The American Abyss

… Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to […] Read more »

How Trump drove the lie that the election was stolen, undermining voter trust in the outcome

… To preserve his hold on power, Trump has spent the weeks since Election Day promoting falsehoods about voting problems in Georgia and five other states, successfully persuading tens of millions of his supporters to believe a lie — that the election was stolen from him, and from them. He […] Read more »

Most Republicans Approve of Trump’s Post-election Messaging, but About a Third Say It Has Been Wrong

In this starkly atypical year, the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election has been similarly out of the ordinary – with President Donald Trump thus far refusing to concede to President-elect Joe Biden (as of publication on Dec. 15). But a new Pew Research Center survey finds familiar partisan patterns […] Read more »

How Republicans live in a bubble, too

Following Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election, there was a lot of talk how the Democrats lived in a bubble. They failed to see President Donald Trump’s win coming and nominated someone who lost to the least-liked candidate of all time. Well, now it is clear that the shoe […] Read more »

Why millions don’t trust the election results, despite no evidence of widespread fraud

Since Election Day, numerous false allegations of fraud have been published on social media and repeated elsewhere, most of which have been easily debunked, yet a large swath of the population still appears to believe them. According to a recent poll roughly three-quarters (77%) of Trump backers say former Vice […] Read more »

Trumpism After Trump? How Fox News Structures Republican Attitudes

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2020 electoral loss, one key question is what kind of future the unique style of politics he carved out has in the Republican Party. Colloquially, this question is often put this way: What becomes of Trumpism after Trump? To answer that question, it […] Read more »