No progressive tea party: Sanders’ exit highlights asymmetry between the parties

The tea party of the left never materialized. While the election of Barack Obama triggered a takeover of the Republican Party by its more radical elements and eventually paved the way for Donald Trump, Democrats have taken a different route during Trump’s presidency and have mostly defeated their populists at […] Read more »

Democratic leaders win surge of approval during Covid-19 crisis

The approval ratings of democratic leaders around the world have soared during the coronavirus crisis, but political scientists say it will not last – and warn that populist opposition parties, in particular, will bounce back strongly as it subsides. CONT. Jon Henley, The Guardian Read more »

Ten Takes on COVID-19 as an Economist and Citizen

… The COVID-19 crisis revealed human vulnerability and society’s dependence on science and scientists. In the last few years, there was growing resentment of elites and gravitation toward populist regimes that frequently rejected scientific opinions. The recent crisis is elevating awareness of the crucial role of scientific competence and evidence-based […] Read more »

Even with the coronavirus, some Americans deeply distrust the experts. Will they take precautions?

Republican voters are still far more likely than Democrats to believe the coronavirus pandemic has been exaggerated, their skepticism egged on by Fox News and even Republican officeholders. That’s true even after President Trump took emergency measures. But partisanship isn’t the only barrier to getting Americans to listen to scientific […] Read more »

Trump and Sanders lead competing populist movements, reshaping American politics

… Four years after Trump seized control of the Republican Party with a right-wing populist movement, a new populist crusade has risen on the left, fueled similarly by grievance and anxiety and powered by Sanders’s remarkable drive to dispatch Trump from the White House. Each is powered by a disdain […] Read more »