Power

Just because the filibuster wasn't created to promote racial slavery doesn't mean there’s no good argument against it.

On L.A. solidarity and the Black radical tradition.

A conversation about whether or not the legacy of liberty can break away from racial exclusion and domination.

Infrastructure plans are always political. The key is being inclusive and focusing on the public good.

Why do most chroniclers of LBJ’s presidency miss the centrality and influence of the first lady?

Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, paving the way for the record number of women serving in President Biden’s Cabinet.

Reforms have only made obstruction the Founders never intended worse.

The filibuster, invented to uphold slavery, must be eliminated if Democrats hope to deliver progressive legislation.

The Carter-Baker report was intended to strengthen Americans’ trust in the electoral process. It’s become a weapon for right-wing attacks on voting rights.

While American conservatism remains largely White, it has slowly but surely become less so.

Why it’s foolish to think the modern GOP will ever break with its lunatic fringe.

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

The centuries-long battle over Sunday activities is really about African Americans' freedom and agency.

The drive for American independence coalesced in only a few years of rapidly accelerating political change.

Thaddeus Stevens understood far better than most that fully uprooting slavery meant overthrowing the South’s economic system and challenging property rights.

A steadfast Republican committed to union-management cooperation, peace through treaties, competitive capitalism, and empowerment of African-Americans.

The residence staff, many of whom have worked there for decades, balance their service of the First Family with their long-term loyalty to the house itself.

She ran from the car of a powerful congressman and dove into the Tidal Basin in 1974, generating a splash that would ripple into a political cause celebre.

At the height of the Reconstruction, the pressing issue of the election was Black male suffrage.

Mass inequality in the Gilded Age thrived on identity-based partisanship, helping extinguish the fires of class rage. In 2021, we’re headed down the same path.

In so many ways, Limbaugh helped sow the seeds of the pathologies we're now living through.

The pervasive mythmaking about the supposed wisdom of the founders has covered up a central truth: the US Constitution is an antidemocratic mess.

The impeachment exposed the need for Republican leaders to banish the extremists and bigots from their movement.

The Trump administration tried and failed to accomplish a count of unauthorized immigrants to reshape Congress, the Electoral College and public policy.

The authors of the Constitution feared mass participation would unsettle government, but it’s the privileged minority that has proved destabilizing.

“A Promised Land” tells of a country that needed a savior.

Washington was a savvy packager of his own personal virtues. He knew that if you don’t engage in a bit of self-aggrandizement, you lose.

Black civil-rights activists—and especially Black women—delivered on the promise of the Founding. Their victories are in peril.

Her name was Julia Chinn.

Such women have long pushed American politics to the right, and their ideas have become mainstream.