The South and the New Deal

Invoking “dysfunction” is now the basic black of punditry about American politics. As the British political theorist David Runciman recently observed in the London Review of Books, “Commentators find it almost impossible to write about American democracy these days...
Monolithic Black Vote?

Monolithic Black Vote?

In 13 wards in Philadelphia, reports the Inquirer, President Barack Obama received 99 percent of the vote! A local Democratic ward leader outlined the strategy: “In this election, you had to point out to people what was at stake. And in many cases, they felt...
Republican Civil War?

Republican Civil War?

“If the Republican Party cannot win in this environment,” declared conservative luminary George Will in September, “it has to get out of politics and find another business.” Fox News host and Tea Party darling Laura Ingraham agreed, telling Republicans, “if you can’t...
Where does The South begin?

Where does The South begin?

Gordonsville, Va. — There’s debate about where the South really begins. The Mason-Dixon Line? The Potomac? The Rappahannock? The “sweet tea line?” What’s certain is that, by the time you’ve reached David Lamb’s horse farm in Orange County, you’re there. Oakland...
The Femininity Factor

The Femininity Factor

Are Republican women politicians more “feminine” than Democratic women politicians? That’s the conclusion of a new study by UCLA researchers, who found that Republican women are so much more “feminine” that college students were able to...