Trump veers past guardrails, feeling impervious to the uproar he causes

President Trump this week disseminated on social media three inflammatory and unverified anti-Muslim videos, took glee in the firing of a news anchor for sexual harassment allegations despite facing more than a dozen of his own accusers and used a ceremony honoring Navajo war heroes to malign a senator with […] Read more »

Deeply unpopular Congress aims to pass deeply unpopular bill for deeply unpopular president to sign

Something odd is happening on Capitol Hill. It’s not odd that Republicans are pushing for a tax bill that’s tilted toward business and the wealthy. It’s a return to the argument that benefits at the top trickle down to workers in the form of more jobs and better pay. (Whether […] Read more »

Race and Class and What Happened in 2016

… Simple explanations are rarely complete explanations, but when a candidate makes many more populist promises than is usual for a Republican, and then wins more working-class votes than is usual, the straightforward explanation — that the promises actually resonated with voters — probably contains a lot of truth. And […] Read more »

Not all Republicans are climate change doubters

The idea that all Republicans think climate change isn’t happening is a myth. A new study published in Springer’s journal Climatic Change finds substantial differences in the climate change views of both Republicans and Democrats across different states and congressional districts. The research is led by Matto Mildenberger of the […] Read more »

Will the tax plan break the Republican coalition?

Since Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, the Republican coalition has revolved around a delicate but durable balancing act. The ongoing drive to complete the GOP’s tax bill will test whether that balance can endure under the heightened stress Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency is imposing on it. Over roughly […] Read more »