The word “socialism” is likely to resonate throughout the 2020 election campaign, regardless of which candidate eventually gets the Democratic Party nomination. … What does the word “socialism” mean to the average American? Thanks to the reintroduction of the term into the political discourse by Sanders (and other politicians like […] Read more »
Trump Has His Sights Set on Black Voters
The Trump campaign is investing more money and resources in an attempt to attract African-American voters than any Republican presidential campaign in recent memory. … Many Democrats and their liberal allies downplay the president’s efforts, arguing that not only is black support for the Democratic Party rock solid, but that […] Read more »
Trump and Sanders lead competing populist movements, reshaping American politics
… Four years after Trump seized control of the Republican Party with a right-wing populist movement, a new populist crusade has risen on the left, fueled similarly by grievance and anxiety and powered by Sanders’s remarkable drive to dispatch Trump from the White House. Each is powered by a disdain […] Read more »
How to un-break the primaries
Many people in both major parties have soured on the presidential primary system. … From a historical perspective, the story of presidential primaries has largely been about the rise of voter power and the falling clout of party insiders; both parties still struggle with striking the right balance between those […] Read more »
Voters Who’ll Support Biden — But Not Sanders — Probably Really Do Mean It
… For the last 12 years, I’ve overseen a long-running panel survey of Americans’ political attitudes that sheds light on how their political views have evolved, and one of the questions I’ve consistently asked is who panelists would back in a general election. And as of our most recent survey […] Read more »
Five myths about elections
The way Americans pick their leaders, in high-stakes elections where candidates battle to distinguish themselves from one another, can feel nasty, fierce, aggressive and even desperate. In a democratic republic, that’s exactly as it should be. But the process is also plagued by myths and errors about how the system […] Read more »