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class politics graphic of voters facing off

The Politics of a Second Gilded Age

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.
Rudy Giuliani in front of American flag

Rhyme, Not Repetition

All that’s past isn’t necessarily present.
U.S. presidential seal

Founding-Era History Doesn’t Support Trump’s Immunity Claim

Historians Rosemarie Zagarri and Holly Brewer explain the anti-monarchical origins of the Constitution and the presidency.
A supporter of Donald Trump holds a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after the crowd breached the building as Congress was proceeding with the electoral vote certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump's 'Lost Cause,' a Kind of Gangster Cult, Won't Go Away

Lost cause narratives sometimes have been powerful enough to build or destroy political regimes. They can advance a politics of grievance.
Voter with mask
Exhibit

Election of 2020

A look back at what historians have had to say about this epic contest over the nation's future.

M. Roland Nachman Jr., William P. Rogers and Herbert Wechsler, the lawyers in "New York Times v. Sullivan."

Keeping Speech Robust and Free

Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News' coverage of claims that the company had rigged the 2020 election may soon become an artifact of a vanished era.
Scale, with pile of U.S. states weighing down one end, and the U.S. on the other.

How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy

Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land?
A microphone animated as a black snake.

The Dark Side of Defamation Law

A revered Supreme Court ruling protected the robust debate vital to democracy—but made it harder to constrain misinformation. Can we do better?
Campaign banner ad from former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, stating that he "won't ask for your pronouns in the U.S. Senate."

The Modern Electoral History of Transphobia

How transphobia has been a consistent liability for Republicans, and why the right refuses to give it up.
Rep. Bennie Thompson speaking at the Jan. 6 committee hearings.

January 6 Committee Final Public Meeting

Video testimony and evidence presented by the House Select Committee to recommend criminal prosecution of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
partner

Trump’s Call to Suspend the Constitution Betrays the Lawlessness of Law and Order

Trump champions “law and order” while calling for the Constitution’s suspension. But there’s no tension between the two.
Rural front lawn with a Trump sign.
partner

Our Urban/Rural Political Divide is Both New — And Decades In The Making

Policies dating to the 1930s have helped shape the conflict defining today’s politics.
Roger Stone

How to Steal an American Election

From Alexander Hamilton to Richard Nixon and more: meddling, fixing, rigging, fraud, and violence.
A crowd of people with one person waving the Confederate flag

Learning from the Failure of Reconstruction

The storming of the Capitol was an expression of the antidemocratic strands in American history.
Rudy Giuliani and a graphic that says "multiple pathways to victory."

Disenfranchisement: An American Tradition

Invoking the specter of voter fraud to undermine democratic participation is a tactic as old as the United States itself.
Different colored pillars

The Capitol Riot Was an Attack on Multiracial Democracy

True democracy in America is a young, fragile experiment that must be defended if it is to endure.
Ted Cruz.

The Dangerous Historical Precedent for Ted Cruz’s Shameless Electoral College Gambit

The Texas senator claims to be moved by the spirit of 1876, but he’s just another huckster playing a risky game with democracy.
Bush and Obama

The GOP Test

History is asking only one question right now as Trump refuses to concede. Will the Republicans decide they are no longer an American political party?
Trump

Biden's 2020 Election Win Over Trump is Step One. But 'Lame Ducks' Can Do Damage.

Biden will take over a country facing myriad challenges. And Trump's lame-duck period could be one of the most treacherous in American history.

What Jaime Harrison's Race Meant for the South

Jaime Harrison lost to Lindsey Graham but expanded Democrats’ vision of what’s possible in the Deep South.
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Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation

President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.

Can Biden Be Pushed Left?

History suggests that what you see on the campaign trail, or even in a candidate’s past record, is not always what you get from a president once in power.
The Trump family at a public event

Why is the Nationalist Right Hallucinating a ‘Communist Enemy’?

Reactionary leaders are invoking communism as a way of attacking the left, says author and activist Richard Seymour.
Americans in line to vote

The Supreme Court’s Starring Role in Democracy’s Demise

With democracy hanging in the balance in 2020, the Court is clearly playing a decisive and destructive role. Unfortunately, we’ve been here before.
Donald Trump
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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.

A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarisation… Welcome to 1876

Eric Foner sees parallels with our own time but warns that yesterday’s solution would be a disaster.

‘The President Was Not Encouraging’: What Obama Really Thought About Biden

Behind the friendship was a more complicated relationship, which now drives the former vice president to prove his partner wrong.
partner

Critics of Bernie Sanders’s Trip to the Soviet Union Are Distorting It

Sanders was expressing broadly bipartisan enthusiasm for Soviet reform, not a love of authoritarianism.
Presidential candidates after a Democratic primary debate.
partner

South Carolina May Well Determine Whether Democrats Can Win the Presidency

Winning the South Carolina primary requires exciting a crucial constituency.
George McGovern surrounded by anti-Vietnam War protesters.

Bernie Sanders Is George McGovern

The similarities between 2020 and 1972 are too astonishing to ignore. But there’s one big difference.

The Fourth Battle for the Constitution

The latest struggle to define America's founding charter will define the country for generations to come.

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