Author Archives: JeroldDuquette

About JeroldDuquette

Jerold Duquette is an associate professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University. He is the author of Regulating the National Pastime: Baseball and Antitrust and has published articles and book chapters on campaign finance reform, political parties, Massachusetts politics and political culture, public opinion, and political socialization. Professor Duquette lives in Longmeadow, MA with his wife and four children.

“Trickle-Down Tactical Partisanship”

I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about what I called “trickle-down tactical partisanship.” Trickle-down tactical partisanship involves the deployment (or at least conscious exploitation) by political elites of non-professional, uncompensated individuals as partisan attack dogs unleashed from ethical, moral, or intellectual restraint.

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Brown & Warren both sticking to the plan so far.

In a Salon.com article about the ongoing US Senate race in Massachusetts, Democratic insiders are described as being very nervous about Elizabeth Warren rolling over to Scott Brown’s campaign of personal attacks.

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Where there’s a Will, there’s a way.

Well, my hope that conservative columnist George Will was a regular reader of Masspoliticsprofs.com has been shattered.

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Hypocrisy Abuse II

I suppose one might justify liberal attacks on Senator Brown’s use of the Affordable Care Act personally, despite having voted against it, as a just dessert. Unfortunately, it really just serves to further blind voters to the stupidity of most hypocrisy charges in the first place. Shame on you Rachel Maddowe.

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Hypocrisy, Faulty Logic, & False Equivalence

Have you ever noticed that in politics an argument doesn’t have to make sense to be popular? I was reminded of this as I read Jeff Jacoby’s latest column.

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Jacoby’s Folly

Apparently, Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby doesn’t let intellectual integrity or logic interfere with his efforts to sell his spin.

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Romney as Flip Flopper OR Extremist?

This increasingly frequent question in the political media is a “misunderestimation” of the Obama team’s strategy.

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“Google Goggles” versus the “Accountability System of Science”

Professor Cunningham’s post about Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, and the Brown campaign was timely and useful. I’ve been reading much of the work chronicled in Haidt’s latest book for a few years now and have marveled at the insights which various sub-fields in psychology have been developing about the brians and motivations of political partisans and ideologues.

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RomneyCare is working! Poor Mitt.

A new report, sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachuestts Foundation, shows that the pilot project for ObamaCare continues to prove workable, affordable, and effective.

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The “have a beer” factor

Writing in the Washington Post last week, Aaron Blake used the occasion of a new Boston Globe poll on the Brown-Warren senate race to explore the “have a beer” factor, which is Senator Brown’s primary campaign focus and his best chance of getting re-elected in November.

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