David Atkins

Earlier today we saw that Scott Walker doesn’t understand the realities of pregnancy and abortion. We also learn today that Rand Paul has no idea how economics and income inequality actually work: Asked if his flat tax plan would further separate the haves from the have-nots, GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said Sunday […]

For the second time in as many months, protesters from BlackLivesMatter forced Bernie Sanders from the stage at a scheduled event. Also for the second time, a later event that same day turned out massive crowds for the underdog Democratic candidate. As I wrote shortly after the first BlackLivesMatter disruption at Netroots Nation, the issues […]

It has become a common trope among progressives to state that conservatives simply don’t inhabit the same reality the rest of us do. It sounds like an exaggeration. But it isn’t. Consider Scott Walker, who bizarrely continues to insist that there’s some magical alternative solution to abortion in the rare cases where pregnancy threatens the […]

One of the more interesting things about the GOP debate wasn’t even what happened at the debate, but the meta-narrative of how it happened. It’s also interesting how weak and helpless the Republican Party appeared as events unfolded. First, the GOP was supposed to have its strongest field in decades. This should, in theory, have […]

Talking about Donald Trump can be an exhausting and pointless exercise: no sooner does he say or do one outrageous thing than he follows it up with another (the latest being an appalling and viciously misogynist menstruation-based jab at Megyn Kelly, giving Erick Erickson the excuse he wanted to disinvite Trump from the RedState gathering.) […]

Go to almost any major media outlet, and you’ll see the same gaggle of “expert” opinions on the Republican debate: Marco Rubio won, John Kasich impressed, and Donald Trump came off as a buffoon. CNN says so. So does Politico. Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post mostly agrees. Almost every single establishment Republican outlet is […]

I wrote earlier this morning that Republican voters’ dissatisfaction with their own party is likelier because they feel their party is too moderate rather than too extreme. (If you want to see why, for instance, Donald Trump’s comments about John McCain haven’t hurt him much with the GOP base, just take a quick perusal of […]

The Pew Research Center is out with a new poll with some very bad news for Republicans. Support among Republicans for the Republican Party has dropped precipitously in the last six months alone, even as Democratic favorability has remained steady overall: The Republican Party’s image has grown more negative over the first half of this […]

Of all the misconceptions about income inequality in the United States, one of the most problematic isn’t denialism or just-world fallacies from the Right. It’s also a too-narrow focus on poverty and struggling families on the Left. On the center-left/neoliberal side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders’ form of economic populism is seen as unnecessary and […]

When Donald Trump insulted John McCain’s military service with the atrociously offensive statement “I like people who weren’t captured,” almost the entire chorus of establishment media pundits and political professionals declared Trump’s candidacy over. But while his poll numbers took a small hit, Trump continues to lead the Republican field, nor is there any particular […]