On July 20, 2006, the United States Senate voted to renew the Voting Rights Act for 25 more years. The vote was unanimous, 98 to 0. That followed an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, which passed it by a vote of 390 to 33. President George Bush […] Read more »
Data Availability Determines Whether Campaigns Focus On The Middle Or The Base
The primary season is here, the first Republican debates are in the books, and the presidential candidates are trying to persuade voters to support them. Persuasion happens a lot in primaries, but enjoy it while it lasts: Once campaigning for the general election begins, persuasion will mostly disappear, and mobilization […] Read more »
Democrats are heavily dependent on the black vote. That’s an opportunity for the GOP.
Black voters hold an unusual position in American politics. They vote heavily Democratic, as you know, and have for decades. The black population isn’t as large as the white population, so that Democratic dominance doesn’t tip the scales as much as it might otherwise; in general, the two parties are […] Read more »
Why Republicans Should Worry About Restrictive Voting Laws
When The Times released its joint poll with CBS on race last week, its most eye-catching finding was that a majority of Americans have a negative view of race relations, a sharp reversal of expectations following Barack Obama’s election in 2008. But deeper in the results was a telling data […] Read more »
A Dream Undone: Inside the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act
… What changed this state of affairs was the passage, 50 years ago this month, of the Voting Rights Act. Signed on Aug. 6, 1965, it was meant to correct “a clear and simple wrong,” as Lyndon Johnson said. “Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of […] Read more »
What do Americans feel about race relations?
Americans’ negative views on the state of race relations in the U.S. persist, with nearly 6 in 10 Americans saying they’re bad, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll released Thursday. Among those polled, blacks are more likely than whites to hold this view. CONT. CBS News Read more »