Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Memorial to a Beloved Advisor, and Friend – Marcus Borg
Memorial to a Beloved Advisor, and Friend – Marcus Borg: ProgressiveChristianity.org : Memorial to a Beloved Advisor, and Friend - Marcus Borg
Friday, January 27, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
After Seismic Political Shift, Modest Changes in Public’s Policy Agenda
After Seismic Political Shift, Modest Changes in Public’s Policy Agenda: Survey Report As Donald Trump enters the White House, the nation’s leading policy priorities are little changed from the final years of Barack Obama’s pre
Friday, January 20, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Congressmen Castro, Doggett Will Boycott Trump Inauguration
Congressmen Castro, Doggett Will Boycott Trump Inauguration: Three Texas congressmen, Rep. Joaquin Castro, Rep. Lloyd Doggett and Rep. Al Green, have pledged to join more than 50 representatives in boycotting President-elect Donald ...
How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency
How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency: Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock examines the changes – some profound, some subtle – that the U.S. experienced during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The World Facing Trump: Public Sees ISIS, Cyberattacks, North Korea as Top Threats
The World Facing Trump: Public Sees ISIS, Cyberattacks, North Korea as Top Threats: Americans view ISIS, cyberattacks, and North Korea's nuclear program as major threats to the U.S.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
driftglass: President Obama's Last-Minute Bid to Get Glenn Gre...
driftglass: President Obama's Last-Minute Bid to Get Glenn Gre...: From The New York Times: Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence By CHARLIE SAVAGE JAN. 17, 2017 WASHINGTON — Pres...
driftglass: David Brooks Pledges to Go Right on Ignoring Ameri...
driftglass: David Brooks Pledges to Go Right on Ignoring Ameri...: I case you did not know it, Mr. David Brooks, The New York Times' chief Conservative political thinker and America's most tedio...
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Friday, January 13, 2017
Take Action: Tell Your Senators to Oppose Scott Pruitt's Nomination to Head the EPA
Take Action: Tell Your Senators to Oppose Scott Pruitt's Nomination to Head the EPA: Fossil fuel ally Scott Pruitt is a climate science denier and a grave threat to our air and water. Tell your Senators to oppose Pruitt's nomination to head the EPA.
Take Action: Tell Your Senators to Oppose Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State
Take Action: Tell Your Senators to Oppose Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State: Tillerson’s nomination is just one more example of how Trump’s government will put corporate profits and political favors above people and the planet.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Faith on the Hill
Faith on the Hill: The share of U.S. adults who describe themselves as Christians has been declining for decades, but the U.S. Congress is about as Christian today as it was in the early 1960s.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Thinking Like a Political Scientist
Thinking Like a Political Scientist: Each year, tens of thousands of students who are interested in politics go through a rite of passage: they take a course in research methods. Many find the subject to be boring or confusing, and with good reason. Most of the standard books on research methods fail to highlight the most important concepts and questions. Instead, they brim with dry technical definitions and focus heavily on statistical analysis, slighting other valuable methods. This approach not only dulls potential enjoyment of the course, but prevents students from mastering the skills they need to engage more directly and meaningfully with a wide variety of research. With wit and practical wisdom, Christopher Howard draws on more than a decade of experience teaching research methods to transform a typically dreary subject and teach budding political scientists the critical skills they need to read published research more effectively and produce better research of their own. The first part of the book is devoted to asking three fundamental questions in political science: What happened? Why? Who cares? In the second section, Howard demonstrates how to answer these questions by choosing an appropriate research design, selecting cases, and working with numbers and written documents as evidence. Drawing on examples from American and comparative politics, international relations, and public policy, Thinking Like a Political Scientist highlights the most common challenges that political scientists routinely face, and each chapter concludes with exercises so that students can practice dealing with those challenges.
Why Washington Won't Work
Why Washington Won't Work: Polarization is at an all-time high in the United States. But contrary to popular belief, Americans are polarized not so much in their policy preferences as in their feelings toward their political opponents: To an unprecedented degree, Republicans and Democrats simply do not like one another. No surprise that these deeply held negative feelings are central to the recent (also unprecedented) plunge in congressional productivity. The past three Congresses have gotten less done than any since scholars began measuring congressional productivity. In Why Washington Won’t Work, Marc J. Hetherington and Thomas J. Rudolph argue that a contemporary crisis of trust—people whose party is out of power have almost no trust in a government run by the other side—has deadlocked Congress. On most issues, party leaders can convince their own party to support their positions. In order to pass legislation, however, they must also create consensus by persuading some portion of the opposing party to trust in their vision for the future. Without trust, consensus fails to develop and compromise does not occur. Up until recently, such trust could still usually be found among the opposition, but not anymore. Political trust, the authors show, is far from a stable characteristic. It’s actually highly variable and contingent on a variety of factors, including whether one’s party is in control, which part of the government one is dealing with, and which policies or events are most salient at the moment. Political trust increases, for example, when the public is concerned with foreign policy—as in times of war—and it decreases in periods of weak economic performance. Hetherington and Rudolph do offer some suggestions about steps politicians and the public might take to increase political trust. Ultimately, however, they conclude that it is unlikely levels of political trust will significantly increase unless foreign concerns come to dominate and the economy is consistently strong.
Neither Liberal nor Conservative
Neither Liberal nor Conservative: Congress is crippled by ideological conflict. The political parties are more polarized today than at any time since the Civil War. Americans disagree, fiercely, about just about everything, from terrorism and national security, to taxes and government spending, to immigration and gay marriage. Well, American elites disagree fiercely. But average Americans do not. This, at least, was the position staked out by Philip Converse in his famous essay on belief systems, which drew on surveys carried out during the Eisenhower Era to conclude that most Americans were innocent of ideology. In Neither Liberal nor Conservative, Donald Kinder and Nathan Kalmoe argue that ideological innocence applies nearly as well to the current state of American public opinion. Real liberals and real conservatives are found in impressive numbers only among those who are deeply engaged in political life. The ideological battles between American political elites show up as scattered skirmishes in the general public, if they show up at all. If ideology is out of reach for all but a few who are deeply and seriously engaged in political life, how do Americans decide whom to elect president; whether affirmative action is good or bad? Kinder and Kalmoe offer a persuasive group-centered answer. Political preferences arise less from ideological differences than from the attachments and antagonisms of group life.
Strategic Party Government
Strategic Party Government: Why is Congress mired in partisan polarization? The conventional answer is that members of Congress and their constituencies fundamentally disagree with one other along ideological lines. But Gregory Koger and Matthew J. Lebo uncover a more compelling reason that today’s political leaders devote so much time to conveying their party’s positions, even at the expense of basic government functions: Both parties want to win elections. In Strategic Party Government, Koger and Lebo argue that Congress is now primarily a forum for partisan competition. In order to avoid losing, legislators unite behind strong party leaders, even when they do not fully agree with the policies their party is advocating. They do so in the belief that party leaders and voters will reward them for winning—or at least trying to win—these legislative contests. And as the parties present increasingly united fronts, partisan competition intensifies and pressure continues to mount for a strong party-building strategy—despite considerable disagreement within the parties. By bringing this powerful but underappreciated force in American politics to the forefront, Koger and Lebo provide a new interpretation of the problems facing Congress that is certain to reset the agenda for legislative studies.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Social Media Update 2016
Social Media Update 2016: Facebook usage and engagement is on the rise, while adoption of other social networking platforms holds steady.
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