Power

He believes in Federalist 70’s “Energy in the Executive.”

During the Reagan revolution, Democrats settled on a new way to win—and it’s destroying them now.

Truths self-evident no more.

Vague phrasing enfranchised women who met specific property requirements. A 1790 law explicitly allowed female suffrage, but this privilege was revoked in 1807.

In 1880s Texas, farmers and factory workers discovered they had the same enemy: corporate capitalists.

Revisiting history shows that violence and constitutional disputes are nothing new in US politics.

It’s uncanny.

It depends on how you read the Declaration’s “self-evident” truths.

The legacy of right-wing ideologies in California.

Why does the power to launch nuclear weapons rest with a single American?

How FDR invented national security, and why Democrats need to move on from it.

National security governance, then and now.

To restore public trust and prepare for the next pandemic, we need a reckoning with the U.S. experience—what worked, and what didn’t.

We cannot divorce the independence of the executive branch from its substance.

Red Scare can be read as solid history of the years it depicts—and chilling prophecy of the years to come.

The nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, depicts a wounded, fearful society, teetering on the brink of disaster. Sound familiar?

The commander-in-chief initially barred black soldiers from joining the ranks, but he came to understand the value—both moral and strategic—of a diverse force.

Thomas Jefferson's limited government ideal quickly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the dominant Federalist Party, prompting a radical proposal.

What looks like an excess of strength may really be a deficit of liberty.

Calls to defund the Marxist left and similar mobilizations against rumors of a new red dawn are nothing new.

Since the 1960s, studies have shown that heavy-handed policing and militarized responses tend to make protests more volatile — not less.

As Elon Musk and Donald Trump engaged in a campaign of mutually-assured destruction, social media saw record new levels of schadenfreude.

A new book illuminates how freedom became associated with choice and questions whether that has been a good thing—for women in particular.

On the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, racism, and federal power.

The political vision that William F. Buckley helped forge was—and remains today—focused less on adhering to principles and more on ferreting out enemies.

Ambitious office seekers during the nineteenth century experienced wild swings of fortune that depended on the public’s mood and party benevolence.

The brutal caning of Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 shows the difference between courage and concession.

From Iran-contra to Iraq war WMD lies to Trumpism, this right-wing pundit kept subverting democracy. 

How the Sons of Liberty became colonial power-brokers.

The Great Society’s Model Cities Program wasn’t perfect. But it offered a vision of what democratic, community-based planning could look like.