For nearly 30 years, the Republican Party has increasingly resembled a religion, with Ronald Reagan is its deity. … I learned that election returns show Americans don’t want what Reaganism’s high priests are preaching. More crucially, I learned that everything I thought I knew about Reagan was wrong—that Reaganism misrepresents […] Read more »
Working-Class Republicanism
A new book tells the story of a president who made his name as an entertainer and a Democrat before moving to the Republican Party and then launching a bid for the presidency. This candidate won his party’s presidential nomination despite objections from some party stalwarts that he was unelectable […] Read more »
Even The Biggest Scandals Can’t Kill Party Loyalty
There have been lots of questions, especially among liberals, about when congressional Republicans might turn on President Trump, particularly in the wake of his controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey and the reports late Monday that he compromised classified information. The assumption behind these questions is that at a […] Read more »
Trump’s Job Approval in First Quarter Lowest by 14 Points
Donald Trump averaged 41% job approval during his first quarter as president, 14 percentage points lower than any other president in Gallup’s polling history. Bill Clinton had the previous low mark of 55%. The average first-quarter rating among post-World War II presidents elected to their first term is 61%, with […] Read more »
Forget the ’60s—The Real Generation Gap Is Happening Right Now
Since the election last month, we have seen a parade of analyses examining how Clinton supporters differ from Trump supporters along the dividing lines of race, education, and geographic residence. The persistence of partisan differences by age in American elections, however, has received somewhat less attention. … Hillary Clinton may […] Read more »
Obama’s post-election glow doesn’t shine on Democrats
Barack Obama has gotten his last post-election bump as president, but perceptions of his party have moved in the opposite direction since Election Day, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. Obama’s approval rating in the poll stands at 57%, his highest since September 2009. That figure is on par with […] Read more »