Monday Morning Tabs
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, February 9, 2026
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9 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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It’s notable that Britt claims to be a Christian and certain things offend her Christian sensibilities, but push comes to shove she is still part of the Trump cult(of personality). She may or may not be doing stuff out of sight, count me skeptical, but she isn’t going to offend Trump or the cult. I think that tells us what she prioritizes. Once again, another person where the only evidence they are a Christian is their verbalized claims, not backed up by any actions that might have some personal costs.
Steve
The loss of the Factbook makes me sad. It was nice to have a trusted, vetted source of factual material.
FTFNYT has actually seemed better lately. Perhaps a sense that they have a responsibility, perhaps marketing. But the Britt piece seems to show they can’t shake the old MSM habit of searching for the elusive respectable, moderate Republican.
Britt is another R that is edging away from the felon, but can’t leave the cult. That’s nice and all, but… No profile in courage there.
Regarding her influence, she has never had influence in today’s GOP, she’s a woman. The only woman in the GOP that has any influence is Senator Concerned and that’s only because her seat is the most likely to change hands in November.
@Jen:
That would be why they’re dropping it. That’s not a very Republican thing to want.
@gVOR10: Yes, spending money to make the lives of citizens better? If you want that, you must be a communist!
In light of Trump’s and MAGA’s reaction to Bad Bunny’s halftime show, I found this passage from the Alan Elrod piece to be particularly on point:
I often think that for the very performative Trump and a lot of his media sycophants, the animus toward the creatives on the left has less to do policy than ego. They’re all trying to stir emotions – for power or for money – and Bad Bunny et al are just so much better at it than they are.
I guesstimate if I had $5 for every person who has ever denied the Apollo lunar landings, I’d have enough to build a rocket that could get people to the Moon.
@Scott F.:
They pine for the Gilded Age, wherein, like Rome, only a few elites called all the shots. Only ones with enough money to control the artists. This new-fangled middle class stuff? Allows the “monkeys” too much influence. They sometimes even use the arts to mock their betters.
Case in point, the monkeys who run the NFL actually put their own interest, selecting Bad Bunny towards the goal of expanding their market into South America, above the interests of King Don I -and without apology.