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Representative Greg Casar, in front of a poster that says "Fire Elon, Save Elmo"

The Trump Administration’s Showdown with PBS and NPR

While Democrats waving a Big Bird doll around on the House floor saved public broadcast funding in the past, this strategy does not seem likely to work in 2025.
by Abby Whitaker via Clio and the Contemporary on May 1, 2025
Kamala Harris

The Democrats’ “Opportunity” Pitch Is a Dead End

The meritocratic pitch was emblematic of Democrats’ long march away from working-class voters.
by Lily Geismer via Jacobin on December 11, 2024
Protestors at Oxford University, with one holding a sign that reads "End Racism Now."

What Is Decolonisation?

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?
by Lydia Walker via Aeon on November 21, 2024
Kamala Harris stands in front of a crowd of voters holidng "Freedom" signs.

Kamala Harris’s “Freedom” Campaign

Democrats’ years-long efforts to reclaim the word are cresting in this year’s Presidential race.
by Peter Slevin via The New Yorker on August 23, 2024
Palestinians inspect the ruins of a building destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, October 8, 2023.

The Desire to Annihilate Gaza Wasn’t Born on 10/7 — It’s Part of a Long Tradition

A long Euro-American tradition of genocide and ethnic cleansing imagined freeing a barren Palestine from Palestinian barbarity and heathenism.
by Adam Yaghi via Religion Dispatches on June 17, 2024
A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 12, 2024
George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking (1853–54).

How the American Jeremiad Can Restore the American Soul

One of the country’s greatest rhetorical traditions still has the power to remind us of our founding principles.
by Sam B. Girgus via Bulwark+ on March 29, 2024
A presidential portrait of George Washington.

The Enduring Power of Purim

Since colonial times, the Book of Esther has proved a powerful metaphor in American politics.
by Stuart Halpern via Tablet on March 21, 2024
Nikki Haley, 2023.

Nikki Haley's Slavery Omission Typifies the GOP's Tragic Pact with White Supremacy

How the Southern Strategy of the late 20th century gave rise to the modern GOP.
by Annika Brockschmidt via Religion Dispatches on January 8, 2024
Two protestors holding a Palestinian flag with "stop genocide" written on it, surrounded by red handprints.

The War in Gaza Has Exposed the Limits of the Word “Genocide”

The term is 80 years old. Everyone is still fighting over its meaning.
by David Faris via Slate on December 13, 2023
A portrait of Andrew Jackson.

Whiggism Is Still Wrong

Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants to "make hard work cool again." He isn’t the first.
by Sohrab Ahmari via The American Conservative on November 21, 2023
The shrouded bodies of people killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

“Genocide” Is the Wrong Word

We reach for the term when we want to condemn the worst crimes, but the UN’s Genocide Convention excuses more perpetrators of mass murder than it condemns.
by James Robins via The New Republic on November 21, 2023
Recently freed African Americans receive rations.

The Origins of the Socialist Slur

Reconstruction-era opponents of racial equality popularized the charge that protecting civil rights would amount to the end of capitalism.
by Heather Cox Richardson via The Atlantic on September 26, 2023
Graphic of the word "negrophile" spelled out three times

How the Right Retired “Negrophile”—and Substituted “Woke”

Favorite slur too racist? Replace it.
by Anthony Conwright via Mother Jones on August 29, 2023
L: Current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; R: Former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins.

The Overlooked Origins of the War on Bud Light and Other “Woke” Companies

Starbucks and Anheuser-Busch are the latest corporate targets of tactics honed by segregationists post–Brown v. Board.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Slate on July 5, 2023
Photo from the January 6th Capitol Attack, with rioters raising a flag in front of a cloud of smoke by the capitol.

How the Republican Party Embraced Political Violence Before January 6th

On the alarming origins of the current political moment.
by Dana Milbank via Literary Hub on August 15, 2022
Anti-abortion protestors and police in front of Supreme Court
partner

The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Powerful Use of Language Paid Off

Nearing an antiabortion victory five decades in the making.
by Jennifer L. Holland via Made By History on May 5, 2022
Man holding a poster of Malcolm X, African American Day Parade, 2010 in Harlem.

Malcolm X’s Gospel

A look into how Malcolm X employed gospel rhetoric to critique the mainstream civil rights movement for catering to white Christianity.
by Ellen McLarney via Black Perspectives on March 28, 2022
A book labeled "history" begin painted white to represent revisionism.

Right-Wing Nationalists Are Marching into the Future by Rewriting the Past

Fights over history like those in the U.S. are happening all over the world.
by Ishaan Tharoor via Washington Post on February 11, 2022
Photograph of Joe Biden speaking at a podium with a sign for vaccines.gov in the background.

In Praise of One-Size-Fits-All

Critiques of vaccine mandates continue a neoliberal tradition of idolizing private choice at the expense of the public good.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Boston Review on December 2, 2021
Photo collage of Republican men, with Donald Trump at the center.

A Short History of Conservative Trolling

On the laughing emptiness at the center of the Republican Party.
by Rick Perlstein via Intelligencer on October 26, 2021
Men looking at conservative publications spread across a table

My Father and the Birth of Modern Conservatism

The inspiration for the 1964 “Extremism in the defense of liberty” speech he wrote for Barry Goldwater.
by Philip Jaffa via The Bulwark on September 30, 2021
A collage of newspapers declaring various elections to be "the most important election in our lives."

The Most Important Political Platitude of Our Lifetime (and Many Others)

How a simple message came to be used nearly word-for-word in elections large and small for more than 200 years.
by Jason Feifer via Slate on November 2, 2020
Donald Trump.
partner

Trump’s 2020 Playbook Is Coming Straight from Southern Enslavers

Racism — not reformers demanding redress — is the source of American strife.
by Elizabeth R. Varon via Made By History on September 9, 2020
Donald Trump
partner

Even After Their Fearmongering Proves Wrong, Republicans Keep at It. Here’s Why.

For close to a century, conservatives have seen all government programs as the road to socialism.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Made By History on August 31, 2020
Harry Sternberg’s 1947 visualization of fascism as a three-headed monster.

What We Don’t Understand About Fascism

Using the word incorrectly oversimplifies history—and won't help us address our current political crisis.
by Victoria de Grazia via Zócalo Public Square on August 13, 2020
partner

Why President Trump Used Lynching as a Metaphor

The long history of politicians claiming to be victims of lynching and racial violence.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Made By History on October 23, 2019

Conservatives Say We've Abandoned Reason and Civility. The Old South Said That, Too

The ‘reasonable’ right’s persecution rhetoric echoes the Confederacy’s defense of slavery.
by Eve Fairbanks via Washington Post on August 29, 2019
John Tanton
partner

John Tanton Has Died. He Made America Less Open to Immigrants — and More Open to Trump.

The nativist activist helped make anti-immigrant politics mainstream.
by Carly Goodman via Made By History on July 18, 2019

Behind Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Demand: A Long History of Rejecting ‘Different’ Americans

From Germans and Irish to blacks and Jews, new Americans often have been told to “go home.”
by Marc Fisher via Washington Post on July 15, 2019
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