A major impediment to political understanding is the attitude that whatever is happening now has always been so. One of our most important tasks as political scientists is not just to describe the world as it is, but to identify and understand change. CONT. Andrew Gelman (Columbia), The Monkey Cage Read more »
Do hate and racism drive support for Donald Trump?
Last night, debate viewers may have seen the end of the Summer of Trump, as the Donald floundered about the Reagan Library. I am not one of those who are inclined to read profundities into the Trump phenomenon. Many of his supporters don’t follow politics closely, and often seem to […] Read more »
Bernie Sanders’s surge doesn’t mean the Democratic race is wide open. Here’s why.
… Even setting aside Barack Obama’s unique potential to appeal to African American voters as a historic racial figure, this frequent comparison of Senator Obama in 2007 and Senator Sanders in 2015 is deeply flawed. Just looking at the data from eight years ago shows how much better positioned Barack […] Read more »
Washington State: Race, Justice & Democracy
KCTS 9 and The Elway Poll conducted a 400-person sample poll of registered Washington voters on the subject of race relations. Results show that voters are divided on the current condition (good or bad) of national race relations, while 86% think race relations in their own communities are good. In […] Read more »
Why a key to the 2016 Southern vote lies centuries ago on another continent
… Democratic candidates, who used to campaign aggressively in the heavily Scots-Irish rural communities of Appalachia, have shifted their attention to liberal whites and ethnic minorities, as Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012. Now, as she builds her 2016 campaign, Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be focusing […] Read more »
Republicans Fear Donald Trump Is Hardening Party’s Tone on Race
Republicans are growing increasingly concerned that Donald J. Trump’s inflammatory language is damaging the party, fearing that his remarks are hardening the tone of other candidates on racial issues in ways that could repel the voters they need to take back the White House. Some party leaders worry that the […] Read more »