… This nomination has managed to do considerable damage to all three branches of government. It made the presidency appear more petty than it already looked. The spectacle of Republican senators hiring a female prosecutor to speak to Ford rather than speak to her themselves, then dismissing and diminishing Ford […] Read more »
Senate races move right, House races move left in political fallout from Kavanaugh confirmation fight
The nomination fight over Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has injected new volatility into the midterm elections, reshaping races across the country and sharpening the already bitterly partisan tone for the final four-week stretch before Nov. 6. Much uncertainty remains — not least because of the rapid-fire succession of evolving crises […] Read more »
Five myths about the 2016 election
The 2016 election is nearly two years behind us, but debates continue to rage over what lifted Donald Trump to a victory that surprised so many political observers. All elections generate narratives that try to explain the outcome, but often those do not square with polling and other political science […] Read more »
Kavanaugh ‘circus’ is a disaster for an independent judiciary
Jak Allen, University of Kent Political grandstanding during the nomination of a new US Supreme Court justice is perhaps to be expected in the era of Donald Trump. But the process surrounding Brett Kavanaugh – and his testimony on September 28 – has caused potentially irreparable damage to the one […] Read more »
Understanding ‘the white women thing’
Donald Trump likes to brag that most women in America voted for him for president. Like many things the president says, that’s just not true. Most women, 54 percent, voted for Hillary Clinton. However, 52 percent of white women did vote for Trump — and that’s the cohort that drives […] Read more »
Republicans Rescued Kavanaugh’s Nomination By Making It About #MeToo
Brett Kavanaugh seemed like the dream Supreme Court nominee for Republican voters and activists when he was nominated in mid-July. He had the résumé and experience to be confirmed relatively easily, but also a clear ideological background that suggested he would join the conservatives already on the high court in […] Read more »