New Developments in the Trumpification of the US Republican Party

The prominent performance of former US President Donald J.Trump in the 2024 presidential election cycle ref lects the ongoing developments of the Trumpification of the Republican Party(GOP).Since Trump left office,the Trumpification of the GOP has continued.In terms of ideological shaping,Trumpification is ref lected in the fact that the political stance of the GOP is dominated by Trump.In terms of personal influence,Trumpification is manifested by the overall acceptance of GOP elites and voters toward Trump's presidential candidacy,notwithstanding a decrease in their satisfaction with him.The recent developments in Trumpification are intricately linked to Trump's influence on the GOP's political ecology,such as the formation of a new GOP coalition and the reshaping of GOP elite composition.Additionally,these developments are also inf luenced by specific political factors,including the unique circumstances of the 2020 presidential election that led to Tr ump's“quasi-incumbent”status and the economic and immigration issues in the 2024 election that favor Trump.The role Trump plays in the 2024 election and its outcome will be critical in determining whether the inf luence of Trumpification,especially Trump himself,will persist or undergo changes.

Great Changes Unseen for a Century in American Politics and the 2020 US Presidential Election

American politics is currently undergoing great changes unseen in a century,which has been predominately manifested in the following hree aspects:first,the rampant COVID-19 pandemic has caused the US tosuffer its worst economic recession since the Great Depression in 1929;second,social division and political polarization are besetting the US as evidenced in its wide partisan divide between the supporters of its two major parties on a range of critical issues;and third,the US is caught in anational identity crisis,while China's rise is believed to intensify such a crisis.These three factors are bound to exert great impacts on the 2020 presidential election of the United States:the COVID-19 pandemic will have certain influence on voter turnout and the approval rating of the two parties;in the context of the aforementioned serious social divide and highly polarized political landscape,the basic constituencies of the two parties are likely to show an extraordinary degree of party loyalty,which could result in the possibility that a few voters in a handful of key states will determine the results of the election;and as China's peaceful rise ismistaken as a serious threat to the national identity of the US.China will be one of the key topics in the coming US presidential election,hence further worsening the relations between China and the United States.

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun—The Fact of Superhero Politics

Although a lot of scholars attempted to arouse some new passion toward further political research on“superhero”for which they combed through the history of the“superhero”development,whether“superhero”is truly worth such efforts remains a question to be reviewed.Can the phenomena of“superhero”really stand by itself as a social element when its characteristics of the times have been stripped off?Does“superhero”today have any essential differences with“god”of the past?Do the“superhero”phenomena belong only to the U.S.political culture?Can one unique political rule or theory be directed from it?Varied answers to the questions may have led scholars to greatly different conclusions.

Rise of the Right and Regression of the Left in Latin America

Though the turn to the right in Latin America will continue over the short term, the left has not diminished and its resurgence remains possible. The political situation in Latin America has undergone dramatic changes since 2015, when an ebbing of the"pink tide"and rise of the right in several countries occurred, coupled with US support to the right.Flexible political strategies and rightists' political pragmatism are occurring as the continent's middle class expands, coupled with US support to the right. Some conditions that promote the right's revival remain operative, but for the new right regimes, addressing economic vitality, the wellbeing of the poor, corruption, and divisions from within are imminent challenges against which a left resurgence has competitive ground.