2020 Election

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  A Reason Republicans May Not Wish to Proclaim Themselves the Party of Lincoln

  by Tim Lynch

  The fledgling Republican Party needed to expand its appeal beyond its antislavery position, which remained its greatest asset and liability through the end of the Civil War. The party risks national ruin if it becomes the party of Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election results.

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• 2/21/2021
  

  Trump Was Almost Re-Elected. What Does That Say About Us?

  by Walter G. Moss and Rick Shenkman

  Joe Biden's popular vote and electoral margins were large, but only a small number of votes proved decisive. Moving ahead, it is necessary to understand what Trump's ongoing popularity says about America.

• 
• 1/31/2021
  

  How Biden used the VP Springboard to Vault into the Oval Office

  by Joel K. Goldstein

  Joe Biden's leap from VP to POTUS is a rarity. Vice presidents are often contenders, but seldom successful. Circumstance helped Biden break the mold, but so did learning on the job as second-in-command to become a more credible candidate for the top job. 

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• 1/24/2021
  

  Trump Inflamed the American "War of Sections." What Comes Next?

  by Steve Suitts

  2020 shows the south is arguably still the key region in American politics, but it may not be a stronghold of white conservative politics for long. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/18/2021
  

  As Trump’s Presidency Recedes into History, Scholars Seek to Understand His Reign — And What it Says about American Democracy

  Political historians Joseph Crespino, Matthew Dallek and Douglas Brinkley discuss the implications for democracy of Trump's substantial support and the likelihood that the record of his presidency will be controlled by allies and shaped by unreliable narrators.

• 
• SOURCE: Keeping Democracy Alive
  1/19/2021
  

  One Nation, Indivisible: Really? Forever?

  Richard Kreitner, author of "Break It Up" joins Burt Cohen's podcast to discuss the history and future of calls to break up the United States.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  1/10/2020
  

  Black Southerners are Wielding Political Power that was Denied their Parents and Grandparents

  While the voter mobilization efforts that tipped Georgia's senate races to the Democrats have been much-discussed, they capitalized on a long-term shift in the Black population to the urban and suburban south, a "reverse great migration" that will be politically consequential for years to come. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  1/11/2021
  

  The Only Way to Save American Democracy Now

  by Richard R. Hasen

  "We need bold changes to deal with the threat to democracy from an authoritarian wing of the Republican Party that appeared ready to abet Trump’s stealing of the election, as well as the separate problem that the Republican Party can continue to consistently win elections with minority support thanks to backward American election rules we have in place."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/8/2021
  

  How to Ensure This Never Happens Again

  by Beverly Gage and Emily Bazelon

  A menu of democratic reform initiatives ranging from strictly defining the electoral vote process to abolishing the electoral college: reforms needed to stop the temptation to undemocratic rule and authoritarianism.

• 
• 1/10/2020
  

  Black Women Have Been Important Party and Electoral Organizers for a Century

  by Alison M. Parker

  Black women's political organizing was a key to Joe Biden's victory and the Democratic Senate victories in Georgia; these episodes are part of a long historical tradition of activists using partisan politics to press for racial and gender equality. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  12/29/2020
  

  The Deep Origins of Latino Support for Trump

  by Geraldo Cadava

  "In the White House, Joe Biden will have the opportunity to show Latinos that they’re important to the Democratic coalition. First, though, Democrats will have to acknowledge that a shift did, in fact, take place."

• 
• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/2/2021
  

  Stop Worrying About Upper-Class Suburbanites

  by Lily Geismer and Matthew Lassiter

  Two suburban historians argue that the changing demographics and political composition of American suburbs mean the Democrats' strategy of courting white moderates will foreclose building the ethnically and economically diverse coalition they need to win. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/7/2021
  

  Trump’s Supporters Think They’re Being Patriotic. And That’s The Problem

  by Christine Adams

  The September Massacres of 1792 finished the overthrow of the French monarchy and paved the way to the Reign of Terror; the significance of conspiracy theory, rumor, and identification of enemies of the people were echoed in Wednesday's Capitol riots (though with, as yet, less bloodshed). 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/5/2021
  

  You Think This Is Chaos? The Election of 1876 Was Worse

  “I don’t really imagine Ted Cruz knows that much about the election of 1876,” said Eric Foner, an emeritus history professor at Columbia University and a leading Reconstruction scholar.

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  1/5/2021
  

  Pence Under Pressure To Follow Vote Certification Procedure But Also Please Trump

  Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer joins Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd to discuss the difficult position that Vice President Mike Pence is in ahead of the formal Electoral College vote certification in Congress.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/5/2020
  

  Josh Hawley Dodges Question During Fox News Grilling on Election Challenge

  Senator Josh Hawley's demands that Congress intervene in the electoral vote certification depends on ignoring that A: Congress formed such a commission in 1877 after three states failed to certify their vote and B: the resulting compromise forfeited the politial and civil rights of Black Americans. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  1/3/2020
  

  Media Should Call GOP Election Fight An Attempted Coup, Historian Says

  "I've been using that word for months now," historian and author Timothy Snyder told Stelter on "Reliable Sources" Sunday.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Herald
  1/1/2021
  

  Opinion: Lawsuit Puts some GOP Lawmakers on Dumb Side of history

  Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg suggests that Republican protests over the Electoral College vote certification are ridiculous and will be remembered as desperate and un-American.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/4/2021
  

  We Must Stop Calling Trump’s Enablers ‘Conservative.’ They are the Radical Right

  The term "conservatism" conceals and normalizes the radical anti-democratic tenor of the current Republican Party, argues Post columnist Margaret Sullivan, drawing on scholars including historian Heather Cox Richardson.

• 
• SOURCE: PBS News Hour
  1/4/20201
  

  Trump’s Attempt to ‘Manufacture Votes’ in Georgia Raises Legal Questions

  "I think there is a good argument to be made that he violated both federal law, which prevents one person from trying to get another to procure fraudulent votes, as well as Georgia law, which makes election fraud, ballot box stuffing a crime."