President Donald Trump is doubling down on a strategy he believes worked to his advantage four years ago: seizing on divisive culture wars and using race-baiting rhetoric as he seeks to fire up his base to give him a second term in office. His GOP allies on Capitol Hill are […] Read more »
A field guide to Trump’s dangerous rhetoric
President-elect Trump at a post-election rally in Mobile, Alabama, Dec. 17, 2016. Mark Wallheiser/Getty Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M University All leaders are demagogues. You may not realize this, because we’ve come to associate the word “demagogue” with only dangerous populist leaders. But in Greek, the word just means “leader of […] Read more »
Majorities of Americans Say News Coverage of George Floyd Protests Has Been Good, Trump’s Public Message Wrong
The killing of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police and the protests that ensued across the country have dominated news coverage that had for the past few months been consumed with the coronavirus pandemic. Americans have been following news of Floyd’s death and the demonstrations that followed nearly […] Read more »
Trump May Compare Himself to Nixon in 1968, but He Really Resembles Wallace
President Trump said last month that he had “learned a lot from Richard Nixon,” and many interpreted his hard-line response to the street protests of recent days as a homage of sorts to the 1968 campaign. The president’s Twitter feed has been filled with phrases famous from the Nixon lexicon […] Read more »
Trump is the Democrats’ ace in the hole for November
… With less than five months to go until Election Day, Trump is still behaving as if this were January 2017. He is using the same strategy to destroy his general election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, that he did against Hillary Clinton. And he is playing to the […] Read more »
White Liberals’ Political Correctness Could Help Trump Get Re-Elected
… In the United States, street protests have rarely advanced progressive interests. In those few occasions when they have, they were usually accompanied by strict discipline, nonviolence, and connection to electoral politics. That was the story of the Civil Rights movement’s successes. The Women’s 2017 March on Washington may be […] Read more »