Protesters in New York on November 28, four days after a grand jury chose not to indict a police officer over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. (Creative Commons/Flickr/The All-Nite Images)

Protesting our lack of purpose

by Robert David Sullivan December 9, 2014

Landing on Mars won’t distract the nation from racism, inequality and environmental threats.

People protest death of Eric Garner in Manhattan borough of New York

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and the perversity of political triage

by Robert David Sullivan December 5, 2014

How geography and economics explain the disparate reactions to grand jury decisions.

"True Detective" was an eight-week obsession for HBO subscribers early this year. Real life demands a longer attention span.

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Getting manic in pop culture and politics

by Robert David Sullivan December 3, 2014

Television critic Willa Paskin writes in Slate about quick-burning obsessions in popular culture including public radio 39 s true-crime podcast ldquo Serial rdquo the first season of ldquo True Detective rdquo and the last season of ldquo Breaking Bad rdquo and hellip cronuts ldquo We ar

At least 46 percent of seniors in the counties colored blue have a signficant disability. (U.S. Census Bureau)

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Disabled seniors could be a powerful voting bloc

by Robert David Sullivan December 2, 2014

New report estimates that there are 16 million Americans over the age of 65 that are disabled.

A Nov. 24 march in Seattle protested the lack of an indictment in the Michael Brown case. (CNS photo/Jason Redmond, Reuters)

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Respecting protest, from Ferguson to Hong Kong

by Robert David Sullivan December 1, 2014

Americans admire act of bearing witness to injustice in other nations more than our own.

This Indianapolis Star political cartoon quickly pulled this editorial cartoon after complaints from readers.

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Anti-immigration cartoon too rich with irony for Thanksgiving

by Robert David Sullivan November 24, 2014

Stoking fear of newcomers on the day of the Pilgrims

House Speaker John Boehner says this water won't taste as sweet after President Obama's executive action on immigration.

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Spare the child, spoil the well

by Robert David Sullivan November 20, 2014

Announcing that he will suspend the threat of deportation for about half of the nation rsquo s 11 million undocumented migrants President Barack Obama said ldquo our immigration system is broken and everybody knows it rdquo He could have taken out the word ldquo immigration rdquo and been ju

The Democrats face a big problem outside of big cities, but in places like Peoria rather than in new suburbs. (Wikipedia photo of Peoria City Hall)

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Do Democrats have a suburban problem?

by Robert David Sullivan November 19, 2014

The 2012 election suggested that Republican candidates are handicapped by their party rsquo s paltry support in major cities for example Mitt Romney rsquo s 14 percent in Philadelphia effectively made it impossible for him to carry the state of Pennsylvania The 2014 election in which the Democra