We know alot about why democracy declined in some U.S. states over the last two decades. But why did democracy IMPROVE dramatically in other states? As I show in this PSRM article, strong labor unions played an important role in strengthening state democracy. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New from the UMass Poll, we show the Epstein scandal is hurting Trump, particularly among Trump voters: theconversation.com/trumps-epste...

Hi everyone, New from the UMass Poll Substack, we do a deep dive on American attitudes toward immigration policy and find that most Americans don't support Trump's authoritarian measures. umassamherstpollreport.substack.com/p/most-ameri...

The UMass Poll is launching a Substack! Check out our first post, on Trump's declining popularity, and subscribe! open.substack.com/pub/umassamh...

Ever wondered what MAGA means to ordinary Americans? The UMass Poll asked, and what we found was fascinating. theconversation.com/what-maga-me...

Using UMass Poll data, Tatishe Nteta, Adam Eichen, Lane Cuthbert, and I show that opposition to transgender rights is associated with authoritarian attitudes, above and beyond partisanship, ideology, and religiosity. In The Conversation: theconversation.com/antagonism-t...

New research shows the American public continues to support diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. (Doug Rice @jesserhodesumass.bsky.social Tatishe Nteta @eichen.bsky.social @umasspoll.bsky.social‬) More, via Opinion Today: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/250606-top...

Please consider donating to the UMass Poll Undergraduate Fellows program. This program provides outstanding Undergraduate students with opportunities to build their survey analysis skills and undertake survey research. 100% of funds go to supporting students. umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-...

Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration sets an example for our educational institutions. We call on colleges and universities around the country to use every tool available to protect academic freedom. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/21/m...

One feature of Harvard's defiance of Trump that might be slightly underappreciated is that it indicates that Harvard's wealthy alumni and donors think it is okay to defy Trump. And this sends the signal to other wealthy and powerful people it is socially acceptable to defy Trump.

Today our organizing team at UMass Amherst reached out to faculty at universities and colleges across the state asking them to join us in a Massachusetts Higher Education Compact.

PROFESSORS ARE INSISTING THEIR CAMPUSES STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND HIGHER EDUCATION. Today, we are releasing letters - most organized in under a week - with over 5000 signatures calling on campus leadership to stand up to Trump & fight for our values & our students. bit.ly/CampusLettersTally

This is how you do it. The "Mutual Academic Defense Compact". The moral imperative may be to fight... but the strategic imperative is to not fight alone: www.gazettenet.com/UMass-Amhers...

If only someone could have foreseen this.

Rachel Maddow covers emergent plans for universities to bad together to defend higher ed, and mentions our resolution at UMass! www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Our new UMass Poll shows that both Trump and Musk are increasingly unpopular and untrusted on key issues. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

UMass Amherst's faculty senate endorsed a mutual academic defense compact to band together with other institutions to fight attacks on higher ed! drive.google.com/file/d/1TNDl... I hope other universities will pursue similar initiatives.

We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again

I'm supposed to be at Sweet Briar College, where I was so excited to meet with the amazing students, faculty, and staff who organized my visit & made Mobility their Common Read. Hours before my flight I learned about their Board's exclusion of trans & nonbinary people. So now I'm not going.

Thanks Rick @chronicle.com for talking with @daniellaurison.bsky.social and I about We Are Higher Ed and the groundswell of faculty resistance to attacks on Higher Ed. Here’s what we talked about—which includes a link to our letter and website.

This is why we need more R1s and Land grants following Rutgers' call for collective defense and aggressive public outreach

Yes, but that is precisely why it can’t just be the Princetons alone. This is not a substitute for loud, public, collective action by all the R1s, public & private, who have these schools & whose entire business model/budgets therefore do depend on stopping the madness.

Better rationale for Liberation Day.

This is a sign Princeton intends to fight. We need more of this.

Massachusetts officials say they will defend DEI. Why? Because their constituents support it. My latest with Tatishe Nteta and Adam Eichen. commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/on-d...

This is bad bad bad bad bad bad very bad no good. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

This is exactly the right question. Why are we sacrificing the pillars of our society to one man's pique? Why is Trump's wholesale destruction of the U.S. being tolerated?

This is an important question and topic for conversation.

I am honored to sign this statement expressing the values of higher education and calling on leaders to defend colleges and universities. bit.ly/DemocracyAnd...

Who has influenced your musical tastes the most? For me, its... - B.B. King - Aretha Franklin - Janis Joplin - Lucinda Williams - Stevie Ray Vaughn - The Temptations - James Brown - Otis Redding - Miles Davis - Marvin Gaye

Applications for the Accountability, Behavior, & Conflict in Democratic Politics (ABCD) REU Summer 2025 Program are now being accepted, with a deadline of January 15, 2025. This is a research-intensive training program for undergraduate students. More Info: lab.vanderbilt.edu/p....

Wrote a thing with Tatishe Nteta and Adam Eichen in the Commonwealth Beacon about what Massachusetts residents' enactment of Question 1 means for the state legislature. commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/ques...

Excited to share a new & timely @cambridgeup.bsky.social Element in Politics & Comm: Social Media Democracy Mirage: How Social Media News Fuels a Politically Uninformed Participatory Democracy. Zúñiga, Marné, Goyanes & Scheffauer. Free download til Dec 18! #commsky #polisky doi.org/10.1017/9781...

🪪In the US, many non-White individuals feel solidarity with, and identify as, people of color. But are these concepts distinct? ➡️ @efrenpolipsy.bsky.social @srgoldman.bsky.social Y.J.Huo T.Nteta L.R.Tropp examine if and why these concepts diverge cambridge.org/core/journal...

🤔Are Americans’ attitudes toward local issues structured ideologically? ➡️ @bfschaffner.bsky.social @jesserhodesumass.bsky.social & @raylaraja.bsky.social find that only a smaller subset of attitudes about local issues appears distinctively local www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This did make me snort-laugh.

I wish folks would simply pause & ask themselves if "The Democrats should totally abandon incumbency advantage, have a contentious open primary, & drop the candidate by far the most popular with the Black voters who will decide the whole election in 4 states" is really what they mean to be arguing.

It’s pretty wild that, of the two leading US presidential candidates, the guy found liable for rape who is facing 91 criminal indictments *isn’t* the one who is facing vocal calls to step aside for someone else to run. People have lost all sense of scale and proportion.

Right before our Springsteen-like 3.5 hour show last night. It's not every show that you have a full bridal party and get to dance with the bride!

Since 2020, I’ve been at the epicenter of a wide-reaching campaign to intimidate social media platforms into backing away from their investments in safety and security. It worked. New from me (gift link): www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/o...

Grateful that my son's 7th grade health class is teaching him to moderate his drinking.

i get that peformative cynicism is the currency of social media, but, we’re like 75% of the way through biden’s first term, i think it’s a little late for people to pretend to be surprised when biden does something good that progressives agree with.

When Reddit made changes to how comment notifications worked so that any of them held back by AutoModerator failed to send push notifications to people’s devices? So they never saw the hateful rants? Hateful rants dropped thirtyfold. Overnight. Because no access to victims.

Me in class on voting rights, talking about apportionment: "...and so, the 14th amendment equal protection clause applies to..." Students: "Citizens! Voters! Citizen voters!" Me: "Noooooooooooooooo"

We've launched Good Authority! Here's my first post. It's about Senator 🏈 Tuberville & the hundreds of military nominations he single handedly piled up in the Senate. Two generals might get unleashed tonight in Senate. But it won't resolve the nomination stalemate. goodauthority.org/news/why-dem...

On the line between party and conspiracy in American political history, with @daschloz.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/o...

David French: www.nytimes.com/2023/09/10/o...