(Un)Conventional Wisdom
Authored by Robert David Sullivan, a former editor at CommonWealth, (Un)Conventional Wisdom focuses on American politics, offering observations on current issues and presenting original research. The blog covers politics at all levels, as well as issues that challenge left-and-right stereotypes. (Un)Conventional Wisdom aims to find new ways to spark ongoing conversations about American politics, without being gratuitously provocative or disrespectful toward alternative views.
December 2015
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Seven states lost population between July 2014 and July 2015, according to data released on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Three are Democratic states in New England (Connecticut, Maine and Vermont), but the list also includes a big Democratic state in the Midwest (Illinois), a Democratic-leaning Western state (New Mexico), and two Republican states in the...
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President Obama gave an interview to NPR’s Steve Inskeep, released on Monday, that gave a taste of what he’ll be like as an ex-president political analyst. Mr. Obama attributed the popularity of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to “anger, frustration [and] fear” among blue-collar men in response to both economic stresses and “demographic change.”
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The big winners of the last Republican presidential debate of the year: Donald Trump, ISIS and anti-anxiety medication.
What Mr. Trump said on stage (incoherent, as usual) didn’t matter. His victory was in how much most of the other candidates tried to sound like him. (See a transcript of the Dec. 15 debate here.) Almost all of them followed his lead in stoking hysteria about ISIS and in condemning “...
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Last week the satirical website The Onion mixed politics and the holiday season with a story headlined “Koch Brothers Get Each Other Same Election For Christmas.” Referring to the energy magnates known for their heavy contributions to conservative candidates, the fake story said that Charles and David “admitted they were a bit embarrassed to learn they had each given the other U.S. Rep. Lee...
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Donald Trump knows how to hijack a news cycle, and part of his appeal among Republican primary voters is that he generously brings his supporters onto his plane. If you’ve ever wanted to be interviewed by CNN or USA Today, what’s a better plan than to attend a Trump rally?
This week Mr...
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President Obama didn’t change the political dynamic in Washington with his Sunday-night speech on terrorism, nor was he expected to. Mirroring perceptions of the nation’s economy, the country seems...
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This week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino was followed by the usual expressions of disbelief and anger that such incidents happen in the United States almost every day, with a backlash against...
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Aside from diehard believers in the “eight-year itch,” most pundits believe that the strength of the economy will be a key predictor of whether the Democratic Party can win the White House for a third straight term in 2016. But can Americans agree on how strong the economy is, or even how to measure...