I think we've been living through a golden age of social science research where advances in methods allow for more convincing analyses of policy effects, for e.g. I think it's at least part of the reason universities are under attack. Also, a democratization of who's doing the research.

Biden did exactly what pundits said Democrats should do to draw voters from economically depressed parts of the country. And then uber rich guys who wanted tax cuts and control the algorithm made sure no one learned about it. Also, globally, in-parties during Covid inflation failed to be reelected.

Jobs and millions of dollars delivered to the home district is about as unwonky as you can get. Far less wonky that how cuts to Medicaid will lead to hospital closures in rural counties, for e.g.

Humanities departments are ridiculously cheap compared to STEM. If the federal government decides not to invest in STEM (b/c who needs econ growth anyway?), the only left might be the humanities.

"studies" supporting a link, indeed

You have to be a pretty deep-in-the-weeds political scientist to get, a la Dahl, that norms, not the Constitution, supported democracy in the US, or that Congress has very little power to constrain the President when it comes to foreign policy. And then there's this SCOTUS.

Since the gop's only policy position is that Democrats are bad, they end up opposing policies that sane Republicans would have pursued back in the day. This reminds me of the ACA where the GOP should have celebrated the passage of such a conservative healthcare reform.

I keep hearing people saying Democrats are doing nothing, but I see so much resistance at every level. Every lever that can be pulled against this Admin is being pulled. Is the algorithm suppressing coverage of this, or do people just imagine there are more levers than there really are?