With their Obamacare replacement, Republicans are jumping blindfolded through the policy window

Earlier this month, House Republicans released their proposed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare – the American Health Care Act (AHCA). With estimates that the bill may cause 24 million people to lose health insurance coverage gained under Obamacare, Philip Rocco writes that the leadership of the Republican Party is now faced with asking its members to vote for a bill which was written with the Party’s core supporters in mind, but which may end up hurting them the most

Trump's fight over Covid-19 numbers shows how the hollowing out of expertise can be dangerous for American democracy

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump’s efforts to undermine a common understanding of the numbers around the crisis can be a threat to democracy itself

The fragmentation of federal expertise has enabled the politicisation of Covid-19 numbers in the USA

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump's efforts to undermine a common understanding of ... Continue

Introduction: An Unsettled Time from \u3cem\u3eAmerican Political Development and the Trump Presidency\u3c/em\u3e

As the words of his inaugural address echoed across a rain- soaked National Mall, Donald Trump cut a hole in time. His presidency, he said, marked a breaking point in American politics. No longer would a “small group” of elites reap the benefits of government while “forgotten Americans” bore the cost. “Now,” Trump suggested, “we are only looking to the future.” Even so, the speech telegraphed a dystopian pre sent; the United States had become a landscape of rusted- out factories, cities teeming with crime, and national borders defenseless against terrorist threats. Gone was the promised land that Trump’s predecessors foretold in their inaugural speeches, the “city on a hill” that America was destined to be. Trump identified few, if any, sources of political possibility. America would be “made great again” not through providence, but by Trump himself: “I will fight for you with every breath in my body— and I will never, ever let you down.” Rather than binding the nation through conciliation and compromise, Trump promised nationalism: “The bedrock of our politics,” he said, “will be a total allegiance to the United States of America.” He labeled his foreign policy with a phrase burdened with an isolationist and anti- Semitic history: “America First.” ..