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Vaguely interesting (Jan 29)

(1)  “Individuals whose ideological stances are reflected well by the incumbent government are less favorable to the idea that governments should be responsive to the preferences of the majority, while one’s proximity to the ideological location of the median citizen increases the odds of support for majority responsiveness.”

(2)  “By putting ISIS at the center of their immigration rhetoric, Republican candidates make immigration seem more threatening and less ambiguous. It’s one thing to depict immigrants as people who depress wages and crowd schools. It’s another to depict them as potential killers.”

(3)  “For Republicans, white identity politics is a political style. A Republican presidential candidate might run on Willie Horton and opposing same-sex marriage, but after being elected, he was expected to turn to reducing the top tax rate and deregulating business. Cultural appeal was the means, and economics the ends. What conservatives fear is that Trump might upend that delicate, unstated system by turning the means into the ends.”

(4)  Educated folks have long been pro-free-trade, brushing aside the effects on less-educated folks and viewing their complaints as misinformed. But maybe there’s a point there.

(5)  As Europe’s racial diversity grows, so does its American-style backlash.