hasn’t always been by people who know […] Read more »
The Resistance as Role Model: Disillusionment and Protest Among American Adolescents After 2016
From white suits evoking the suffrage movement to her “I’m with her” slogan, Hillary Clinton framed her 2016 presidential campaign as an opportunity for women to break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” … In the end, however, the 2016 presidential election looked more like a setback to the promise of […] Read more »
Do Democrats really have to worry about the left? Actually, not so much.
If you were a moderate Democrat elected to Congress in 2018, you might worry about how the sweeping proposals from your more liberal colleagues will reflect on you. Are the voters in my swing district going to think I’m some kind of far leftist, too? Should I make efforts to […] Read more »
The Rules Do Not Apply to Trump Because the Rules Never Existed
A lot of the political analysis of the Trump presidency has been about whether or not the “rules” of politics apply to him. It’s also possible, however, that Donald Trump is just revealing that the rules were never that iron-clad in the first place. CONT. Seth Masket, Pacific Standard Read more »
Women Presidents Are Judged More Harshly
Female political candidates have significant disadvantages compared to their male opponents. Many voters instinctually associate the notion of leadership with men, and, probably as a result, they approach women candidates warily, often finding reasons to oppose them. But what happens when, in spite of these hurdles, a woman ascends to […] Read more »