… Analysts like me remarked over and over again during Trump’s time in office that he was one of, if not the most unpopular presidents. He left office with the lowest approval rating of any president at the end of his first term (39%) and the highest disapproval rating (58%) […] Read more »
A 1955 book on right-wing extremists predicted the Jan. 6 attack
The year was 1954, and the Cold War was in full swing. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) was seeing Soviet spies in every corner of the government. And a young sociologist at Columbia University, Daniel Bell, convened a seminar to come to grips with the menace of McCarthyism. Bell enlisted an […] Read more »
What Ordinary Republicans Think About January 6
… I live in a deep-red part of America. According to the New York Times neighborhood political calculator, only 15 percent of my neighbors are Democrats. That’s one reason why I laugh when Beltway Republicans and Acela-corridor conservatives purport to explain Trump’s appeal to me. They’re “explaining” the actions of […] Read more »
Republicans Were Set to Self-destruct. Democrats Didn’t Let Them.
… Watching political ads of many Republican candidates, listening to their speeches, and reading their statements, one might easily conclude that we are all surrounded by existential threats to our country, ourselves, and our way of life. … In fact, our political debate is increasingly dominated by synthetic “issues,” carefully […] Read more »
A look at how Americans have viewed the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
Ahead of the House select committee’s first public hearings on its investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, most Americans — 70% — think it’s at least somewhat important to find out what happened on that day and who was involved, according to a recent CBS News poll. But […] Read more »
Two Different Paths to 41%
President Biden and former president Trump don’t have a lot in common. But, they share the inauspicious distinction of having the lowest approval ratings in modern history for a president 500 days into his first term. The fivethirtyeight.com tracker has Biden’s net approval rating at a dismal -13.3, two points […] Read more »