Frustrated protesters have been rallying, demanding that governors reopen state economies. Health officials worry that a premature opening could make economic and health problems even worse. NPR News Read more »
How Trump Turned the Pandemic Into Identity Politics
No one really knows where the arc of history is bending these days, but this weekend we got a good look at where the arc of conservative activism is heading. The death toll in the United States from the coronavirus has now topped 40,000 but, egged on by presidential tweets, […] Read more »
What’s Driving the Right-Wing Protesters Fighting the Quarantine?
In an era when hardly anything feels nonpartisan, the coronavirus was starting to look like a consensus issue. … But this week, a rash of well-organized protests against state restrictions broke out — a jolting reminder that not everyone is on board with the new, government-mandated limits on public assembly […] Read more »
No progressive tea party: Sanders’ exit highlights asymmetry between the parties
The tea party of the left never materialized. While the election of Barack Obama triggered a takeover of the Republican Party by its more radical elements and eventually paved the way for Donald Trump, Democrats have taken a different route during Trump’s presidency and have mostly defeated their populists at […] Read more »
Politics Through the Looking Glass: Virus Scrambles the Left-Right Lines
… As Republicans prepare for a re-election battle almost certain to hinge on perceptions of the Trump administration’s readiness and efficiency in performing its most solemn duty — to protect American lives — the decades-old debate over government’s role in American life has entered an unfamiliar phase of discombobulation. A […] Read more »
The Audacity of Hate
… The Tea Party changed what it was permissible to debate openly in contemporary politics. Within a few years, it enabled Trump to further erode the norms of political combat and more openly instigate partisan conflict based on racial and ethnic antagonism. Under Trump, coded rhetoric like Reagan’s “welfare queen” […] Read more »