Last week, I examined two of the three strands of conservative thinking — aversion to government and aversion to change — which Donald Trump melded together in his successful effort to capture the White House. Here I’ll focus on the third — aversion to difference — which mostly lay dormant in recent years, until Trump ignited these…
It’s possible the Trump presidency will implode while congressional Republicans fan the flames of public outrage by their handling of healthcare, the budget and taxes. Midterm Democratic victories may only require us to stand and watch. We’d be foolish to count on such an eventuality, however. While an improved economic message is part of the…
Otto von Bismarck never said, “Politics is the art of compromise.” His actual statement conveyed a similar, but not identical, sentiment: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.” However, the first statement, often misattributed to Bismarck, is no less true for having failed to cross the…
Donald Trump loves being treated like a king and he suffers terrible insecurities about the legitimacy of his election. The former was evident is his response to Saudi Arabia; the latter is on self-destructive display in his reaction to everything Russia. Trump’s obsession with the investigations reveals his deep-seated concern that his Kremlin cohorts may just…
An oft repeated talking point holds that Donald Trump’s supporters remain firm in backing the president. It’s neither as true, nor as electorally important, as it sounds. In November, Trump garnered a minority of the votes cast—46.4 percent — while 53.6 percent voted for someone else. Just after his inauguration Huffpost Pollster’s average put approval of…
Just how unpopular is the Republican healthcare plan? It’s more unpopular than any major piece of legislation in the last 30 years. That means it is more unpopular than ClintonCare, more unpopular than ObamaCare, even more unpopular than the bank bailout. Professor Christopher Warshaw of MIT compiled data on 14 key bills since 1990. None…
Some Democrats have trouble imagining a president worse than Donald Trump. There are a number. And Donald Trump just announced his backing for one, extending a White House invitation to a serial killer. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been criticized by Amnesty International and the United Nations for engaging in extrajudicial killings — also known as…
Donald Trump signed a contract with me and then violated it — and I think it’s going to cost him. The president affixed his signature to a “Contract With The American Voter” (that’s me) in which he made 60 promises for his first 100 days in office, according to Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. Kessler…
Partisanship is an increasingly powerful, mind-altering drug. It affects not only our perception of what is right and wrong, but also of what is real. Four years ago, I reported here on an experiment we conducted for the Bipartisan Policy Center with our colleagues at North Star Opinion Research. We presented respondents with two different…
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) could not be more right: “When a nominee doesn’t get 60 votes, you shouldn’t change the rules, you should change the nominee,” he said. A dozen years ago, in this space, I argued, “It should take 60 votes to put someone on the Supreme Court for life. We should…
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