“Trump was able to be a vehicle to express ones' frustration with political correctness and tolerance," said Stephen Farnsworth, author of Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management from Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump. "He didn’t create it. These hostilities existed before him, but he was a vehicle to channel that grievance."
Prejudice grew in Trump supporters during his presidency, studies find (Courthouse News Service)
“Youngkin may have campaigned like (moderate) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, but judging from his first month in office, he’s governing more like Ron DeSantis,” says University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth, referring to the GOP Florida governor known for his directives against vaccine and mask-wearing mandates and in favor of rules restricting what teachers can say in the classroom.
After a welcoming inaugural message, “his first effort was to double down on Trump-style culture wars, which has increasingly become the norm for Republican officials,” Farnsworth says.
But that explanation might not be good enough for voters in the new district, said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.
Spanberger leaping into new district, but won’t move family before January (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
“What you’re looking at is the nature of divided government. Anything that fails to have bipartisan appeal dies in one chamber or the other,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
"Well, I think trying to read Vladimir Putin's mind is a recipe for disappointment. I think what the U.S. has control over and what it can do is to be clear about how it is going to react and to make sure that the penalty for misbehavior, further misbehavior on the part of the Russians, will be so sufficiently unappealing that it will deter Putin," said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia.
Stephen Farnsworth, a University of Mary Washington political science professor, said he would give Youngkin a B so far and agrees that his campaign moderate image has worn off. “In these times of political combat, intense partisanship pays when it comes to increasing his political options for the future,” said Farnsworth, who directs UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies.
Youngkin sheds moderate image in first month (The Daily Progress)
