With the specter of homegrown terrorism and gun violence in the headlines, and some (one?) presidential candidates said to be employing tactics that appeal to voters’ fears, Matt Motyl, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses how the psyche of voters could be affected.
One thing that doesn’t seem to change, even in the wake of more mass killings, is the nation’s gun laws. President Obama used a rare Sunday evening prime-time speech from the Oval Office to try and prod Congress into passing more legislation. But with lawmakers making it clear that their view of what needs to be done doesn’t coincide with the president’s, Obama may now have to resort to executive action to implement the changes he wants — assuming the courts agree with him. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times reviews the differences between the executive branch and the legislative branch over guns.
And we go back 15 years with Professor Bruce Ackerman of Yale University and revisit the Supreme Court’s role in determining the winner of the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
Photo via Gary Hershorn/Reuters
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