Republican Party 
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2/21/2021
Cynicism and Political Blunder: A Postscript to “The January 6th Assault on Congress and the Fate of the GOP’s Faustian Bargain"
by Jeffrey Herf
Mitch McConnell's decision to condemn Trump after voting for his acquittal wasn't just an act of cowardice. The acts taken together constitute a major tactical blunder in the emerging battle for control of the Republican Party.
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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.
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/17/2021
Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio’s Conservative Provocateur, Dies at 70
The conservative talk radio host and de facto head of the Republican Party died on February 17 after a long career of airing right-wing grievances and attacking liberals, feminists, environmentalists, Democrats, and Black political leaders.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/16/2021
Convicting Trump would have Required Accepting a Half-Century of Republican Guilt
by Steven M. Gillon
Senate Republicans could not convict Donald Trump without also accepting their party's collective blame for the politics of white male resentment and Christian nationalism that the party has cultivated for decades before MAGA.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
2/8/2021
In America’s ‘Uncivil War,’ Republicans Are The Aggressors
Thomas Zimmer and Joanne Freeman represent historians among the scholars commenting on the asymetric polarization of American politics.
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
2/3/2021
The GOP Might Still Be Trump’s Party. But That Doesn’t Mean There’s Room For Him
Political scientist Julia Azari, a scholar of presidential mandates, suggests that while the grievance politics Donald Trump exploited will remain part of the Republican Party's strategy, the GOP will probably find another standard bearer; even popular ex-presidents have been eclipsed in their parties.
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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.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
1/28/2021
Opinion: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Vile New Antics Highlight A 50-Year GOP Story
Washington Post Political Columnist Greg Sargent says that Marjorie Taylor Greene's conspiratorial bigotry reflects a historical problem with the Republican Party: the porous boundary between the mainstream and the extremist fringe. But that boundary is weaker than ever today.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
1/14/2021
A TV Documentary Shows the Deep Roots of Right-Wing Conspiracy
New Yorker critic Richard Brody discusses the 1964 broadcast of "Danger on the Right" on the John Birch Society.
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: USA Today
1/19/2021
Biden Inauguration amid Trump COVID Failure could End Republican Era of Bashing Government
by Seth Cotlar
Ronald Reagan's 1980 victory helped cement the popular notion of the futility of government action. Will four years of Trump capped by one year of the COVID-19 pandemic restore public demand for competent and active government?
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SOURCE: Salon
1/18/2021
My Grandfather was a Nazi. Our Family's Story of Complicity Shows Where the Road to Extremism Leads
by Mary Louise Wells
Republicans who continued to contest the legitimacy of the election after the Capitol riots should consider the German example, which shows the potential for disaster if people accept authoritarianism out of expediency.
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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.
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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.
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