Experts in the News

America's own abuse

Miller Center scholar Nicole Hemmer writes about how the gaslighting of women was at the heart of Trump's presidential campaign.

Nicole Hemmer

But the GOP's history of failing to make good on its campaign promise of fiscal discipline is a long and troubled one, well beyond the two most recent Republican administrations, said Barbara Perry, director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. Former presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, she said, were likely the last Republicans to make good on conservative spending promises.

Barbara Perry

'I alone can fix it'

Donald Trump the administrative presidency, and hazards of executive-centered partisanship

Sidney Milkis and Nichola Jacobs

George H.W. Bush’s legacy likely to survive serial groping allegations

“In the larger ledger of history, I think it will fade and his reputation will continue to grow,” says Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “People may not be paying attention to all the stories that come out about him and just remember the first two, with him sitting in a wheelchair, and everyone has an elderly grandpa or uncle who says things inappropriate at the dinner table.”

Barbara Perry

How Trump is really changing things

In the arena of executive action, he is pursuing a model established by his recent past predecessors, with worrisome consequences to constitutional governance. That’s the conclusion of an essay in the most recent issue of the Forum, a nonpartisan journal of ideas and political analysis. Sidney M. Milkis and Nicholas Jacobs, both of the University of Virginia, argue that Trump’s deployment of what they call “executive-centered partisanship” is both in keeping with the modern presidency and a potentially damaging shift in our politics.

Sid Milkis

Headlines aren't enough

While men in powerful positions can be laid low by front-page stories in The New York Times or The Washington Post, for the vast majority of women who experience sexual harassment and assault, headlines aren't the solution. What they need are new policies and serious institutional reform.