Pope Francis’ highly anticipated encyclical on the environment comes out on June 18. The letter’s novelty plays into its appeal; not only is it Pope Francis’s first encyclical, it will also be the first encyclical on the environment in the history of the Catholic Church. To better understand Catholics’ views […] Read more »
The Average Joe’s Proviso
Democrats cannot win big or consistently enough, deep enough down the ticket or broadly enough in the states, unless they run much stronger with white working-class and downscale voters. That includes running better with white working-class swing voters, of course. But it also includes winning more decisively with white unmarried […] Read more »
A Rubio campaign blueprint, for all the world to see
It isn’t often that a presidential campaign blueprint comes packaged between covers and available in bookstores and online for all to see. But that’s the inescapable conclusion from looking through the pages of the book entitled, “2016 and Beyond,” by Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Ayres is one of his party’s […] Read more »
Deep Divide Between Black and White Americans on Criminal Justice System’s Racial Equality
… Approximately four in ten (41%) Americans overall agree that blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment as whites in the criminal justice system, compared to a slim majority (51%) who disagree. Perceptions of the fairness of the criminal justice system are heavily influenced by race, with nearly a 30-percentage […] Read more »
Populism could divide the Grand Old Party
… Republicans and conservatives have a brand problem. Their presidential campaign will only aggravate it as candidates are forced to double-down on an ideology that is in danger of decline. Moreover, the next year is likely to intensify deep stresses inside their coalition. Mike Huckabee gleefully highlighted these frictions when […] Read more »
Sex, Drugs and Poverty in Red and Blue America
In the fall of 1969, Merle Haggard topped the Billboard country charts for four weeks with “Okie from Muskogee,” the song that quickly became the anthem of red America, even before we called it that. “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don’t take our trips on LSD, we don’t […] Read more »