Julia Azari is one of my favorite political scientists. I’m a big fan of both her work and her very entertaining Facebook posts. Nonetheless, I am not nearly as confident as she is that the crowded Democratic primary field shouldn’t worry Democrats. In her recent FiveThirtyEight.com piece Azari writes, quite correctly, that “there’s no consensus…
Author: Jerold Duquette
Professor of Political Science
Director, Public Policy and Management Program
Central Connecticut State University
“A Tale of Two Bills” or “Wingnut Trolling is a Bitch to Tackle”
Thanks to my Facebook friends I was alerted to two bills filed in the state legislature that have drawn some very counter-productive attention. The first one is a bill that would make verbally assaulting someone using the term “bitch” a finable offense in Massachusetts. The second would ban organized tackle football for children not yet…
Senator Warren’s Linguistic Stand Deserves Thoughtful Attention
Is it dishonest to refuse to tell a murderer where his next intended victim is hiding and instead to explain how we can reduce murder rates? If someone did reveal such information to a murderer, would Senator Warren’s critics applaud them for “at least being honest about their plan?” The effort to discredit Elizabeth Warren’s…
Be Grateful: In Massachusetts politics we can still have nice things
I’m on all the mailing lists, electronic and otherwise. The communications from the MassGOP have never been particularly impressive, but under its current leadership the MassGOP has become a laughingstock. The MassGOP, perennially ineffectual, has understandably employed snark and disingenuousness as a regular feature of its rhetorical portfolio for a long time, but the strategic…
Conservative Coping Strategy in the Trump Era: Taking Refuge in Theory
Jeff Jacoby’s recent Boston Globe column [“Price gouging’ during natural disasters isn’t a problem — it’s a solution”] neatly illustrates the dilemma of conservative political commentators in the Trump Era. Jacoby’s endorsement of price gouging is a freshman Econ 101 essay that relies entirely on classical economic theory. It contains absolutely no empirical evidence whatsoever,…
Can Alex Morse Do What Ayanna Pressley Did?
Alex Morse, the 30 year old Mayor of Holyoke, will challenge Congressman Richie Neal in a Democratic primary next year. Observers are asking the same question about this race as they did about the 2018 challenges to Congressman Neal and Congressman Capuano. Is it about progressive insurgency or generational change in the Bay State’s establishment-friendly…
Globe Editors Phone It In on OML Proposal
The recent Boston Globe editorial endorsing the repeal of the state legislature’s statutory exemption from the requirements of the Open Meeting Law is, to put it mildly, neither well-argued nor persuasive. It was interesting to me that the least reasonable claims in the editorial were offered via quotes from Mary Connaughton, the “director of government…
Mass Politics After the 2018 Elections: Still “Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics”
Last spring I wrote a piece called “MASSPOLI#: Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics” that began as follows: “American politics in 2018 is a hot mess. The Age of Trump will almost certainly be understood as a chaotic and terribly destructive time in American politics when our institutions were strained to the limit…
The Plight of Progressives in the Bernie Sanders Era
Being a politically progressive college professor who isn’t a passenger on the Bernie Sanders Express can be uncomfortable at times. Lucky for me, I’m a political science professor, which means that I have plenty of scholarly company, particularly among my fellow political scientists who study American politics. The reason for the disparity is, in my…
Misinfo-tainment: The Sarno “Snub” that Wasn’t
I have known Mayor Sarno for more than 30 years. I voted for him when he ran for City Council and were I a Springfield resident at the time I would have voted for him for Mayor. I don’t always agree with him, but I do think he is a good politician and a good…