Sympathizing with the right while punching left is not the neutral position pundits seem to think it is| Aaron Huertas
As a political professional, it's extremely frustrating to read alarmist, catastrophizing essays about Donald Trump becoming a dictator if he wins a second term. This is a general point because we're going to see more posts like this over the next 11 months, but I'| Aaron Huertas
Content warning: This post includes a picture of a victim of nuclear war and links to similar pictures. It also briefly describes a fictional scene with sexual violence. I'm glad I saw Oppenheimer. It's a well done film and expertly acted. But as with many American| Aaron Huertas
As AI tools have started to get better at producing natural language communication, our community has debated how these tools should fit into email production and related applications for text, ad copy and other forms of digital communication.| Aaron Huertas
Trolling has a bad reputation. The term is usually used to describe bad faith arguments and the most annoying types of online interactions. But just like white-hat "hackers" can use their skills for good, candidates, campaigns and causes can righteously troll, too. In ethical hands, trolling can expose| Aaron Huertas
The curious case of Andrew Yang's Forward Party is a stark example of shortcut thinking in politics. Rather than developing a long-term strategy for promoting democratic reform through the Democratic Party—which welcomed him as much as anyone else in the coalition—Yang has joined forces| Aaron Huertas
There are a lot of rolling debates about specific word choices in political discourse that have very little to do with winning elections, securing policy victories or even the actual word choices political advocates make. In fact, a lot of this discourse seems to involve evidence-free claims and needlessly repeating| Aaron Huertas
Recently, I was discussing some disinformation about the pandemic with a few colleagues who work in science communication. We were looking at an online argument about whether or not a misleading book about the pandemic contained actual factual errors or simply presented facts in a selective, misleading way. This distinction| Aaron Huertas
A lot of debates about how to win elections and Do Politics Good are grounded in different views of how politics should work. While there are many good frameworks for analyzing these distinctions, a basic one rests on a transactional vs. participatory view of politics. In transactional politics, a relatively| Aaron Huertas
A year ago, a right wing mob, incited by a Republican president, stormed the U.S. Capitol in the hopes of disrupting Congress's certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's Electoral College victory. They succeeded, but just for a few hours. As dawn broke over Washington,| Aaron Huertas
SPOILER NOTE: I'm going to assume that readers have seen Don't Look Up or don't care if they see spoilers. The film's scientist warning the public the Earth is going to be destroyed on a peppy morning show.I've worked| Aaron Huertas
Several years ago, at an earth science conference, I learned a new word that would permanently change my understanding of political communication: agnotology. The speaker was Bob Proctor, a Stanford professor of the History of Science. He coined the term along with linguist Iain Boal. In broad terms, Proctor defined| Aaron Huertas
Every time Democrats lose or even just underperform in an election, we see a series of recriminations about their messaging, particularly how poorly it performed compared to Republican's messaging, and the need for better, more effective messaging in the future. But these conversations are often short-sighted, failing to| Aaron Huertas
This week has been dark. The Texas GOP's wildly unconstitutional anti-abortion law is in force. For millions of women in Texas, abortion is illegal. This is not a theoretical construct or a threat. Women can't get abortions right now. The scenes from Texas are heart-breaking: One| Aaron Huertas
As investigations into January 6th attack on the Capitol get underway, we're learning more about Trump's efforts to interfere with the election, including delaying the certification of the Electoral College vote in Congress. For instance, the House Oversight committee uncovered evidence that Trump asked the Department of Justice [https://www.| Aaron Huertas
Jonathan Chait recently criticized a 2018 essay I wrote about “reactionary centrism," a term that's picked up some steam over the years from journalists like Michael Hobbes and history professor Thomas Zimmer. Below, I've quoted some relevant passages from Chait's essay and some brief responses. Huertas defined a reactionary centrist| Aaron Huertas
