polls

Deep Divisions in Americans’ Views of Nation’s Racial History – and How To Address It

A little more than a year after nationwide protests erupted after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police, the public is deeply divided over how far the nation has progressed in addressing racial inequality – and how much further it needs to go.

CSPAN Poll of Presidential Leadership: Trump Beats Pierce, Buchanan and Andrew Johnson; Lincoln #1

Read the results of the annual CSPAN Historian poll of presidential leadership. Sure to have something to please/anger everyone!

An Embarrassing Failure for Election Pollsters

by W. Joseph Campbell

Pollsters problems predicting the 2020 election deepened the embarrassment for a field that has suffered through – but has survived – a variety of lapses and surprises since the mid-1930s. 

Why Biden’s Polling Lead vs. Trump Isn’t as Solid as It Looks

Mr. Biden’s already narrow polling lead in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Arizona might be vanishingly small after pollsters screen for "likely voters."

Don’t Expect Polls to Change Republican Minds

by Nicole Hemmer

When it comes to impeachment (and pretty much everything else), the G.O.P. is no longer driven by public opinion.

A Separate History? How Blacks and Whites View Black Leaders

There were some significant differences between blacks and whites in terms of their knowledge of the figures the pollsters examined with blacks being more knowledgeable in almost every case.

About a third of Americans say blackface in a Halloween costume is acceptable at least sometimes

The survey was conducted almost entirely before news broke about Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and other high-profile politicians who have been accused of wearing blackface as part of costumes when they were younger.

A Political Scientist Analyzes Why Trump Will Likely Lose the Government Shutdown

by John A. Tures

One of the biggest myths about government shutdowns is that presidents usually win.

Assuming History's a Good Guide, Trump's Going to Win

by Allan J. Lichtman

But it's possible Trump may become the first candidate to break an historical pattern that has held since 1860 and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Politics and the New Machine

by Jill Lepore

What the turn from polls to data science means for democracy.

Poll: Most think Founders wouldn't be pleased with America

(CNN) – With signs of patriotism abounding for the Fourth of July, a new survey indicates seven in 10 Americans think the Founding Fathers would be disappointed by the way the United States has turned out, 237 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.But that doesn't mean Americans themselves are displeased. The same poll, released Thursday by Gallup, shows the number who say they're very or extremely proud to be American remains steady at 85%....Despite the high level of patriotism, 71% of Americans think the signers of the Declaration of Independence wouldn't be pleased with the nation today. That number has steadily risen since 2001, when the number stood at 42%....

POLL: Have You Engaged with the History of Capitalism?

by HNN Staff

The New York Times' Jennifer Schuessler published a story in last Sunday's edition on the newfound popularity of the history of capitalism. "A specter is haunting university history departments," she wrote, "the specter of capitalism."This new history of capitalism integrates social and cultural approaches to economic history and adopts a strictly post-Cold War mentality. Gone are hoary Marxist bromides and questions about why socialism failed to develop as a political movement in the United States; instead, the new generation of history of capitalism scholars -- those profiled in the article include Julia Ott, Bethany Moreton, Louis Hyman, and Stephen Mihm -- focus on the practice of capitalism by the people in the middle and at the top, melding a sound knowledge of math and economics with race and gender analyses.

America stopped worrying, loves the Bomb

Nuclear war is unthinkable. At least, that’s what we like to tell ourselves. Given the mass death and devastation from an atomic strike, surely only a desperate despot would even consider such a strike.Slim Pickens joyfully rides a nuclear bomb onto a Russian target in the classic satire, “Dr. Strangelove.”Well, think again. A new study finds that, among the American public, the taboo against the use of nukes is far weaker than you might imagine.“When people are faced with scenarios they consider high-stakes, they end up supporting—or even preferring—actions that initially seem hard to imagine,” said Daryl Press, an associate professor at the Dartmouth College Department of Government....

Has the Media Been Open Enough About Its Role in the Iraq War?

if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget('61175c90-bb5e-47f0-b884-eba86bfeb921');Get the Poll Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)UPDATE: More food for thought, from CNN:In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour marking the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, they cited reporters’ access to top officials in Washington as one of the top problems. The top-level bureaucrats, they said, had more of a propensity to spin toward the line that the Bush Administration was pushing.“Most of our reporting was with intelligence, military and diplomatic midlevel and lower level – the types that journalists don't really talk to or go after,” Warren Strobel told Amanpour.