Right Now With Perry Bacon

The “religious right” has long been a key part of Republican politics. But the role of the faithful in the GOP is shifting, says David Buckley, a political science professor at the University of Louisville and expert on the role of religion in politics. With Roe v. Wade overturned, conservative Catholics and Protestants aren’t as focused on the issue of abortion. And in some ways, they aren’t pushing the party at all. Instead, Trump has united religious conservatives and nonreligious conservatives on issues like opposing transgender rights and diversity and inclusion initiatives. On the Democratic side, even as a growing number of Democratic voters are nonreligious, Buckley says progressive Christians, Jews, and Muslims play an important role in the party and other left-wing causes. Catholic groups and leaders, he argues, are playing an important role in the mobilizations against the administration in Minneapolis and more broadly in defending immigrants across the country.

The Trump administration has laid siege to colleges, cutting their funding and launching ridiculous investigations. But the administration took advantage of preexisting frustrations with higher education, says Marshall Steinbaum, an economics professor at the University of Utah and fellow at the Jain Family Institute. Policy decisions by Republican and Democratic politicians and universities themselves have created an unequal higher education system, where schools with lots of resources and money draw students from upper-income families, while those from poorer backgrounds attend schools that are inferior in terms of funding and quality. Steinbaum says that we need a total overhaul of higher education, including a requirement that publicly funded schools charge similar tuitions and therefore draw economically diverse student bodies. Steinbaum says we currently have heterogeneous universities that have homogeneous student bodies; we should instead have similar colleges that enroll diverse student populations. He’s co-written a comprehensive plan for higher education that he hopes officials in both parties adopt.

The Trump administration has laid siege to colleges, cutting their funding and launching ridiculous investigations. But the administration took advantage of preexisting frustrations with higher education, says Marshall Steinbaum, an economics professor at the University of Utah and fellow at the Jain Family Institute. Policy decisions by Republican and Democratic politicians and universities themselves have created an unequal higher education system, where schools with lots of resources and money draw students from upper-income families, while those from poorer backgrounds attend schools that are inferior in terms of funding and quality. Steinbaum says that we need a total overhaul of higher education, including a requirement that publicly funded schools charge similar tuitions and therefore draw economically diverse student bodies. Steinbaum says we currently have heterogeneous universities that have homogeneous student bodies; we should instead have similar colleges that enroll diverse student populations. He’s co-written a comprehensive plan for higher education that he hopes officials in both parties adopt.

President Trump’s approval is dropping across the country, even in states that backed him strongly in 2016 and 2020. That’s partly why Democrats did so well in elections in 2025. Aftyn Behn was one of those Democrats. In a December special election in a U.S. House district in the Nashville area that Trump won by 22 percentage points in 2024, Behn lost by just nine. And Behn didn’t succeed by bashing her own party, as many red-state Democrats do. Instead, the progressive and former Invisible staffer leaned into affordability issues and Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. In the latest edition of Right Now, she describes why her campaign was so successful. Behn, who is a state representative, also explains why it’s critical for Democrats across the country to pay attention to what happens in GOP-dominated states like Tennessee.

President Trump’s approval is dropping across the country, even in states that backed him strongly in 2016 and 2020. That’s partly why Democrats did so well in elections in 2025. Aftyn Behn was one of those Democrats. In a December special election in a U.S. House district in the Nashville area that Trump won by 22 percentage points in 2024, Behn lost by just nine. And Behn didn’t succeed by bashing her own party, as many red-state Democrats do. Instead, the progressive and former Invisible staffer leaned into affordability issues and Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. In the latest edition of Right Now, she describes why her campaign was so successful. Behn, who is a state representative, also explains why it’s critical for Democrats across the country to pay attention to what happens in GOP-dominated states like Tennessee.

President Trump has sometimes been described as antiwar or isolationist. That’s totally wrong, says Matt Duss, executive vice president for the Center for International Policy. He was also a top foreign policy aide to Senator Bernie Sanders during his 2020 presidential campaign. What Trump really opposes is long wars, Duss argues. Trump is fine with overthrowing the Venezuelan government and making threats against Colombia, Greenland, Mexico, and numerous other countries, but likely wouldn’t try to do nation-building in any of those places. Trump’s foreign policy approach is akin to a “global mafia,” says Duss. Democrats should offer a clear alternative vision for foreign policy, Duss argues. That vision should be rooted in “rules” that all countries follow and an emphasis on the United States cooperating with other nations on challenges like climate change. The Biden administration failed this test, says Duss, by ignoring human rights violations by the Israeli government during its military campaign in Gaza.