electorate — Bunk History

Polling volunteer handing a voter an "I Voted" sticker.

Did We Just See an Electoral Realignment?

Shifting voting patterns suggest it’s possible, but only if they persist through subsequent elections.

by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on November 7, 2024

Shipping container labeled "China Shipping," overlaid on political cartoon showing a tariff slowing supply of medicine to a drip.

Trump Loves The 1890s But He’s Clueless About Them

The tariffs he keeps babbling about didn’t make that decade great. They helped usher in a depression.

by Eric Rauchway via The Bulwark on October 23, 2024

The Electoral College and Slavery

It's easy to get this one wrong.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on May 24, 2024

Then President Donald Trump, right, and Joe Biden, then the Democratic presidential nominee, during the U.S. presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22, 2020.

The Biden-Trump Rematch May Mark the End of an Era

Over the course of U.S. history, presidential rematches have signaled momentous political upheavals.

by Bruce J. Schulman via Made By History on April 4, 2024

Map of New York state from 1813

Suppressing the Black Vote in 1811

As more Black men gained the right to vote in New York, the state began to change its laws to reduce their power or disenfranchise them completely.

by Livia Gershon, Sarah L. H. Gronningsater via JSTOR Daily on February 23, 2024

A Ku Klux Klan march, late 1800s to early 1900s.

Tracing the Legacy of Southern White Migration

Unlike the Southern whites who moved en masse during the 20th century, these early migrants often had direct, personal ties to the institution of slavery.

by Samuel Bazzi, Andreas Ferrara, Martin Fiszbein, Thomas Pearson, Patrick A. Testa via Broadstreet on July 1, 2023

1988 Republican presidential candidates on the debate stage.

Republicans Didn’t Always Run Far to the Right in Presidential Primaries

The 1988 presidential primary showed it wasn't always like this — and helped guide the GOP to where it is now.

by Robert L. Fleegler via Made By History on June 8, 2023

Republicans Have Won the Senate Half the Time Since 2000 Despite Winning Fewer Votes than Democrats

How the Senate has become a bastion of Republican minority rule.

by Stephen Wolf via Daily Kos on February 15, 2023

Side-by-side of Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock

The Racist Origins of Georgia’s Runoff Elections

Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger Herschel Walker, both Black, square off in a contest designed to empower White voters.

by Steven F. Lawson via Made By History on December 5, 2022

Timeline of the history of American political parties to 1880, depicting intertwined streams of Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans.

What is Political Realignment?

An annotated collection of resources from the Bunk archive that help explain the shifting sands of American politics.

by Kathryn Ostrofsky on September 8, 2022

The American flag depicted upside down, in a beige color scheme.

Making the Constitution Safe for Democracy

The second section of the Fourteenth Amendment offers severe penalties for menacing the right to vote—if anyone can figure out how to enforce it.

by Anthony Conwright via The Forum on August 17, 2022

Ballots in sealed envelopes, in a plastic box with a sticker that reads "Vote NYC."

You Didn’t Always Have to Be a Citizen to Vote in America

The electorate has consistently changed over time as politicians seek to shape it in their favor.

by Rachel Michelle Gunter via Made By History on December 29, 2021

Protesters holding flags of the US and Mexico.

How Prop. 187 Transformed the Immigration Debate and California Politics

Much of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy in the news today is similar to a movement that swept the country 20 years ago.

via Retro Report on December 3, 2021

Collage cramming extra seats into the House of Representatives.

How The House Got Stuck At 435 Seats

After 110 years, a look at the benefits — and drawbacks — to expanding the chamber.

by Geoffrey Skelley via FiveThirtyEight on August 12, 2021

Cartoon of politicians arguing

The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions

How the late 19th century’s raucous party system gave way to a sedate and exclusionary political culture that erected more and more barriers to participation.

by Eric Foner via The Nation on June 1, 2021

People signing the declaration of independence

Our 250-Year Fight for Multiracial Democracy

We say we’re for it. We’ve never truly had it. These next few years will determine its fate.

by Matt Ford via The New Republic on May 17, 2021

Sketch of late 19th century political rally in NYC

The Forgotten Precedent for Our ‘Unprecedented’ Political Insanity

The decades after the Civil War saw mass participation and mass outrage, followed by a period of orderly reform. What can we learn from that era today?

by Jon Grinspan via Politico Magazine on April 24, 2021

Flag waving supporters celebrate D.C. Statehood Week

The Battle Against D.C. Statehood is Rooted in Anti-Black Racism

Understanding this history helps make the case for D.C. as the 51st state.

by Kyla Sommers via Made By History on March 22, 2021

Raphael Warnock

Warnock’s Win Was 150 Years In the Making — But History Tells Us It Is Fragile

The selection of African American Sen. Hiram Revels in 1870 offered great hope — but it was soon dashed.

by William Sturkey via Made By History on January 18, 2021

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.

by Julilly Kohler-Hausmann via Dissent on January 10, 2021

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.

by Adam Harris via The Atlantic on November 4, 2020

A close up of an electoral map from Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States

The Electoral Punt

It can be hard to know what the Founders intended when they didn't know, either.

by Jonathan W. Wilson via Contingent on September 30, 2020

The Death of Hannah Fizer

Black people suffer disproportionately from police violence. But white skin does not provide immunity.

by Barbara J. Fields, Adam Rothman via Dissent on July 24, 2020

Lincoln’s Paramilitaries, the “Wide Awakes,” Helped Bring About a Political Revolution

In 1860, a novel paramilitary-style organization mobilized hundreds of thousands against the Southern planter class.

by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on July 11, 2020

Elections in Colonial America Were Huge, Booze-Fueled Parties

From rum to cakes to rowdy parades, election day was a time for gathering and celebration.

by Erin Blakemore via HISTORY on November 25, 2019

John Lewis Krimmel's painting, "Election Day in Philadelphia" (1815).

Mapping the First Party System

Introducing a new digital history project focused on the ways Americans voted from 1788 to 1825.

by Lincoln Mullen via Mapping Early American Elections on May 13, 2019

Mayberry Machiavelli

The self-congratulatory legacies of ‘A Face in the Crowd.’

by Tom Carson via The Baffler on November 5, 2018

What Did the Founders Mean by “Democracy”?

The main issue they were debating was how democratic a representative body should be. And their answer was “not very democratic at all.”

by William Hogeland via William Hogeland blog on October 30, 2018

Donald Trump in the Oval Office, with a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the background.

The Man Who Put Andrew Jackson in Trump’s Oval Office

Historian Walter Russell Mead has become the favorite Trump whisperer for everyone from Steve Bannon to Tom Cotton.

by Susan B. Glasser via Politico Magazine on January 22, 2018

Lessons from the Election of 1968

Protests, populism, and progressivism all clashed in a battle royal. But what really drives election results?

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on January 8, 2018

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