Departments

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Republican Party

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    2/15/2021

    McConnell’s Task: Purging the Crackpots and Bigots

    by Kevin M. Schultz

    William F. Buckley Jr. was able to advance conservative ideas by publicly dissociating from antisemites, Ayn Rand cultists and John Birch conspiracists on the right-wing fringes. Mitch McConnell's problem leading America's conservative party is that all those groups are back with a vengeance. 

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    2/15/2021

    Jews Fear what Follows after Republicans Applauded Marjorie Taylor Greene

    by Deborah Lipstadt

    "Having spent decades studying, teaching, researching and fighting antisemitism, Greene’s claims were familiar territory. All of them – space lasers, 9/11, school shootings, Trump’s election loss and so much else – shared a common theme: conspiracy."

  • 2/14/2021

    What Becomes of a Broken Party?

    by James Robenalt

    The Republican Party seems to be refusing the opportunity to save itself by rejecting Trumpism. His acquittal in a second Senate trial means he will be free to demand the party bend to his will or be destroyed. 

  • 2/14/2021

    Trumpism after Trump: Beyond Fascism

    by Gavriel Rosenfeld

    Understanding the future of the far-right grievance politics catalyzed by the Trump presidency, it might be helpful to think of it as "MAGA-ism," a 21st century American phenomenon.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/4/2021

    How the GOP Surrendered to Extremism

    by Ronald Brownstein

    Historian Matthew Dallek says that the prominence of conspiracy theorists and the far right in the Republican Party's base means that there will be no move to push extremists out like there was after Barry Goldwater's 1964 candidacy. 

  • SOURCE: Slate
    2/3/2021

    The GOP’s Bolshevik Moment

    by Fred Kaplan

    Alexander Kerensky's tenure as Russia's only prime minister between the overthrow of the Czar and the Bolshevik takeover was cut short in part because he viewed Lenin as an ally against his monarchist enemies. Republican Party leaders risk the same fate if they accept the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene as allies against Joe Biden.

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    1/28/2021

    The Republican Retreat From Governance

    Dartmouth history professor Bethany Moreton argues that the GOP focus on social issues (and embrace by some of QAnon) isn't divorced from economic policy, but reflects the political decision to forego any social provision for child care and health. 

  • SOURCE: Vox
    1/13/2021

    Can the Republican Party be Saved?

    Geoffrey Kabaservice is the author of "Rule and Ruin," a history of the Republican Party since 1950. He discusses the party's turn toward right-wing radicalism with Vox's Sean Illing. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/21/2021

    Trump’s Parting Gift to Joe Biden

    by Ronald Brownstein

    Joe Biden's inaugural address was the first since Lincoln's in 1861 that used the term "disunion," emphasizing the severity of America's political division and Biden's potential to create a political realignment around commitment to democracy and democratic culture. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/16/2021

    QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within

    by Ben Sasse

    The Republican Senator from Nebraska, who holds a doctorate in American history, warns that his party cannot continue to "preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon," and suggests ways to repair the frayed social fabric in which conspiracy theories thrive.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/13/2021

    Trump Is the Republican Party’s Past and Its Future

    by Lisa McGirr

    It's not a question of whether Trump voters are driven by racism, nativism or conspiracy theories, or by "economic anxiety." Republican economic policies have created inequality and instability that the party can only paper over by encouraging resentment, suspicion and hostility. It won't end with Trump's departure.