Departments

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political history

  • SOURCE: NY Times
    1/9/20

    It’s 1856 All Over Again

    by Steve Inskeep

    Immigration. Race. Demographic change. Political demagogy. That year’s presidential race had it all. What can it tell us about 2020?

  • 1/5/20

    A Historian Reflects on the Return of Fascism

    by Lawrence Wittner

    In the last decade or so, enormous headway has been made by movements and parties following the old fascist playbook, with rightwing demagogues trumpeting its key elements of virulent nationalism, racial and religious intolerance, and militarism. 

  • 12/22/19

    Does truth matter less than it did in 1974?

    by Roy E. Finkenbine

    At the moment of the impeachment and pending trial of another president, there are still lessons to be learned from Watergate.  One of these is the sad story of Earl Landgrebe.

  • 12/22/19

    Is Donald Trump a Conservative?

    by Jonathan Montano

    Does Trump fit the mold defined by historians on conservatism? Does his brand of populism even fit the classical ideology of conservative populist thought?

  • 12/18/19

    Impeachment and the Electoral College

    by Robert Hardaway

    The greatest fear of the Framers was concentration of power in one branch of government that might overpower and abuse the other branches. It was for this reason that the framers’ firmly rejected the unitary parliamentary model of Great Britain. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    12/17/19

    History is clear: Voters reward, rather than punish, political courage

    by Jon Meacham and Michael E. Shepherd

    Over the past six decades, courageous high-profile votes have tended not to cost the courageous their seats. From Southern Democrats who supported the Civil Acts Right of 1964 to Republicans who backed Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 through the Clinton impeachment in the 1990s, tough votes have been difficult but not necessarily fatal.

  • 12/8/19

    An Extinct Species: The Liberal Republican

    by Donne Levy

    As both parties have unified, those whose views are not considered mainstream enough have been sidelined or eliminated. This shift has meant the extinction of the liberal or moderate Republican.

  • 12/8/19

    The Power of the 2017 Congressional Recess

    by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin

    Leaders got involved because the country had fallen into the hands of a vile, dangerous bully. They were not going to put up with harassment in their own communities.