A Campaign Like No Other

The disruption of commerce, consumption and pretty much everything else is the story of our age. In this issue, we share the results of a poll we conducted with Burson-Marsteller and the Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative on attitudes about the gig economy. We explored who is offering services–rides from Uber, food delivery from Postmates, rooms from Airbnb–who is using them and why. This same dynamic–essentially, cut out the middlemen–applies to our politics, which is a theme David Von Drehle explores in his cover story. Donald Trump has defied every convention and conviction about how politics works and has surfed atop the polls for five months. Whatever the outcome in Iowa and beyond, he has already changed the game, and David explores what this means for his party and the future of politics.

David’s story reflects the reporting of TIME’s entire political team, led by Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer. They’ve spent a year crisscrossing the country, chatting up candidates in middle seats and in the backs of SUVs and listening to voters at massive rallies and modest town halls. Philip Elliott and Zeke Miller have led the coverage of the Republicans, logging thousands of miles and interviewing most of the candidates multiple times: with each week it is clearer that we have entered uncharted territory. “The number of times candidates and consultants have essentially interviewed me about what I think comes next is getting ridiculous,” Zeke observes. Sam Frizell has followed the Democrats, chronicling Hillary Clinton’s rocky road to coronation and Bernie Sanders’ soaring rebellion. Alex Altman was an early predictor of Ted Cruz’s rise last summer, and Haley Sweetland Edwards has illuminated the policy debates underlying the race. Meanwhile, columnist Joe Klein brings every bit as much energy and enterprise to this race–his 11th–as he did to his first.

Back in TIME

March 2, 1992 the angry voter

This week’s cover story reveals the American political mood as an angry one–but it’s not the first time that’s been the case. Read more at time.com/vault.

THE NEWS

Republicans in New Hampshire sent President George H.W. Bush a warning in the 1992 primary, giving him just 53% of the vote.

THE CONCLUSION

Citing Americans’ rage at bickering between the White House and Congress, Lance Morrow wrote, “The New Hampshire primary amounted to a cry of anger, disgust and pain.”

NOW ON NEWSSTANDS

In a new TIME Special Edition, our Washington correspondents explore the coming year of political change, as anti-Establishment discontent fuels the campaigns of unlikely contenders from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders. In more than a dozen profiles of candidates and leaders–including Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton–TIME’s reporters make sense of an atmosphere in which, as Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer writes, “candidates are sounding alarm bells, loud and clear.” The New Revolutionaries is available in stores Jan. 8.

Nancy Gibbs, EDITOR

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