James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington

Democracy

Securing the November U.S. Election

The urgent task for all democrats

July 21, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“To support the Ins when things are going well; to support the Outs when they seem to be going badly, this, in spite of all that has been said about tweedledum and tweedledee, is the essence of popular government. Even the most intelligent large public of which we have any ...

Democracy

Rebirth of a Nation?

There is a dangerous method to Trump’s racist madness

July 20, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Donald Trump is doubling down on his racism and xenophobia. This is widely acknowledged, and condemned, by many commentators. It is viewed, correctly in my judgment, as both a resort to the rhetoric with which Trump is most comfortable, racist and xenophobe that he is, and as a campaign strategy. ...

Democracy

This is Not a Temporary Crisis

Jeffrey C. Isaac in conversation with Tomasz Sawczuk

July 11, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac and Tomasz Sawczuk

Tomasz Sawczuk: The United States faces now a dangerous pandemic, a deep economic crisis, and massive social protests, after a policeman killed George Floyd. On top of that, Donald Trump fuels further division and conflict into the American politics. To begin on a general note, how do you make political ...

Activism

Why “Abolition of the Police” Is a Bad Idea

We need the police to enforce equal justice and protect ordinary citizens, not to go away

June 18, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Note: The author would like to thank Jim Miller for his editing, and Adam Kent-Isaac, Lisi Kent-Isaac, Debra Kent, Bob Orsi, Mala Htun, and Jeffrey Tulis for their comments. A much longer version of this piece can be read at the author’s blog. On June 15, 2020, citizens demonstrating against racism ...

Why “Abolition of the Police” Is a Bad Idea

Politics

Has Trump’s Reichstag Moment Finally Arrived?

An authoritarian leader wielding the violent power of the state is a hallmark of fascism

June 2, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans,“ Trump declared, while police fired tear gas against protesters demonstrating outside the White House. “If a city or state refuses ...

Has Trump’s Reichstag Moment Finally Arrived?

Democracy

The Power and Limits of Partisanship in the Struggle to Defeat Trumpism

A Critical Response to Osita Nwanevu’s “Bipartisanship Won’t Save Us”

May 7, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

As Nwanevu nicely outlines, the “emergency” legislation recently passed by Congress through bipartisan compromise, and signed into law by President Trump, is manifestly inadequate to the current crisis. It is also the necessary and predictable result of compromises with a Republican party that opposes remedial public policy as a matter ...

The Power and Limits of Partisanship in the Struggle to Defeat Trumpism

North America

Sustaining Democratic Opposition to Trumpism

Why the Democratic Party Must Support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

April 22, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Since Super Tuesday, it has been clear that the Democratic nominee will be Joe Biden. And in the past week, there has been an extraordinary public display of political unity behind the Biden campaign, with Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, and then Elizabeth Warren issuing full-throated endorsements. The appeal to party unity in the face ...

Sustaining Democratic Opposition to Trumpism

Democracy

Blaming Trump, Blaming Biden, Saving Ourselves

Can we save ourselves, from the plague that is COVID or the plague that is Trump?

April 3, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This shouldn’t be a controversial point. Everyone from presumptive Democratic nominee former vice president Joe Biden to prominent columnists like Michelle Goldberg believes it. But it’s proved harder to do than it would seem. Even as Trump lies, promotes unproven cures, and continues to carry out petty personal vendettas at the expense of saving lives, ...

Blaming Trump, Blaming Biden, Saving Ourselves

Democracy

Over 900 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November

Here’s Why

March 25, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac and William Kindred Winecoff

In the spirit of reflexive inquiry, we offer the following hypotheses: The current COVID pandemic is a global health crisis and an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions, and such crises always place stress on democracy. Political scientists understand that such crises can place extraordinary strain on even the most functional and legitimate ...

Over 900 U.S. Political Scientists are Worried about Democratic Elections in November

North America

Confessions in a Time of Plague

Or, the Virtues of Ideological Inconsistency

March 16, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

A revised version of my doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Robert Dahl while I was a grad student at Yale, my book was titled Power and Marxist Theory: A Realist View. In it, I offered an earnest defense of neo-Marxist theories of power circa 1986 (drawing on the work of theorists such ...

Politics

The Pandemic Highlights the Capacities of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Ron Klain

March 13, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Trump has made war on science, journalism, the welfare state, and constitutional democracy. He has made a mockery of public service and he has poisoned public discourse. He has enriched the financial elite along with his kleptocratic family and friends, bestowing on the adulating mobs who follow him a little ...

The Pandemic Highlights the Capacities of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Ron Klain

North America

Heartland Despair and the Democratic Primary

The appeal of populism to marginalized white Americans is one of the strongest arguments for Bernie Sanders’s candidacy

March 9, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Both Brian and his wife Sarah are burdened by substantial medical and educational debts. Sarah works as a nurse, Brian works in a tire shop. They struggle to make ends meet, they worry about the future -- and, for now, they are putting off having children. The profile’s central theme is ...