Civic Studies » revitalizing the left

moving to the center is a metaphor, and maybe not a good one

Peter — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:56:02 +0000

There is a huge debate underway about whether Democrats should move toward the center of the political spectrum or to the left. As usual, many people who want the party to land at their preferred point on the spectrum also argue that this would be the best electoral strategy, although those are separate issues. Some […] Continue reading →

the Democratic Party and the media environment

Peter — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 16:36:01 +0000

This new study by Democracy Matters (as reported in Politico) is typical of a wave of recent commentary: The Democratic brand “is suffering,” as working-class voters see the party as “too focused on social issues and not nearly focused enough on the economic issues that impact every one, every day,” the report said. “We lost […] Continue reading →

the politics of nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be

Peter — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 17:24:02 +0000

I believe Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. coined the phrase “politics of nostalgia” in a 1955 article in which he observed, “Today, we are told, the bright young men are conservatives; the thoughtful professors are conservatives; even a few liberals, in their own cycle of despair, are beginning to avow themselves conservatives.” This article is light but […] Continue reading →

the historical trend for discretionary federal spending

Peter — Thu, 15 May 2025 18:37:19 +0000

Until today, I had not understood the trends shown in the graph above (from Aherne, Labonte, & Lynch 2024). As a proportion of the economy, total federal spending has been fairly constant since 1962. Entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and defense keep the whole cost pretty stable. The cost has risen during recessions because bad […] Continue reading →

reaching the opt-outs

Peter — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 16:57:29 +0000

In today’s New York Times, Rob Flaherty, who was Kamala Harris’ deputy campaign manager, argues that Democrats lose “opt-out voters,” people who distrust all politicians and all traditional media and who obtain their politically relevant information from other sources, such as online influencers or real-life contacts who follow the influencers. These “opt-outs” may start out […] Continue reading →

16 colliding forces that create our moment

Peter — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 18:24:54 +0000

Not one major phenomenon is driving US and global politics today. Several powerful and somewhat contradictory currents must be navigated together. I list the following trends in no particular order. The references in square brackets link to previous posts on the same themes. Costs of neoliberalism: The global market economy harms people in wealthy countries […] Continue reading →

radical change needs institutional innovation

Peter — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:46:00 +0000

In The Civil War in France (1871), Karl Marx interprets the Paris Commune as “essentially a working class government.” The bourgeoisie and capitalism had been overthrown; the workers ruled. For Marx, the deep structure of a society was its class structure, and therefore everything about the Commune must be fundamentally new. It would be a […] Continue reading →

The Road to Wigan Pier revisited

Peter — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 18:36:04 +0000

George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) explores the thesis that poor people would support progressive policies except that they don’t like the people who argue for progressive ideas. I am not sure he was right or that the same diagnosis applies today, but it’s worth considering. Part I of the book is journalism: […] Continue reading →

social class and the youth vote in 2024

Peter — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:32:55 +0000

My colleagues at CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement) have already produced an incredible body of analysis of the 2024 youth vote. Overall, they find that youth turnout was higher than in past decades but lower than in 2020, and young adults supported the Democrats, but much more narrowly […]

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why “liberal” can sound like “upper-class”

Peter — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:57:42 +0000

In an article reporting The New York Times‘ recent battleground state polls, Lisa Lerer and Ruth Igielnik quote Jonathan Ball, a Michigan floor-installer: [He] said he believed Mr. Trump would do more to help working Americans than Ms. Harris. “I think she’s more liberal. I just don’t think she’s all for the middle class,” said Mr. Ball, […]

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