Last week, when President Trump called on the police to use rough justice in dealing with violent Latino gangs, there was a clear method to his madness. … Underlying Trump’s defiance of law enforcement norms is a calculated strategy advocating the use of force, with the twofold goal of pushing […] Read more »
The Great Political Divide Over American Identity
Are you an American? Chances are your answer to this question depends on whether you have (or could get) a U.S. passport. That is one way many people think about what it means to be American. Another way is to think less literally and more culturally. Being an American, in […] Read more »
Discrimination against whites was a core concern of Trump’s base
The Justice Department’s plan to investigate and sue universities over affirmative action admissions policies they determine discriminate against white students represents a shift in the department’s civil rights division. But the move also addresses a central concern for voters who fueled President Trump’s victory last year: that whites are losing […] Read more »
Trump gambles on cultural frustration over economic self-interest
Chaos may have seemed the only guiding principle in the White House last week. But amid President Donald Trump’s Twitter tirades; the vulgar rant from his new communications director; the open internecine sniping; and the White House staff shakeup, the President offered two revealing hints about the policy direction he […] Read more »
Historical Trends in White Political Behavior Along Educational Lines
A longstanding topic of interest, the voting behavior of working class white population–and socioeconomic divides in voting patterns more broadly–once again attracted considerable attention during and after the 2016 election. Some assessments that have historically contextualized the low SES white vote have showed that this group voted more Republican than […] Read more »
Trump and race
Many months after the election of Donald Trump, new data and research findings continue to provide fresh light on that critical historical moment. The main strand of this research is a search to understand who voted for each candidate, and what motivated their vote. The results are not entirely intuitive, […] Read more »