In the social media era, people and organizations increasingly fight over the public's attention. This competition is especially intense in American presidential campaigns. As someone who used attention-grabbing strategies throughout his career, Donald Trump's communication skills were well suited to this environment. His campaigns illustrate the power and limits of attention-grabbing campaign tactics. While he successfully dominated the public's attention in his presidential campaigns, pe...

A data-rich analysis of how the four inter-related crises of 2020 -- the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic collapse and K-shaped recovery, the clashes over the legacy of racism and policing, and assaults on the legitimacy of democratic institutions (abetted by conspiracy theories) -- shaped not only the 2020 election, but also the future of our democracy. The 2020 election cycle was one of the most tumultuous in the nation's history. Early in the cycle, a global pandemic hit...