Polarization

Nearly half of voters believe the news media are biased in favor of Democrats, and most Republicans think it’s impossible to hate the media too much.

New York Magazine’s Ben Terris saved the most important part of his extensive profile of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman for last: “I didn’t find any indication that the stroke had left him cognitively impaired,” he wrote in its concluding paragraphs.

That is not the impression that a reader would have gathered from the worried former Fetterman staffers, jilted progressive activists, and anecdotes detailing the senator’s declining mental health that preceded this observation.

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.”

This pithy aphorism has captured a popular view of history for as long as we’ve had the concept of history. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus himself wrote, “soft lands breed soft men; wondrous fruits of the earth and valiant warriors do not grow from the same soil.”

The level of civility in American political life has declined, according to  a majority of voters, who expect political violence to increase in the next few years.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 72% of Likely U.S. Voters say, in thinking about the overall tone and civility in American politics over recent years, the level of civility has gotten worse. Just 12% think the level of civility has gotten better, and another 12% believe it has stayed about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

I recently reached out to the local sheriff's office and did something I hadn't previously expected would ever be on my radar: I asked that, if they ever receive a call regarding my residence that requires an emergency response, they keep in mind the high likelihood that it's a hoax. I was assured that the word would be passed to the local commander and deputies. There was no surprise on their part at what would have been a weird request just a few years ago, for good reason.

A Harvard task force released a scathing account of the university on Tuesday, finding that antisemitism had infiltrated coursework, social life, the hiring of some faculty members and the worldview of certain academic programs.

A separate report on anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias on campus, also released on Tuesday, found widespread discomfort and alienation among those students as well, with 92 percent of Muslim survey respondents saying they believed they would face an academic or professional penalty for expressing their political opinions.

Harvard University President Alan Garber has apologised following the release of internal reports into antisemitic and anti-Muslim prejudice at America's oldest university.

The reports included testimony from students who described feeling alienated and pressured to conceal their identity from their peers and educators.

Harvard president Alan Garber apologized for the university’s failure to address both antisemitic and anti-Muslim/Arab tensions on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

On Tuesday, Harvard University released reports from its presidential task forces on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, as well as anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias. In a letter to the university, Garber expressed his gratitude for the teams’ work and lamented the rise of bigotry and "sometimes violent clashes" occurring on campus.

The split between men and women is one of the starkest divisions in American politics right now — and that divide is deepest in Gen Z, which is taking the traditional gender gap in American politics and stretching it even further.