Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

The Presidential Campaigns Didn’t Really Matter

obamacampaign

Political scientists argue Americans have all the information we need to make our voting decisions long before the campaign begins. So, we can—almost—call presidential elections while its still summertime. Why then do we have to endure long fall months of endless political rhetoric? Turns out, there is one simple reason. Most of us who are interested in politics are relieved. Whether or not we liked the outcome of the election, we are simply happy not to have to read and hear endless news about the two campaigns anymore. But we probably could have tuned out altogether while it was still ... Read More

The Game Done Changed, Governor Brown

Election Day is tomorrow, and Prop 30, a California ballot initiative notable for its tax hike on the wealthy to fund education, is hanging by a thread if recent polls are any indication. This is a huge deal, given the budget cuts the state will face without additional revenue. For the measure’s supporters, it must have been frustrating to read California Governor Jerry Brown’s butt-covering maneuvers (he's championing the initiative) in the New York Times yesterday: The money is needed for schools. I don’t want people to wake up the day after the election and say, ‘Why didn’t ... Read More

Please Give? Sure, So Long as My Guy Wins

politicalgiving

Many important outcomes hinge on the results of Tuesday’s election. The fate of health-care reform. The makeup of the Supreme Court. And, of course, the amount of money you’ll be giving to charity next year. The latter conclusion is found in a paper prepared by MIT political scientists Michele Margolis and Michael Sances for a recent conference of the American Political Science Association. Their research caught the attention of the Washington Post a couple of weeks back for its refutation of Arthur Brooks’ oft-repeated claim that conservatives are more generous donors than ... Read More

How Well Do You Understand the Affordable Care Act? Take Our Quiz!

President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act into law on March 22, 2010. (PHOTO: THE OFFICE OF HARRY REID)

It is one of the Obama administration's biggest accomplishments, one of Republicans' biggest targets, and the first thing that Mitt Romney says he'll undo if he becomes president. Given the emotions around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, then, you'd think that people must have really picked it apart and made up their minds about it, right? Not the case. According to a new survey by Stanford University (pdf), hardly any Americans really understand what's in the contentious, 900-page law, which was passed by Congress in 2010 with a single Republican vote. For ... Read More

America’s Increasingly Tribal Electorate

(PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

As another bitterly fought, closely contested presidential campaign comes to an end, the American electorate appears hopelessly conflicted. Even as we plead for compromise and bipartisanship in Washington, we increasingly split into two mutually antagonistic camps. This apparent contradiction has led puzzled academics to different conclusions: Some insist the public is becoming strongly polarized, while others believe the phenomenon is largely limited to the political and media elite. Political scientist Lilliana Mason’s analysis is more subtle, and more disturbing. Her research ... Read More

Social Networks Degrade Political Thinking

Plenty of research suggests having a strong, supportive social network has a positive impact on one’s health and well-being. But with an election approaching, it’s worth noting that this sort of interconnectedness apparently has a dark side. It seems to make us less-sophisticated thinkers, at least in the realm of politics and policy. That’s the conclusion of a study recently published in the journal Political Psychology. Researchers Elif Erisen and Cengiz Erisen conclude close-knit networks of friends and acquaintances apparently create “social bubbles,” which can limit “how ... Read More

Atheists for Obama!

Americans are losing their religion, and that's good news for Democrats. So says Pitzer College prof Phil Zuckerman in a fascinating breakdown in Bloomberg Businessweek. Americans have long been more religious than almost all other Western societies, but that's changing fast, reports Pitzer: In 1990, only 8 percent of Americans claimed to have no religion. Today, about 20 percent claim as much. More than one-third of American adults younger than 30 are now religiously unaffiliated, which means that among 20-somethings, secular Americans far outnumber evangelical Christians -- a big shift from ... Read More

What Joe Biden and Paul Ryan Can Learn From the History Books

Do you remember anything about the vice-presidential debate in 1996? Al Gore? Jack Kemp? Nothing? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. “I can’t remember a single darn thing about it,” says Margaret O’Mara, a professor at the University of Washington. “It was singularly unmemorable.” And O'Mara should probably know that debate. This month, the history prof, who teaches courses in partisan politics, has been presenting a series of lectures in Seattle called “Pivotal Tuesdays,” in which she examines presidential campaigns by looking at four elections that she ... Read More

Pew Research: One-Third of Those Under 30 Are Religiously Unaffiliated

A report published by the Pew Research Center (pdf) today indicates that almost 20 percent of U.S. adults polled reported no religious affiliation, that 32 percent of those under the age of 30 reported no affiliation—and that both of these numbers are on the rise. The data, by the Forum on Religion and Public Life group at Pew, was based on telephone interviews with 2,973 U.S. adults around the beginning of this July. The study credits the overall rise in non-religious affiliations (up almost 5 percent in the last five years) to generational replacement—that growing number of young ... Read More

Do You Browse to the Left, or the Right?

If we were to peek into your browser history, would we be more likely to find Rush, Beck and O’Reilly, or Sullivan, Yglesias and Ariana? Do you even know? Turns out there’s an app for that (of sorts). Meet Balancer, a free add-on for the Chrome browser that was developed by Sean Munson, an assistant professor of Human-Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. The free plug-in analyzes your browsing habits over a 30-day period using a giant database of known political sites that have been ranked along a spectrum from -1 (O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and ... Read More