Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr. identifies four political factions functioning within our two-party system: The Trump Party (Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Fox News and other conservative cable outlets, conservative talk radio). The GOP Old Guard (Mitch McConnell, Mitt...
political commentary
New York City mayor Eric Adams “isn’t easily placed on the traditional left-right spectrum”
I have long been attracted to figures–both in history and in the present–who do not fit well into the political boxes we try to create for them. Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer puts New York City mayor Eric Adams...
The 2022 Georgia governor’s race is heating-up
Remember Brian Kemp’s 2018 campaign ad for Georgia governor?. If not, watch it here: Kemp defeated Stacy Abrams in a very close and controversial general election in November 2018. In April 2020, Kemp issued a stay-at-home order after learning for...
Who is Michael Lind?
Over at New York Magazine, Eric Levitz reviews the work of public intellectual Michael Lind. The piece is much more nuanced than its title. Here is a taste of “The Delusions of the Radical Centrist”: …Michael Lind, has long been...
Val Demings (D-Fla.) is planning a run against Marco Rubio
Demings was a House manager in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial and was on Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist. Political scientists Ashley Daniels and Pearl Dowe think Demings has a chance of taking Rubio’s Senate seat if she can mobilize Black...
James Carville is glad that Joe Biden is not into “faculty lounge” politics
The political consultant best known for running Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns comes from an era when Democratic politics was all about making appeals to the things working and middle-class people had in common. He has reacted strongly to the identity...
It is time for prominent evangelicals to get their acts together or stop speaking on behalf of Christianity
Mike Huckabee is a Baptist pastor, Trump court evangelical, Christian television celebrity, and former presidential candidate (he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008) and governor of Arkansas. He also appears to be a racist. Here is Matthew Brown at USA...
Kazin: The Democratic Party must embrace a “new politics of economic justice”
How does the Democratic Party move forward in the post-Trump era? Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin, who is writing a new history of the Democrats, offers some thoughts in a recent piece at The New Republic. Here is a taste:...