In his 2007 book The Assault on Reason, former Vice President Al Gore warned about what he saw as a dire threat to American democracy. "The 'well-informed citizenry,'" Gore fretted, "is in danger of becoming the 'well-amused audience.'" In a presentation on Super Tuesday 2008 ("That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08"), I elaborated […]

On March 23, 2010--the very day President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into low--then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced his party's objective would be to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. But now, almost 7 years later, McConnell and Congressional Republicans finding it extremely hard to do either. And soon the task for Majority […]

Republican leaders and their amen corner in the conservative commentariat are ecstatic that both houses of Congress are finally about to send an Obamacare "repeal" bill to the President's desk. This morning, Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted, "The House will vote tomorrow to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood." But as Hot Air's Ed Morrissey ("CBO: […]

Just in time for holiday party season, there's a new drinking game certain to make things more jolly. It works like this: Every time Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says "tax reform," "close loopholes," "simplify the tax code," "lower rates," or "broaden the base," Americans have to drink. After all, for more than six […]

For four decades, American public opinion on the issue of abortion has been largely unchanged. As the numbers from Gallup, the Pew Research Center and other polls show, roughly half of Americans have identified themselves as "pro-choice" even as consistent majorities support keeping abortion legal in all or many circumstances. But now, a new survey […]

In the span of just two weeks, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has catapulted into Republican superstar status. Mitt Romney's premature withdrawal from the 2016 presidential race cracked open the doors for the emergence of a hardline right-wing alternative to the Party establishment's lone remaining consensus candidate, Jeb Bush. And with his surprisingly animated speech at […]

As 2015 begins, there is much to be optimistic about for the new year. The American economy is really starting to take off. The private sector has created new jobs for a record 57 months, driving down the unemployment rate and finally beginning to put upward pressure on wages. Plummeting global energy costs are putting […]

Many leaders in the Republican Party and its amen corner are shocked--SHOCKED!--to learn that one of its top figures in Congress addressed a white supremacist group in 2002. But Rep. Steve Scalise's outreach to the white power crowd shouldn't have come as a surprise to the likes of Erick Erickson or Jennifer Rubin or anyone […]

In the wake of the GOP's triumph in last week's midterm election, conservative commentators are demanding President Obama and his Democratic allies abandon their agenda and submit to the will of the new Republican majority. "The chastened President," Peggy Noonan lectured, should "reach out, be humble," but instead is "doubling down on hostility, antagonism and […]

Rout. Thumpin'. Shellacking. Call it what you will, but Democrats suffered a defeat even more dispiriting than the larger 2010 drubbing that delivered the House majority to the GOP. More dispiriting, that is, because the state of the nation has improved so dramatically over the past four years. Unemployment is down to 5.9 percent and […]