The Health of Democracy Survey tracks support for anti-democratic norms. Since 2022, support for democracy has polarized between the two parties. While support among Democrats has remained stable (even declined slightly), Republicans are increasingly skeptical of liberal democracy. #polisky

🚨 New Publication Alert 🚨 My new co-authored paper, entitled "Affective Representation in Congress," with @acayton.bsky.social and Carey Stapleton, is now online at @polbehavior.bsky.social! #polisky link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Affective Representation in Congress - Political Behavior

Drawing on theories of affective intelligence and intergroup emotions, we develop a theory of affective representation in Congress in which lawmakers vary the emotional tone of their communications to...

link.springer.com

Has there been any chatter anywhere on this site or elsewhere about how much the topline results in the 2024 ANES are off? It shows Harris winning by 11 points. That seems bad.

I want to state publicly that toddlers on leashes are hilarious!

“Federal job applicants will soon be quizzed on their favorite Trump administration policy as part of the hiring process, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s new ‘merit hiring plan.’” www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

OPM ‘merit’ hiring plan includes bipartisan reforms, politicized new test

The federal government’s HR agency on Thursday instructed agencies to cease collecting data on the demographic makeup of their workforces.

govexec.com

My flight to Chicago was just canceled for unknown reasons. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to make it to #MPSA25

I wish the Democrats would realize that Trump's approval rating is as high as it is because of a total lack of unified messaging on their part. The Party needs to engage in a full court press against this administration. People will only believe this is a constitutional crisis if they see RESISTANCE

This EO dictates what faculty at service academies can and cannot teach in the classroom. This executive order, titled, "Restoring America's Fighting Force" is both unabashedly unconstitutional, running afoul of the First Amendment, and violates accreditation rules. Where's AAUP and the ACLU?!

I don’t have the emotional energy to do this for another four years.

Are you interested in U.S. legislative history? Newly-available complete dataset on all persons serving as legislators in the 50 state houses between 1900 and 2016: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...

It speaks to the asymmetry in the party coalitions. Democrats have a programmatic agenda built around equal rights protection and Democrats see Biden’s move as a cop out, while Republicans place a high premium on identity and in-group loyalty, so they fall in line around their party leader.

Trump's approval rating in his first term hovered in the high 30s to low 40s during his entire term. He never saw an approval rating above 50%. Today, support for his presidential transition is around 60%. This is what Skowronek's "politics of reconstruction" looks like.

Is it just me or does Matt Gaetz looks like he could play the villain in a straight to video sequel of 101 Dalmatians

I read this book last week. It’s great!

I am teaching campaigns & elections for the first time since 2016. What are some great readings I can assign to undergrads? Shameless self-promotion is strongly encouraged. #polisky

It turns out the Nick ‘Alpha Male’ Adams is the real deal. He’s not a parody account. He loves watch his butcher, Mario, handle his meat

The deeply silly, extremely serious rise of ‘Alpha Male’ Nick Adams

Meet the Trump-backed raconteur who is teaching America’s young men the art of being hard to deal with

apple.news

Would anyone who has recently taught a course for the U.S. Congress OR the Presidency be willing to share their syllabus? #Polisky

The new show, Ted, on Peacock is fantastic. It uses the conceits of a 90s sitcom, albeit with an eye to the 70s great, All in the Family, for inspiration. Seth McFarlane is more than a raunchy jokester. His shows are as much an homage to series’ past as they are subversions of the genre.

My best shows of 2023: 1 The Bear (Hulu) 2 Succession (HBO) 3 Beef ( Netflix) 4 Shrinking ( Apple+) 5 Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon) 6 The Last of Us (HBO) 7 Jury Duty (Freeve) 8 Reservation Dogs (FX) 9 For All Man Kind (Apple+) 10 Dave (Hulu)

This story is important and horrifying. Includes graphic imagery.

Terror on repeat: A rare look at the devastation caused by AR-15 shootings

Photos, videos and personal accounts show how the AR-15 has given assailants the power to instantly turn everyday gathering places into zones of gruesome violence.

washingtonpost.com

President Biden’s problem is that his older, soft spoken nature doesn’t serve him well in a country looking for charismatic leadership. His style seemed attractive after four years of chaos cause by the Trump presidency. Now, it works against him. We could use some Obama energy right now.

Lessons in Chemistry on AppleTV+ is a really good show!

Hot take: Matthew Broderick is not a particularly good actor. Hot take #2: The Cable Guy, whatever its flaws, has a solid soundtrack!

What is the going rate that people are paying participants for online survey experiments using Lucid, prolific, and mTurk these days? #Polisky

🚨 New Publication Alert 🚨 My new co-authored entitled, "Place, Race, and the Geographic Politics of White Grievance," with @ZoeNemerever, @KalMunis, and Fran Verville is now online at @PolBehavior! #polisky link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Place, Race, and the Geographic Politics of White Grievance - Political Behavior

Rural resentment is a form of place-based grievance politics that scholars have used to explain the growing urban-rural divide in American politics. However, whereas extant theory assumes that rural r...

link.springer.com

At the time, when I wrote this piece in Nov. 2022 I wondered if maybe I was pushing the envelope just a bit too far. I only wish that had been the case . . . So, how does this effort to politicize the military work? 1/

The Right Wing’s Loyalty Test for the U.S. Military

A dangerous turn in civil-military relations.

foreignaffairs.com

Oh, God! I’ve become an alarming statistic.

Will @goodauth.bsky.social eventually allow submissions from other academics again like the Monkey Cage did, or is that format gone completely? #polisky

For the life of me, I can not figure out why pennies still exist, except to sit in a jar at my grandmother’s house.