Maxwell School News and Commentary

“It turns out that partisanship just swamped everything else as early as March of 2020," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. 

“Title 42 is only the most recent of a long history of using health concerns as a justification for free movement restrictions," says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science. "For example, it was only in 2010 that restrictions were removed on the entry of persons who are HIV positive."

"People are looking for that kind of connection, and if they can find it with a group that they don't know online, they don't necessarily see the bad parts of what's happening," says Shana Gadarian, professor and chair of political science. "Then with the technological part of it where extreme voices get more airtime on the internet, you can see how people get radicalized."

An Economist/YouGov poll last week asked respondents whether or not they wanted Trump to run for president again in 2024. A resounding 57 percent said no, while just 30 percent said yes. “That is the lane” for other Republican candidates says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"Simply put, secession is a political solution for an ethnonational problem among regionally concentrated populations. The problem in America is one of political polarization," writes Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science.

Discussing the AR-15's appeal on the right, Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Newsweek: "In large part, I think it's because this particular rifle has become such a public target for Democrats and liberals regarding gun regulation and control. ...The rifle has become a symbol of the debate over gun control, and the political right is more associated with gun ownership and rights."

Between 1900 and 1940, roughly five million southern whites left former Confederate states and neighboring Oklahoma. In a peer-reviewed study to be published later this year, Thomas Pearson, assistant professor of economics, and his co-authors found that this group was not just greater in number, but, as they spread their culture and attitudes, perhaps in political influence, too.

The Iraq War veteran is director of national security for The American Legion and is pursing an executive master’s in international relations degree.

“Those processes, they’re hard to pull off. You need to have both sides in agreement. It just doesn’t happen that much,” says Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science. “The thresholds for success are just too high to make it work.”

"The Problem with Primaries," written by Richard Barton, assistant teaching professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in American Purpose. "To free political parties from fringe candidates, we need to eliminate primaries that favor extremes," says Barton.