QAnon

The GOP Clown Car Crashes and Burns, but Nikki Haley didn’t get the Message, calls for Warnock to be “Deported”

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump era brought to the fore in the Republican Party an assortment of Nazi militiamen, internet trolls masquerading as public servants, and celebrity grifters looking for a big payout from politics. Most of the Clown Car Trumpies went down to ignominious defeat in Tuesday’s elections. Former South Carolina governor […]

Democratic Party

Biden Holds Red Wave to a Ripple, as Trump Loses Big Time in Midterms

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Over the past 40 years, midterm elections have typically been quiet affairs in which only 38% to 40% of voters show up at the polls, and those who vote skew toward the older, wealthier and whiter spectrum of the electorate. In contrast, in presidential election years, the turnout tends to […]

Democracy

The Economy Looms Large in the Midterms, but Abortion, Ukraine and the State of Democracy are also Key Voter Issues

The Conversation

By Stella Rouse, University of Maryland and Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland | – The 2022 midterm elections, perhaps more than most in recent American history, present voters with a multitude of pressing issues to consider as they prepare to vote. These issues range from abortion to rising inflation, energy costs to the state of […]

Authoritarianism

Invasion of the Mind Snatchers: How to Combat the GOP Election Denialists’ Plot to Subvert Democracy

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – In the 1978 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, an alien fungal spore infection takes over the minds of susceptible people, growing into pods that duplicate their bodies and transforming them into pod people — mindless authoritarian monsters that want to control America. A remake of the 1956 movie […]

Donald Trump

The Stochastic Ex-President: How Trump set up the Pelosis for Attack

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden noted Friday evening — concerning the assailant who fractured Paul Pelosi’s skull with a hammer in the Pelosi home in San Francisco — “that the same chant was used by this guy that they have in custody that was used on January 6, the attack on the […]

Authoritarianism

How election-denying GOP Governors could tilt the 2024 presidential Election

Minnesota Reformer

By Kira Lerner | – ( Minnesota Reformer) – WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN – Former President Donald Trump listens as Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels speaks to guests during a rally. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images. Republican candidates who claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump have been nominated for governor in four […]

Democratic Party

Will the Jan. 6 Hearings finally Dent the Cult of Trump in the Republican Party or is it Too Far Gone?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – January 6 was Donald Trump’s ultimate, cathartic, lifetime adrenalin high. He enjoyed it so much from the White House dining room that it took more than three hours for his staff and family to talk him down and out of it. He had calculated and stage-managed that day […]

Donald Trump

The emerging Paramilitary Wing of the Republican Party

Minnesota Reformer

by J. Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer | – It’s campaign season, which means Republican candidates for office wielding weapons and threatening to use them. Here’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, looking like an extra in a straight-to-DVD Western. COME AND TAKE IT pic.twitter.com/kwFrT61stF — Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) February 25, 2022 J.R. Majewski, a Republican candidate […]

Congress

A Distinctly Native Criminal Class: Was Rep. Loudermilk Part of the Jan. 6 Insurrection? How many in Congress Were?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There are 435 representatives in the House, and you and I have not heard of most of them. In some instances this anonymity means that they have their noses to the grindstone, quietly representing their districts. In other instances they are involved in shady dealings and shun the spotlight lest […]