Trump supporters fight Black Lives Matter protestors at an anti-racism rally in Tujunga, California, Aug. 14, 2020.
Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images
Americans are mad – fist-fighting, protesting mad. And that’s just how politicians want voters in election season. But the popular anger stoked by candidates doesn’t just dissipate after the campaign.
Protestors hold anti-mask signs at a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Education Images/Getty Images
A growing chorus of people say the US has never been so politically divided. A Civil War historian reminds readers that there was once a far more divided time.
Those who are the loudest in their morality may not be the most moral among us.
RTRO/Shutterstock.com
Whether due to Trump or unhappiness with the mainstream media, Americans say that they are avoiding the news more than before.
Nurses in November 2016 expressed support for a ballot proposition to limit what California state agencies pay for prescription drugs.
AP/Nick Ut, file
Citizens voting directly on policy seems like a good idea. But that led to the Brexit mess in the UK. In the US, two scholars say direct democracy deepens distrust of politics and government.
Animosity between partisan voters has grown in recent years.
Gutzemberg/Shutterstock.com
The president’s blame-the-press rhetoric is, to the news media, calculated to score political points. But are there real problems US journalists need to address in their work? Yes, says one scholar.
What does it look like when a country’s identity falls apart?
Interior Design/shutterstock.com
When a country becomes more diverse,
new demographic tensions may emerge between people who feel that they own their country’s identity – and people who feel they’ve been left out.
There were 84 women in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 - and there are 106 in 2019.
Office of Nancy Pelosi
Research shows that women work more collaboratively than men in groups and create more inclusive solutions to thorny problems. More women in Washington could bridge America’s yawning partisan divide.
Those mesmerized by NASA’s accomplishments and ambitions wanted so much more out of the reticent Armstrong.
AP Photo
After the first moon landing, the feelings that propelled a unified national mission quickly dissipated. Could Armstrong have played a bigger role in galvanizing the public for future projects?
The quiet consumption of news can sustain a polarized political environment.
Lightspring
In Kenneth Burke’s ‘The War of Words,’ the late rhetorical theorist picks apart the little ways news articles can subtly influence readers – and harden divisions.
Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia
Whether at a family gathering or in a research lab, getting access to images immediately was a game-changer. And Land’s innovations went far beyond the instant photo.
Protesters demonstrate on the University of Washington campus where far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was giving a speech in Seattle on the same day Donald Trump was sworn in as president.
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Differences of opinion are the lifeblood of universities and essential to advancing knowledge. But some universities are giving in to intimidation by cancelling events with controversial speakers.
In the face of rising protest, Venezuela’s government has called on the military to squelch dissent.
Efecto Eco /Wikimedia
Venezuela’s opposition has called a 48-hour strike to stop the Maduro government from rewriting the nation’s constitution. But grassroots democracy may not be able to save the Bolivarian Republic.
Sen. Rand Paul speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
It turns out a unified government isn’t enough to get bills passed.
Sharing election hashtags: Dots are Twitter accounts; lines show retweeting; larger dots are retweeted more. Red dots are likely bots; blue ones are likely humans.
Clayton Davis
If people can be conned into jeopardizing our children’s lives, as they do when they opt out of immunizations, could they also be conned out of democracy?
Elected officials and the media are in cahoots. Both have succumbed to a two-party system that treats voters not as independent thinkers, but as blind partisans.