January 6

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• SOURCE: Talking Points Memo
  5/25/2023
  

  The Path to January 6 Ran Through the Obama-Era Tea Party

  The closeness of the Oath Keepers militia group to the Tea Party movement was hardly a guarded secret in the 2010s. 

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• SOURCE: The Hill
  5/11/2023
  

  Proud Boys' Convictions for Seditious Conspiracy Won't End the Far Right Threat

  by Tom Mockaitis

  Despite the conviction of leading organizers of the January 6 attack on the Capitol (which aimed at overturning Joe Biden's election), the extreme right will remain a threat, partly because of the flourishing of online channels for hate and partly because the Republican Party has framed the insurrection as legitimate political expression. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/16/2023
  

  Like the Klan, January 6 Deniers Will Lose

  by Adam Serwer

  During Reconstruction, the rapid growth of partisan media outlets made it impossible to tell whether stories of Klan atrocities were true or "fake news." Elaine Frantz Parsons explains how the reality of the Klan became established. 

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• 2/22/2023
  

  Can Rebellion Be Too Big To Fail? Reflections on Jefferson Davis and Trump

  by Wallace Hettle

  If Jefferson Davis's release on bail in 1867 and pardon before trial in 1868 seemed to signal his diminishment as a national figure, the rise of the Lost Cause mythology with Davis as its martyr showed it was a serious mistake to excuse insurrection. 

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• SOURCE: Washingtonian
  2/1/2023
  

  New Graphic Fiction Asks: What if January 6 Had Succeeded?

  Harvard Law professor Alan Jenkins collaborated with a group of artists and writers to explore what might have happened if a mob attacking the Capitol had made a right turn instead of a left. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  1/29/2023
  

  The Real Failures of January 6

  by Karen J. Greenberg

  Despite surface similarities, the attack on Brazil's government buildings earlier this month differed from January 6, 2021 in one key respect: the transfer of presidential power had already been accomplished. The contrast is sobering—for America. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/21/2022
  

  Was the Civil War Inevitable?

  by David W. Blight

  As a growing number of Americans entertain the idea that dissolving the nation might be better than holding its incompatible parts together, it's worth revisiting the series of decisions that led to the Civil War, and to ask whether the nation has, or will, experience the equivalent of the Dred Scott decision. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/20/2022
  

  Law Profs: First Amendment Hurdles to Trump Prosecution Real, Not Insurmountable

  by Alan Z. Rozenshtein and Jed Shugerman

  The defense that Trump's speech about a stolen election, even if deliberately untruthful, constitutes protected political speech is plausible, but prosecutors can situate the remarks in the context of other actions to overturn the election. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/22/2022
  

  Once Again, Republicans Will Choose Radicalization to Turn The Base Out

  by Thomas Zimmer

  The problem with the Republican Party isn't Trump, it's the fact that the party knows it can't win without riling up the far-right elements that compose a growing part of its base. 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  9/14/2022
  

  Does Disqualifying a January 6 Participant from Office Threaten Democracy?

  Disqualifying particular candidates does nothing to fight the broad-based embrace of election denialism and authoritarianism, and it further deprives voters of the right to repudiate those things at the polls, say three law professors. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  8/16/2022
  

  Whatever Else, Applaud Liz Cheney's Defense of the Constitution

  by James M. Banner Jr.

  James M. Banner writes "as difficult as it may be for Democrats, like me, who reject most of Cheney’s positions on specific issues to do, we owe her a salute for her elemental moral and civic clarity."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/4/2022
  

  Milbank: January 6 Roots Begin with Gingrich, Not Trump

  While relatively little of Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" became law, the House Speaker who rose to power in 1994 set the tone for the Republican Party's rigid partisanship and demonization of the opposition, a stance that justifies antidemocratic steps to keep power. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/21/2022
  

  The Dangerous Misunderstanding of America's History of Mob Action

  by Stefan Lund

  Contrary to the protestations of January 6th apologists, mob action in America has usually worked to suppress, rather than defend, democracy.

• 
• 6/15/2022
  

  Far Right Extremism, Paramilitarization, and Misogyny – Statement of Alexandra Stern to the January 6 Committee

  by Alexandra Minna Stern

  The alt-right groups represented at the Capitol on January 6 drew organizing power from online communities where grievance politics around race and gender flourished. Key features were heavy doses of irony that gave deniability to violent rhetoric and extreme misogyny. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  6/15/2022
  

  The Secessionist Roots of January 6

  by Elizabeth R. Varon

  "The story of Southern secession provides illuminating evidence that the Jan. 6 insurgency was, indeed, precedented, rooted in long-standing efforts to preempt, delegitimize and suppress Black voting."

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• SOURCE: Democracy Now!
  6/15/2022
  

  Garrett Graff: A "Conspiratorial Mindset" Links Trump and Nixon Actions

  Garrett Graff, author of "Watergate: A New History" argues that both January 6 and Watergate were the logical culminations of the broader politics of the Trump and Nixon administrations and the movements that sustained them. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  6/14/2022
  

  Prosecutor: The Two-Prong Test that Could Determine Trump's Legal Risk

  Isaac Chotiner interviews former federal prosecutor and current law professor Barbara McQuade about the prospects of a criminal case against Trump over January 6. 

• 
• SOURCE: Rolling Stone
  3/27/2022
  

  Historian Jeff Shesol: Ginni Thomas's 1/6 Involvement Poses Unprecedented Crisis for Court's Legitimacy

  "In a very real sense, Clarence and Ginni Thomas are answerable only to Clarence and Ginni Thomas. The Trump Administration gave us all a hard lesson in how few actual rules bind the behavior of our national leaders."

• 
• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  2/10/2022
  

  Missing from the Conversation on Christian Nationalism? Whiteness

  by Peter Laarman

  The extreme wing of the Christian right is attracting attention for its rhetoric equating freedom with their own power to determine the course of society. A minister argues that recent works in religious history show that it's a mistake to leave out the significance of white racial identity to that movement. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  2/8/2022
  

  NC Elections Board Affirms it has Power to Bar Rep. Cawthorn from Ballot over Jan. 6 Actions

  Without stating whether such action would proceed, North Carolina's elections authority affirmed that it has the power to bar Rep. Madison Cawthorn from seeking reelection if his actions on January 6 are determined to amount to support for insurrection.