Every analyst, strategist, reporter and armchair pundit has a preferred group Democrats should woo to win the White House in 2020: blue-collar white Democrats who voted for Trump, the women who fueled the suburban revolt of 2018, the black voters whose high turnout rates helped President Barack Obama win the […] Read more »
Biden still leads the pack despite a bruising debate performance. Thank African American voters
Round One of the great Democratic primary debates is over. The consensus delivered by the political class seems to be that former Vice President Joe Biden underperformed, generally failing to meet expectations. So did Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a good night, albeit only sparring with […] Read more »
Biden, Harris, Busing, Compromise and Public Opinion
The most significant storyline coming out of the June 27/28 Democratic primary debates was Sen. Kamala Harris’ attack on front-runner Joe Biden’s opposition to school busing in the 1970s, while he was serving as U.S. senator from Delaware. … I find at least nine different times during the 1970s when […] Read more »
Effective but never popular, court-ordered busing is a relic few would revive
… The Supreme Court agreed, unanimously endorsing busing as a legitimate means of unraveling the segregation of children by race. The 1971 decision launched an explosive chapter in American history, touching off a long and polarizing battle that set public opinion against busing for decades, even as the programs succeeded […] Read more »
How Democratic Leadership Misunderstands Modern Political Risk
… Older, whiter, more social conservative America feels under threat of losing their stamp on the country’s character, racial composition and soul–and they’re right. They’re losing: not only is the country inevitably becoming less white, it is also becoming less religious, and the millennial generation is not only larger than […] Read more »
Trump Needs His Base to Burn With Anger
… Trump portrays his political opponents — Democrats are “sick people” and the media are “enemies of the people” — as threats to the social order, aware that tapping into voter anger and anxiety is one of the most effective tools to drive up election turnout. Alex Gage, head of […] Read more »