Departments

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conservatism

  • SOURCE: The Bulwark
    4/19/2021

    Heeding the Lessons of Weimar

    by Shikha Dalmia and Arthur Melzer

    "There aren’t many examples in the annals of liberal democracy when a major party abandoned so much of what it stood for so quickly for the sake of one man. The most notorious parallel is of course Weimar Germany."

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    3/30/2021

    The Republican Poseurs Who Claim to Be True Texans

    A number of the most prominent conservatives holding or running for office in Texas are, in fact, recent arrivals. They echo the influx of pro-slavery fanatics to the Republic of Texas, and also obscure the growing diversity and political moderation of the state's large urban areas. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    3/26/2021

    The Social Justice Purge at Idaho Colleges

    Concerns about free speech on campus should consider the Idaho legislature's recent attacks on "critical race theory" as an effort to use education funds to restrict academic freedom, says NYT opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    3/26/2021

    Bill Brock was the Forgotten Father of the Modern GOP

    by Seth Blumenthal

    Bill Brock lost two related battles: to keep the Republican Party establishment in charge of conservative policy priorities and to marry fiscal conservatism with some more moderate positions on social issues. A biographer argues that conservatism and the country are worse off for not following Brock. 

  • SOURCE: The Bulwark
    3/24/2021

    The Future of Conservatism?

    by Charlie Sykes

    "The Bulwark" columnist compares a recent task force for conservatism convened by former Governor Scott Walker to the legacy of the movement and finds it sorely lacking. 

  • 3/21/2021

    Rally 'Round the Rune: Fascist Echoes of the CPAC Stage

    by Mark Auslander and Jay Ball

    The incorporation of a Norse rune associated with the SS into the stage of the recent CPAC conference probably isn't an accident; the choice reflects the cultural cachet of Norse myth on the far right, the conservative movement's desire to maintain deniability about its ties to the far right, and the recognition that the design would be crystal clear to viewers of internet memes. 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    3/15/2021

    A County Turns Against Its College

    by Emma Pettit

    "For years, locals have made bogeymen out of the faculty, characterizing them as radicals with leftist agendas, committed to indoctrinating students."

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    3/8/2021

    What Is Happening to the Republican Party?

    by Jelani Cobb

    The historian and New Yorker writer consults a roster of political historians (including Marsha Barrett, Thomas Patterson and Heather Cox Richardson) to ask whether Trumpism has the potential to break the Republican Party as previous factional splits have disrupted prior incarnations of the American party system. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    3/9/2021

    The G.O.P. Isn’t Going to Split Apart Anytime Soon

    by Jamelle Bouie

    The Times columnist checks in with a number of political historians and argues that, while pundits are comparing today's GOP to the Whigs and Federalists, a more vital comparison is to the 19th century Democratic Party, which held on to power through aggressive use of anti-majoritarian institutions. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    3/8/2021

    The John Birch Society Never Left

    by Rick Perlstein and Edward H. Miller

    Journalists are calling for the Republicans to follow the lead of William F. Buckley and stand up to far-right extremists in their ranks. The problem is that neither Buckley nor the GOP of the 1960s did any such thing, instead perfecting the technique of speaking to two audiences. 

  • 3/2/2021

    Historians on CPAC 2021

    The annual conservative meeting showed that Donald Trump still holds the steering wheel of the Republican Party. Historians on the speeches, the stage design, and the golden idol. 

  • SOURCE: The Week
    2/18/2021

    Rush Limbaugh Taught Republicans To Rage

    by Neil J. Young

    Even from the perspective of today's degraded political culture that he helped bring about, Limbaugh's cruelty remains shocking.

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    2/19/2021

    The Rise and Fall of the L. Brent Bozells

    by Timothy Noah

    The charging of L. Brent Bozell IV with disorderly conduct for entering the Senate chamber on January 6 prompts reflection on how a series of men named L. Brent Bozell trace the evolution of American conservatism.