The politics of governing with a tiny majority

Though Democrats are enormously relieved that the Trump presidency is coming to an end, the 2020 elections were also a disappointment. They not only failed to win outright control of the U.S. Senate but also lost ground in the House of Representatives. House Democrats are presently on track to control […] Read more »

Democrats and Republicans have traded places in their views of the economy’s direction

… Over the past five months — and especially since the presidential election — the parties have switched places. Democrats became notably more buoyant, while Republicans just as quickly turned gloomy. The nature of economic policy debates during a strikingly unequal recovery is likely to cement such divergent views, according […] Read more »

A divided nation asks: What’s holding our country together?

Elections are meant to resolve arguments. This one inflamed them. Weeks after the votes have been counted and the winners declared, many Americans remain angry, defiant and despairing. Millions now harbor new grievances borne of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Many Democrats are saddened by results that […] Read more »

After a year of pandemic and protest, and a big election, America is as divided as ever

The year 2020 brought extraordinary and unexpected challenges that tested the strength of basic institutions, demanded courage and sacrifice in the face of a raging pandemic, underscored racial and economic inequities, and produced the biggest turnout of voters in the history of U.S. elections. In the end, America was as […] Read more »

Trump’s Fraud Claims Died in Court, But the Myth of Stolen Elections Lives On

President Trump’s baseless and desperate claims of a stolen election over the last seven weeks — the most aggressive promotion of “voter fraud” in American history — failed to get any traction in courts across seven states, or come anywhere close to reversing the loss he suffered to Joseph R. […] Read more »