It’s the issue that dare not speak its name – climate change. As the New York Times, NPR, the Associated Press and a host of pundits, including our Tom Jacobs, have noticed, talk of global warming has been banished from the hustings in this year’s U.S. presidential campaign. While both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney embrace talk about energy – whether from fossil fuels or renewable sources – with various amounts of gusto, the focus is always economic, not environmental. Despite his muted voice this year, in years past Obama has been an ardent believer in anthropogenic climate ... Read More
Think Tanks Are Nonpartisan? Think Again
February 17, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
One of the strangest institutions in Washington — and perhaps the hardest to comprehend from the outside — is the think tank, that quasi-academic, sort-of-political organization that offers, as its primary output, ideas. Universally, think tanks claim to be nonpartisan, and as tax-exempt nonprofits, this is a basic requirement in the tax code. But most people in Washington know the ideological leanings of think tanks that may obscure this fact in their titles: There’s the Cato Institute (libertarian), the Heritage Foundation (conservative), the Brookings Institution (moderate liberal) ... Read More
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
February 8, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The U.S. House transportation bill released last week by Rep. John Mica contained a number of provisions that immediately alarmed transit and smart growth advocates and their Democratic supporters on Capitol Hill. The bill would cut subsidies to Amtrak, eliminate dedicated money for bike and pedestrian programs, and scrap guaranteed funding for mass transit. Throw in controversial plans to pay for some of the legislation with domestic oil drilling, and America has, yet again, a partisan dogfight. Transportation, though, is supposed to be different. There is a long history in Washington of ... Read More
Nixon’s Presidential Library: The Last Battle of Watergate
December 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Should the National Archives be in the business of presenting objective public history at the nation’s presidential libraries? Or should the private organizations that fund many of these institutions be able to lionize their man in the White House? In an exclusive from the upcoming issue of Miller-McCune magazine, learn how the fractious new partnership between the Archives and the foundation intent on rehabilitating Richard Nixon’s legacy has become the issue’s ... Read More
Political Polarization Grows as Job Security Falls
July 19, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The debt ceiling drama under way right now in Washington — or, more specifically, the dramatic inability of Republicans and Democrats to reach compromise and the cheerleading of many who don't want them to — is the latest testament to an odd phenomenon in American politics. It goes by a couple of different names: increasing partisanship, political polarization, the disappearing center. And political scientists don't have a single winning theory to explain it. "This political polarization is something that's fascinated me as a political scientist quite a bit because it's so strange," ... Read More
To Reach Consensus, Let’s Talk Less
November 11, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
When it comes to controversial political issues, we often seek out sources of information that confirm what we already believe — conservatives, in other words, watch Fox News, and liberals lean forward with MSNBC. Along the way, our opinions grow more entrenched — and sometimes more extreme — whether they're reinforced by like-minded groups or challenged by people with whom we disagree. This concept may also apply to how we process opinions about controversial science and technology issues, according to new research. And groups bracing for some tense national debate on this front — ... Read More
Income Inequality Linked to Senate Standoffs
October 21, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
In the United States, the past quarter-century has been marked by two disturbing societal trends: increasing levels of both income inequality and political polarization. The rich are growing richer, and Democrats and Republicans are growing farther apart. In 2006, a group of researchers led by Nolan McCarty, a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton, presented evidence linking these two phenomena. They reported that "the average positions of Democratic and Republican legislators have diverged markedly since the mid-1970s," adding that "this turning point occurs almost exactly ... Read More
Mandatory Voting As a Cure for Extreme Partisanship?
July 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Political scientists will inevitably get more evidence this fall for a pattern particularly true of midterm elections: People who don't follow politics — and don't have rabid views on the most polarizing topics of the day — tend not to vote. They leave alone at the polls motivated voters with extreme views likely to elect equally extreme politicians who are, as a result, unable to work with each other. "You have a kind of reinforcement where politicians appeal to more ideologically inspired voters, who then reinforce politicians who respond to them," said William Galston, a senior ... Read More
Dismissing Gridlock: A Case for Parliamentary Systems
May 6, 2010 • By • 4 Comments
This story originally posted on April 20, 2009. Perhaps you've heard these complaints before: There's too much gridlock in Washington; our leaders are incapable of solving big problems; politics is broken. So, we blame our politicians. Over the last 35 years, the approval rating for Congress has averaged a dismal 35 percent. (Lately, it hit 31 percent, a two-year high.) But maybe it's not our elected leaders that we should be chiding. John Gerring and Strom C. Thacker, professors of political science at Boston University, say the actual problem may be our political institutions, ... Read More
The Comforting Notion of an All-Powerful Enemy
March 8, 2010 • By • 5 Comments
We have seen the enemy, and he is powerful. That’s a recurring motif of contemporary political discourse, as generalized fear mutates for many into a fixation on a ferocious foe. Partisan rhetoric has turned increasingly alarmist. President Obama has difficulty getting even watered-down legislation passed, yet he is supposedly establishing a socialist state. The Tea Party is viewed as a terrifying new phenomenon, rather than the latest embodiment of a recurring paranoid streak in American politics. Osama bin Laden is likely confined to a cave, but he’s perceived as a ... Read More
