Steven S Smith
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profstevensmith.bsky.social
Steven S Smith
@profstevensmith.bsky.social

Political scientist, ASU and Wash U. Congress, elections, public opinion, survey research. Husband, dad, granddad. RT ≠ endorsement. Personal views. https://stevesnotes.substack.com https://sites.wustl.edu/smith/

Steven S. Smith is Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University. He also is the Kate M. Gregg Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. For many years, he was the Director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, He served on the faculties of George Washington University, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota and was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Smith is one of the leading scholars of legislative institutions and congressional politics and is cited frequently by major news sources. He served as editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly and chaired the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association. He won the Barbara Sinclair Lecture Award from the American Political Science Association in 2023. .. more

Political science 62%
Business 12%

Sorta. Science funding, which is primarily distributed through peer-reviewed grants, lacks some of the credit-claiming features of earmarks and other forms of pork. But, yeah, protecting science/health institutions and universities more generally plays a role here.

Let's remember Renee. If the Dems win the House this fall, there will be hearings on events surrounding her death, the administration's reactions, and the FBI investigation. Impeachment likely. The opportunity for prosecutions will return in January 2029. Expect Trump pardons. DHS folks do.

Reposted by Steven S. Smith

From earlier in the week:

How Congress Talks About Somalia and Somalis
(And Why That History Matters Now)

open.substack.com/pub/dcinboxi...
How Congress Talks About Somalia and Somalis
(And Why That History Matters Now)
open.substack.com
From an email to one of our faculty members....

Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!

Disturbed, Sounds of Silence....by a mile

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg...
Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence (Official Music Video) [4K UPGRADE]
YouTube video by Disturbed
www.youtube.com

Agreed. Protests of this Court need to be loud and eventually produce reform. paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats Need to Treat the Supreme Court Like the Villain It Is
The Court is out of control, and we'll never see reform unless we build the case for it. Starting now.
paulwaldman.substack.com
Now that Bari Weiss pulled a segment telling the truth about Trump's deportations to let Stephen Miller have his say (i.e. spread propaganda), it's a good time to check out our deep dive into Miller's real worldview and agenda, which doesn't pull any punches:
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
Inside Stephen Miller’s Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State
He is descended from Russian Jews—you know, the kind of people who were once denounced as alien and unassimilable. Today, his project is to unleash government persecution of those he deems alien and u...
newrepublic.com

Why aren't the serious journalists on 60 Minutes resigning?

www.frbsf.org

NEW -

Race, Gender, and Nascent Political Ambition - https://cup.org/4s4ZzFT

- Andrea Junqueira, @dzobrien.bsky.social, @mhayes.bsky.social, Jongwoo Jeong, Brian Crisp & Matthew Gabel

#OpenAccess

Reposted by Steven S. Smith

NEW -

Race, Gender, and Nascent Political Ambition - https://cup.org/4s4ZzFT

- Andrea Junqueira, @dzobrien.bsky.social, @mhayes.bsky.social, Jongwoo Jeong, Brian Crisp & Matthew Gabel

#OpenAccess
I was in the Speaker's Lobby when this happened and it generated a storm of protest. Rep. Riley Moore R-WV gaveled a procedural vote to a close while one Democrat was ready to vote. That vote would have defeated the measure on a 204-204 tie - but Moore opted for a very fast gavel.
4 House Republicans have signed the discharge petition for a 3-year extension of health insurance subsidies offered by Democrats. That gives it 218 signatures - and will force a vote probably in January.

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Senators--Thune--come to the defense of your colleague and your institution. Now would be a good time.
🚨BREAKING: The Trump administration escalated its effort to punish a sitting U.S. senator for protected political speech Monday, formally converting the Pentagon’s review of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) into an official Command Investigation under military law. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Trump Admin Intensifies Military Probe Against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, Launches Command Investigation
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
🚨BREAKING: The Trump administration escalated its effort to punish a sitting U.S. senator for protected political speech Monday, formally converting the Pentagon’s review of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) into an official Command Investigation under military law. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Trump Admin Intensifies Military Probe Against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, Launches Command Investigation
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com

Reposted by Steven S. Smith

"A stalemate on the frontline is a necessary condition for serious peace talks. That can only be achieved if President Trump provides more and better weapons to Ukraine and imposes and enforces more and better sanctions against Russia."
michaelmcfaul.substack.com/p/trump-need...
Trump Needs a New Ukraine Strategy
My latest, as published in TIME.
michaelmcfaul.substack.com
I simply could not and would not respond on social media last night about Rob and Michele. I am beyond devastated at the loss of two dear friends. There will be lots of mentions of his brilliant as an actor and director. He was just a wonderful person, as was she. Generous, a true Mensch.
Bovino, the man overseeing mass deportations, publicly declared that we must all have our papers on us, at all times, or we could be stopped, harassed, kidnapped, and detained, as they did with the man in this case, who is a US citizen.
This one isn’t downloadable but if you have TikTok go watch it. Well worth your time www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr4gRL7v/
@Mercado Media video credit #minnesota #illinois #louisiana #america
TikTok video by June Osborne
www.tiktok.com

A Heritage observation that there is "far more scholarly ammunition" must be referring to rubber bullets and blanks.

The 21st (Indian Removal Act) and 44th (end of Reconstruction) come to mind.

Tied for first.
Worst ever? This Senate is a non-stop, multiple-choice horror show, from dangerous appointees to health care failures to dereliction of its constitutional duties. I talk with Senate expert @irashapiro.bsky.social about its betrayals in my latest at @thebulwark.com
www.thebulwark.com/p/worst-sena...
Worst. Senate. Ever.
Republican senators surrendered to Trump, and now they own this catastrophe.
www.thebulwark.com
Worst ever? This Senate is a non-stop, multiple-choice horror show, from dangerous appointees to health care failures to dereliction of its constitutional duties. I talk with Senate expert @irashapiro.bsky.social about its betrayals in my latest at @thebulwark.com
www.thebulwark.com/p/worst-sena...
Worst. Senate. Ever.
Republican senators surrendered to Trump, and now they own this catastrophe.
www.thebulwark.com

1/ A few thoughts about @williambaude.bsky.social’s comment in yesterday’s NYT chat that, “It’s amazing how many of our problems today could be solved by a Congress that was willing and able to legislate in response to national problems.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/o...
Opinion | At the Supreme Court, Scenes From a Judicial Backlash
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Steven S. Smith

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis... www.startribune.com/augsburg-pre...

Severing removable protections from delegation provisions for IRCs by this Court would blatantly contradict Congress's intent that they are inseverable and, in time, gut Art I Sec 8. This Court is on the verge of rerouting the constitutional authority into a one-way path to dictatorship.

Support Ukraine now.
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com