Very sorry to say that the only time in US history when "moderates" ruled and things weren't polarized involved excluding Black people from politics, and that this indeed calls into question many contemporary appeals from scholars and pundits to reduce polarization
The United States just hasn't experienced non-polarized multiracial democracy. And that's why, absent some serious context, calls to reduce polarization and encourage moderates to run just doesn't really hit.
Don't get me wrong, I hate cable news and the culture war as much as the next guy. I just think anti-polarization considerations have to engage with the possibility that an unpolarized politics requires racial exclusion as a necessary condition
There are things we can do at the margin to reduce polarization in multiracial democracy, especially empowering labor unions, democracy reforms, and PR/ending single member districts things. Harder on media & $ in politics.

Regardless, read your Du Bois, Katznelson, Schickler

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More from @JakeMGrumbach

28 Apr
🚨🚨🚨 FREE DISSERTATION IDEA 🚨🚨🚨

Why are there so few local politicians off of this diagonal dimension? More specifically, why are so many local politicians either YIMBY or committed to changing policing--and so few are both? Image
When my family friend was murdered unarmed by police, which local politicians showed up? Not the YIMBYs!

When we're trying to build more housing, who shows up? Not the police defund/abolish (or even the policing reform) ones!

It's a puzzle for which I don't have a great answer.
This is definitely a pattern in cities where the GOP isn't competitive, but I think it's also true in places with party competition.
Read 4 tweets
27 Apr
Amazing reporting from @AsteadWesley on a depressing reality: Black members of Congress are often from districts that the GOP gerrymandered into existence by packing Black voters--and some of these legislators oppose HR1 because they want to keep their gerrymandered districts.
This is the latest demonstration that single member districts were a mistake.
I hope these usually very senior representatives consider that sacrificing their often +30D district to end gerrymandering is absolutely worth it if you care about American democracy. But do single minded seekers of reelection ever sacrifice for collective goals?
Read 4 tweets
24 Apr
When it comes to discourse about whether Dem messaging should be more race, class, or race-class, there is such a glaring gap between people who care about racial & economic justice and want to get the right answer, and the anti-anti-racists.
In case people are confused, the paper is great, the writers are great. The reactions, though, come in two types:

a) "interesting! do you think x y z changes things?"

b) "the wokes secretly know this but watch them double down on virtue signaling after seeing this paper"
I guess c) is "you should've cited me" which isn't wrong but is easily fixable.

But group b) has such axes to grind, it's really something to behold.
Read 6 tweets
20 Apr
No matter the verdict, I hope they practice nonviolence tonight. They often commit violence in the streets after these kinds of announcements. I hope their leaders and elders issue calls for calm and peace. Maybe then the police won't riot. Then our communities will be safe.
I'm not optimistic. These gangs that control the streets are heavily armed. They're men with authoritarian personalities and little impulse control. Their leaders never speak out against the violence. I'm expecting these police to be violent against people and property tonight.
They go home after committing violence and physically abuse their spouses at extremely high rates. You never hear their leaders speak out against this culture of violence. Any one of the officers who speaks out against this gang "code" will be punished by the gang leaders.
Read 9 tweets
19 Apr
I am here to Rise Above Sectarianism™ to tell you Difficult Truths™ about The Tribalism™, which you suffer from but to which I'm immune.
Tribalism™ is why bad things happen to good people.
Evolution created The Tribalism™ in our brains. It's a permanent exogenous force and yet also explains historical change. How did the Civil Rights Movement produce change? Well, you see, MLK rewired the neural pathways to cure people's Tribalism™.
Read 4 tweets
18 Apr
Interesting discussion btwn Shor, @gelliottmorris, @mattyglesias on why referenda & legislation fail despite policy polling showing big support (eg, on gun background checks)

I'll add as an academic: divergence btwn item polls & outcomes can be consistent with 'unbiased' polls.
Public policy battles are different from polling: partisan & group cues, media, market as prison & structural power, tradeoffs, etc...

Divergence btwn pre-policy battle polls & outcomes doesn't necessarily mean "polls bad." It can teach us a lot about the policy process
Shor is saying polls should do more to recreate realism of policy battles via partisan frames and such. There's value in that, but in a lot of settings we actually care about what people say when they're just drawing on considerations they already have
Read 5 tweets

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