Just because Republicans should lose does not mean they will We’re less than 11 months from the most important election of our lifetime and the polls mean almost nothing at this point. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t note that given the demographic challenges conservatives have created for themselves, the sight of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz as the […]

The next election won’t just decide the future of reproductive rights, it will decide if the 20th century can be repealed Abigail Fisher was denied admission to the University of Texas, a school that’s more selective than Harvard, because her academic record wasn’t good enough. She sued because a handful of minority students along with 42 white students were granted […]

This guest post comes from Sean McElwee — a research associate at Demos and an excellent follow on Twitter. Find out more about Sean and his work by checking out his most recent post for Eclectablog. Also be sure to follow Brian Schaffner on Twitter @b_schaffner. In my latest Salon column, I explore a new working paper by political scientists […]

I blame the economy. November’s jobs report confirmed that 2015 is likely to be the second best year of job creation this century, only trailing 2014. Instead of wrecking the economy, Obamacare has led us to more new jobs than we’ve seen all century. While the president’s signature health care reforms face real challenges that demand improvements, more than 17 […]

  “Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy,” Donald Trump said before proceeding to risibly mock a disabled reporter. When the New York Times called him on his latest micro-abomination, Trump insisted that he didn’t remember the reporter he’d so vividly lampooned and demanded an apology. And, as the cliche now goes, this will only help him in […]

Democrats have the people; Republicans have the power For much of this year, I’ve been working on answering the essential question of politics, “How do Republicans win?” How did a Tea Partier who’d never be elected to anything that didn’t involve a homecoming game become governor of Kentucky by a margin of 80,000 votes after promising to take health insurance […]

This guest post comes from Sean McElwee — a research associate at Demos and an excellent follow on Twitter. Find out more about Sean, his work and what his research into voting uncovered about Michigan by checking out his Eclectablog posts on how to make America more progressive and Michigan’s somewhat impressive voter turnout. In my latest Salon piece, I […]

As the Republican Party inches around Marco Rubio, he’s getting the vetting his success has awarded him. The press is looking into his personal finances, possible misuse of a Republican Party charge card, and his 80s-sitcom like dependence on a local billionaire. But none of this could reveal anything more damning than what Marco Rubio is basing his entire candidacy […]

If the Republican Party were capable of embarrassment, this debate season would have already turned it redder than John Kasich’s forehead. Each debate has had its own pre-debate where each of the candidates who are losing so badly they aren’t in the main debate ends up getting as much as or more time to talk than the poll leaders. The […]

Chris Christie was mad. So mad that CNBC security was afraid that he might go Kool-Aid. The failed governor and successful punchline of millions of bridge jokes didn’t want to talk about fantasy football, which is essentially unregulated gambling that seems to be grifting off of and deluding millions Americans. NO! He wanted to lie about your Social Security. “It’s […]

The worst irony of our political system is that the party that wants to gut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid — the three programs that have combined have cut the senior poverty rate from about 35 percent to about 10 — is in only power because of the votes of senior citizens. It’s time to change that — or at […]