COVID first emerged on the scene 3 ½ years ago, along with facemasks, distancing, lockdowns, quarantines, followed by mandatory vaccination and other dystopian social controls. As life has recently been returning to normal, it feels like Groundhog Day, with an eerie sense of déjà vu, especially around masking.
— Like so many other female politicians, Nikki Haley faces a “woman problem” and must combat sexist rhetoric that is prevalent in politics and has been since Victoria C. Woodhull became the first woman to run for president in 1872.
— Campaigns and elections are more challenging for women than men due to structural disadvantages, including media coverage of candidates, public opinion, and stereotypes.
— Fewer men than women think many Americans are ready to elect a woman to higher office.
Having a baby? There's a new law meant for you: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
Net zero is in trouble. In utterly predictable trouble, in the king's-wearing-no-clothes trouble.
House Republicans are in another titanic battle with President Joe Biden on how to balance the budget. Actually, it's a lopsided debate
If Joe Biden is their nominee, Democrats will lose the White House next year.
"Populist politicians and parties," writes the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Henry Olsen in The Spectator, are "rapidly gaining strength and power across the developed world."
— In this year’s state legislative races in Virginia, Republicans are trying to do something that has become rare: forge a state government trifecta in a state that voted for the other party for president.
— At first blush, Democrats would appear to have a clear edge on the map, but in an off-year election, the key districts’ presidential voting patterns overstate how Democratic they are in these legislative races.
— While President Biden’s approval rating is actually worse than it was in November 2021, when Republicans scored victories in that year’s Virginia races, the political environment is likely better for Democrats now than it was back then.
Did you survive the budget cuts from the last debt ceiling fight?
You may have heard the Biden Justice Department is suing Google in federal court for being a "monopoly." That's a bizarre charge given that few, if any companies in all American history have lowered prices more than Google -- which provides access to information that used to take hours or days to find -- with merely a click of a button, and instantaneously. And it does it basically for free.
"The Jerry Springer Show" has been off the air for years, but you'd never know it to judge by the state of American politics, which now serves up titillation and outrage as reliably as Jerry Springer ever did.
Are non-white voters really moving away from the Democratic Party? To partisan Democrats confronting this question on Twitter (sorry, X), it seems preposterous that the party of former President Donald Trump, whom they routinely call a racist, could be gaining support from blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
— We analyzed 48 states to see which have the most lopsided state Senate and state House chambers compared to how the state voted for president.
— Both parties have some states in which the legislative breakdown significantly exaggerates the patterns of the presidential vote.
— For Democrats, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have the most “excess seats” above the presidential vote threshold. For Republicans, the list is both longer and more varied, with Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin standing out as at least somewhat competitive states where the Republicans have large excess seat advantages.
— In all, Republicans have proven much more adept than Democrats at leveraging presidential vote patterns into even larger majorities in state legislative chambers. The GOP has achieved significant levels of excess seats in about three times as many states as the Democrats have.
— Gerrymandering is one reason for this, but it probably doesn’t explain the exaggerated legislative majorities in many states. Rather, the phenomenon of excess seats appears to be a natural consequence of minority parties being doomed into irrelevance once they start consistently losing presidential and statewide races, sapping their ability to recruit candidates and build party infrastructure.
Want a soda? You'll pay more for one in Philadelphia, because five years ago, local politicians decided to tax it.
Fear has a name in the Democratic Party, and that name is Cornel West.
What's worse? When politicians shut down the government, or when they lock down businesses, stores, schools, churches and restaurants -- and nearly all private commerce in America?
This would be a perfect question for a Rasmussen Reports survey, especially ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
You could blame Victor Hugo. In 1846, the French novelist observed a young man being arrested for holding a loaf of bread he stole.
— The presidential voting gap between the nation’s most populous counties and the rest of the nation has nearly tripled from 1996 to 2020.
— The 2000 and 2016 elections were the biggest contributors to this gap.
— While there is nearly a 40-point difference between the top and bottom halves, the gap did not grow from 2016-2020.
Colorado has a popular Democratic governor, Jared Polis.
