Almost from the moment that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenants decided this fall to pursue the impeachment of President Trump, they made a fateful judgment: If the president intended to do nothing but stonewall and subvert their inquiry, they were not going to be the ones politely sticking to […] Read more »
Democrats, GOP move in opposite directions on Russia views
Since 2016, Russia and allegations of that nation’s meddling in U.S. elections have been hot topics. And across the country, Democrats and Republicans have been moving in different directions when it comes to their attitudes toward the long-time U.S. adversary. And those changing feelings might be affecting how they see […] Read more »
How the decline of religious institutions fueled the rise of the Trump-evangelical coalition
… I think it is worth asking why the myth of a discrete evangelical voting bloc motivated by explicitly religious concerns persists. Why, for example, do so many pundits – and their readers – continue to believe that evangelical leaders hold the power to sway presidential elections? Why do candidates […] Read more »
Will Impeachment Affect the Democratic Presidential Race?
When the impeachment of Donald Trump became a likely event in September, it became fashionable to speculate how Trump’s re-election fortunes might be affected: would the process hurt Trump by generating damaging disclosures and negative publicity, or would he benefit from a popular backlash and highly-mobilized Republican base? I suggested […] Read more »
Join us for a three-month tour of Trump’s polling fantasyland
Since he took office almost three years ago, President Trump has, on dozens of occasions, tweeted out poll numbers that show him enjoying majority support nationally or overwhelming, even historic (to hear Trump tell it) support among Republicans. On no occasion have those polls reflected independently calculated polling averages; on […] Read more »
Impeachment’s Limited Political Impact on 2020
We live in a political era of incredible volatility and mind-numbing predictability. For only the third time in American history, a president is about to be impeached. Even so, Americans aren’t particularly captivated by a story in which they already know the ending. … As such, the fact that Trump […] Read more »