conservatism

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  9/10/2020
  

  This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving

  by Tom Nichols

  "The hardening of the GOP into a toxic conglomeration of hucksters, quislings, racists, theocrats, and cultists is already happening. The party gladly accepted support from white supremacists and the Russian secret services, and now welcomes QAnon kooks into its caucus. Conservatives must learn that the only way out of “the wilderness” is first to vanquish those who led them there."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/27/2020
  

  How Reagan Captured the Presidency, and the Right Captured Politics (Review)

  by Michael Bobelian

  Rick Perlstein's latest history of American conservatism is reviewed as a lens on today's aggrieved conservatism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  8/27/2020
  

  Those who Like Government Least Govern Worst

  Both George W. Bush and Donald Trump represent a Republican Party soaked in contempt for, and mistrust of, the federal government. When you don’t respect, or even like, the institution you lead, you lead it poorly. When that institution is incredibly, globally important — as the US government is — leading it poorly can invite global catastrophe.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  8/26/2020
  

  Reaganland' Author Revisits The Roots Of American Conservatism (audio)

  Author Rick Perlstein chronicles the events that propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980. He says that a certain "viciousness" has always been part of the conservative Republican coalition.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/23/2020
  

  How Donald Trump Cancelled the Republican Party

  by Sidney Blumenthal

  From Reagan onward, even as the fringe moved to the center and took it over, the party did not anticipate that it was slouching toward Trump. Conservatives have consistently failed to grasp the unintended consequences of conservatism.

• 
• SOURCE: USA Today
  8/21/2020
  

  Trump and Republicans are Following the Goldwater Model with Qanon. That Didn't End Well

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  Is that the future Republicans want? To borrow from William F. Buckley, is the GOP willing to acquiesce quietly in QAnon's falsehoods? The answer, for the moment, would seem to be yes.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  8/18/2020
  

  ‘Reaganland,’ by Rick Perlstein: An Excerpt

  'Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980' is available now.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/15/2020
  

  Rick Perlstein: 'If you're not writing about the berserk, you're not writing about America' (Interview)

  The historian has completed his epic on the rise of the US right – just in time for Donald Trump’s attempt to hold on to his throne.

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  Of Course Kamala Harris is a Citizen

  by Derek Litvak

  John Eastman's claims that Kamala Harris is not a natural-born U.S. citizen fly in the face of 14th Amendment jurisprudence and Eastman's own prior defenses of Ted Cruz's eligibility for the presidency. 

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  The Republican Party’s Five Traps

  by Thomas E. Patterson

  Thomas Patterson's new book, excerpted here, evaluates the political traps the Republican Party has set for itself and considers the consequences for the nation if the party implodes. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/7/2020
  

  Colorblindness Has Become A Conservative Shield For Racial Inequality

  by Frank J. Cirillo

  Beginning in the 1970s, white politicians selectively appropriated the dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for a future post-race society by pretending it was already reality, rejecting further action to address racial inequality.

• 
• SOURCE: AlterNet
  8/12/2020
  

  Trump Won’t Win by Doubling-Down on his Racist Appeals but the Right’s Open Bigotry Comes at a Cost

  A desperate Donald Trump appears to be pulling back the curtains on direct appeals to white racists. The strategy's success or failure may determine whether these appeals return as a core part of American political rhetoric.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  

  How the GOP Became the Party of Resentment

  Historian Patrick Iber reflects on "Reaganland," the concluding volume of Rick Perlstein's genre-defining series of books on American conservatism, and urges readers to consider how the movement mobilized anger and resentment as opposed to high principle. 

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  8/6/2020
  

  Trump Doesn’t Understand Today’s Suburbs—And Neither Do You

  Suburbs are getting more diverse, but that doesn't mean they’re woke. Historian Thomas Sugrue says if you want to understand where American politics is going, look how suburban whites are sorting themselves out.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  7/31/2020
  

  The Violence at the Root of the Silent Majority

  by Brian Tochterman

  As a vigilante film, “Joe” inaugurated a genre that exploded onto screens in the 1970s.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2020
  

  Fascism: A Concern

  Is the application of "fascism" to describe today's politics accurate or useful? Historians including Samuel Moyn, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, David A. Bell, and Heather Ann Thompson add perspective. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  8/4/2020
  

  The Never Trumpers Have Already Won

  by Samuel Moyn

  Never Trump's historic role turns out to be not among Republicans so far, but within a Democratic Party whose members have chosen to convert enemies into friends, setting up a guardrail against the capture of their party by the left.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/3/2020
  

  The White, European Jesus of Western Imagination is Fiction

  Opinion columnist Michael Gerson takes issue with conservative writer Eric Metaxas's comments on the ethnicity of Jesus Christ. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  8/3/2020
  

  What Tom Cotton Gets So Wrong About Slavery and the Constitution

  by Sean Wilentz

  "I have fundamental publicized objections to the project, but these in no way mitigate Cotton’s serious misrepresentations of the historical record for evident political gain."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/3/2020
  

  Stop Worrying about Protecting ‘Taxpayers.’ That Isn’t the Government’s Job.

  by Lawrence B. Glickman

  "Taxpayerism has perverted our political culture by denying the existence of a common good — or, perhaps, more accurately, by falsely defining that good, and even freedom itself, as low taxes for the rich and for corporations."