Articles by Edgar Wilson

I wrote before that Google’s search algorithm didn’t play politics — facts spoke for themselves, and searcher/voter intent determined the results they found. That, unfortunately, is no longer the case. The world’s most popular search engine has announced that a new, experimental feature will give presidential candidates (Republicans and Democrats only) a way to feature their own images, and up to 14,400 characters of their own text, at the top of relevant searches. Similar to how a search for...

Singling out a politician for honesty is a tough prospect. Beyond the tribalism of America’s partisan rhetoric, there is the troubling reality of cognitive bias: try as we might, humans simply aren’t stellar at separating fact from opinion. And facts may be facts, but the conclusions we draw from those facts—for instance, what effect does the president’s party membership have on unemployment?—will tend to vary wildly. Does one party holding the White House automatically trigger a spike in unem...

Our leaders lack empathy. That, in a sense, is one of the conclusions of a new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The study assigned participants the task of creating a compelling argument to win over subjects with opposing views. Somewhat predictably, results showed that most participants were ineffective at getting subjects to change their minds. More surprising, perhaps, was how frequently the attempts to craft compelling arguments devolved into ad hominem attack...

The third Republican primary debate was, deservedly, a train wreck. What went wrong had effectively nothing to do with the candidates themselves, which could almost be refreshing if it weren’t for what did actually derail the event. The moderators from CNBC stand to lose more public support than any of the actual candidates, given their mishandling of everything from pre-debate research to managing time-limits. Of course, the whole spectacle was doomed from the start, since it was contrived as...

Nothing ignites partisan temper-tantrums more than the suggestion that the "other side" might have gained an advantage overlooked by our side. The latest bout of alarmist nonsense came from a Politico story in August attributing outsized macro-manipulation potential to the world’s favorite online search engine, Google. While the column stopped short of assigning any particular political agenda to Google, it delighted in its suggestive mishandling of the evidence demonstrating that, if it wanted...

America’s political news-makers are as responsible for perpetuating the hyper-partisan structure of contemporary politics as the politicians themselves. They have latched onto the idea that the parties—and their proponents—are fundamentally different not just politically, but with respect to everything from brain function to vacation habits. There are many reasons why Donald Trump and his presidential campaign are still not taken entirely seriously in the mainstream, but this, ultimately, is wh...

If the party system collapsed overnight, would we really have better candidates? Suppose closed primaries were all opened—a long-term goal currently pursued by the Independent Voter Project, The Centrist Project, and numerous others, currently gaining real traction. Suppose America’s ideological constipation were suddenly relieved, breaking out of the notional Conservative-Republican, Liberal-Democrat litmus test that uses single issues to glue politicians to broad platforms. Would we get bet...

What if state regulation, not federal law, is the leading impediment to setting up interstate insurance markets, coverage, and sales? Would that be a win for Republicans, Democrats, or simply up for grabs by the best spin artists? While Republican-backed lawsuits challenge the ability of states using the federally-maintained insurance marketplace to receive subsidies, the real problem is the state exchanges, which put up federally-encouraged walls to stop interstate healthcare commerce. The P...

It is time for America to rethink its position on grass. While one notorious weed commands attention from the media, the government, and the public, another less assuming grass is quietly exacerbating some of America’s most pressing issues — without any partisan baggage.Since the advent of the suburbs, American homes have featured green, manicured lawns -- as much a staple in the imagery of the American Dream as white picket fences, mailboxes, and smiling children. But with drought, air pollut...