Mark Mellman

I19f Democrats and Republicans were holding their national primaries 12 days from now, on Feb. 1, we could predict each party’s nominee with relative confidence. Hillary Clinton enjoys a 16-point…

Since Donald Trump hasn’t forsaken his efforts to fan fear of Islam, I will pick up today’s column where I left off in December, examining more of the flaws in…

Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim demagoguery is the latest attempt to undermine the pluralism and diversity that are among America’s greatest strengths. To bolster their claims, demagogues frequently resort to pseudoscience, and…

In graduate school, our departmental T-shirts featured the titles of two books authored by distinguished faculty. The front asked “Who Governs?”, the title of Robert Dahl’s classic dissecting the nature…

Democrats and Republicans think differently about many issues. Republicans are more likely to oppose abortion and gay rights and less likely to support a government role in helping the poor…

On Saturday night, the International Association of Political Consultants bestowed its highest honor, the Democracy Medal, on a man serving a 14-year prison sentence. No, it was not confirmation that…

I last examined the Republican presidential nominating contest in February — and my thoughts proved, well, worthless. “For now,” I concluded, “keep an eye on [Scott] Walker and recognize that…

Political contests can be illuminated in a variety of ways. We can analyze them through the prism of candidate images, issue dynamics or voters’ values, among many others. Perhaps the…

Even casual observers of American politics recognize that whites comprise a declining share of the electorate. Most of the ink spilled over this phenomenon has focused on Hispanics and African-Americans,…

Talk shows last weekend abounded with Republicans directing amity and good cheer, sweetness and light, toward one another. It was a verbal love fest after a week of nonstop bloodletting…