Person

William F. Buckley Jr.

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The Autocratic Allure

Why the far right embraces foreign tyrants.
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First They Came for Harvard

The right’s long and all-too-unanswered war on liberal institutions claims a big one.
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It Didn’t Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy

The modern Republican Party has always exploited and encouraged extremism.
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The Birchers & the Trumpers

A new biography of Robert Welch traces the origins and history of the anti-Communist John Birch Society and provides historical perspective on the Trump era.
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The Struggle for the Soul of the GOP

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?
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We All Live in the John Birch Society’s World Now

In his lifetime, Robert Welch toiled in the mocked and marginal fringe. Today his ideas are the mainstream of the American right.
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A Short History of Conservative Trolling

On the laughing emptiness at the center of the Republican Party.
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The John Birch Society Never Left

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

Sixty years ago, many GOP leaders resisted radicals in their ranks. Now they’re not even trying.
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McCarthyism Was Never Defeated. Trumpism Won’t Be Either.

Censure brought down a crusading anti-communist senator but fired up his followers.
William F. Buckley, Jr. being interviewed on What’s Happening Mr. Silver.
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On the Right: NET and Modern Conservatism

In the 1960s, the precursor to PBS explored the burgeoning conservative movement, providing a remarkable window into the history of conservatism.

When Conservatives Tried to Throw Out Richard Nixon

Well before Watergate broke, John Ashbrook waged a primary campaign that the Right took very seriously.
Still from the Golden Girls.

Deconstructing HIV and AIDS on The Golden Girls

In 1990, one of America's most beloved sitcoms took on the HIV epidemic with humor and sensitivity.

The Republican Tax Bill Is a Poison Pill That Kills the New Deal

Today’s Republicans would have fit right into Herbert Hoover’s administration.

When Pat Buchanan Tried To Make America Great Again

If you're wondering how Trump happened, all you have to do is let Pat Buchanan beguile you with a history no one else can tell.
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The Georgist Roots of American Libertarianism

How did libertarians come to embrace Henry George, a thinker championed by political coalitions ranging from early zionists to the global Green Party?
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American Conservatism's Home Grown Defenses of Apartheid

A long and ugly history.
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Nixon’s Official Acts Against His Enemies List Led to a Bipartisan Impeachment Effort

An enemies list isn’t a weapon against ‘the Deep State.’ It was a tool Richard Nixon used to create a deep state of his own.
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The History of Gay Conservatism

LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly went for Harris, but the idea that gay voters are always going to be solidly blue is a myth.
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How Cancel Culture Panics Ate the World

A set of peculiarly American anxieties has spread across continents.