Defying the predictions of just about everyone who watches politics even remotely, the two nontraditional Republican presidential contenders remain at the top of just-released opinion polls. Public polls, it is true, have proliferated, and many are worthy of being ignored. But four of the most respected surveys came out this […] Read more »
The rising US Asian electorate
Even casual observers of American politics recognize that whites comprise a declining share of the electorate. Most of the ink spilled over this phenomenon has focused on Hispanics and African-Americans, who are critical elements of this segment but not the whole of it. After the 2012 elections, I drew attention […] Read more »
Bernie Sanders’s Big Chance To Woo Non-White Voters
You’ve heard it over and over again from political analysts like me: Sen. Bernie Sanders has a problem with minority voters that will likely prevent him from winning the Democratic presidential nomination if he doesn’t fix it. … The good news for Sanders is that Tuesday’s Democratic debate, the first […] Read more »
Poll Trouble: Hillary Clinton’s Three Challenges
Going into the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton appeared to have a clear path to the Democratic nomination and possibly the White House. But a summer of sliding poll numbers and questions about her personal email server have made for a more complicated road. Recent poll numbers reveal three potential general-election […] Read more »
Democracy and the Demagogue
… Liberal democratic rhetoric is supposed to unify citizens with diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and make visible previously discounted perspectives (for example, the perspective of women during the struggle for women’s right to vote). Trump’s and Carson’s comments are explicitly antidemocratic. The fact that they seem to have been rewarded […] Read more »
The rise of Neo-Nativism: Putting Trump into Proper Context
… Simply put, Trump’s candidacy taps into a deep, visceral fear among many that America’s best days are behind it. That the land of freedom, baseball and apple pie is no longer recognizable ; and that ‘the other’—sometimes the immigrant, sometimes the Non-American , and almost always the nonwhite—is to […] Read more »