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D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, left, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) greet the audience at a town hall meeting at Eastern High School in D.C. in 1995.

House GOP and D.C.: A Historically Strained Marriage Grows More Tenuous

Republicans have long made a sport of deriding Washington, portraying it as a dysfunctional, crime-infested “swamp."
Robert Segovia (left) instructing class. Emerito Torres and Agapito Cruz (at chalkboard).

The Machiavelli of the Mexican American People

How Robert Segovia used steelworkers and the Catholic Church to build a political machine in Chicago.
Political cartoon of Franklin Roosevelt pulling the Democratic Party donkey with Uncle Sam, Congress, and Republicans behind them.

Pitching the Big Tent

The secret, often missing ingredient to building a majoritarian progressive coalition.
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.

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.
Brazilla Carroll Reece, Joseph McCarthy and Harry S. Truman with democratic donkeys in word bubbles.

The Real Origins of the “Democrat Party” Troll

We can’t blame Joe McCarthy for this one. (Though he was a fan.)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) points to a newly installed sign above his office after he was elected in 15 rounds of votes.
partner

What Lessons Can the House Draw From 1923’s Speaker Battle?

The House speaker fight was eerily reminiscent of 1923 — but the differences between the two will drive what comes next.
Kevin McCarthy
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What 1856 Teaches Us About the Ramifications of the House Speaker Fight

The battle is worth winning for Kevin McCarthy — and could reshape the Republican Party.

When the House Needed Two Months and 133 Votes to Elect a Speaker

Kevin McCarthy's struggling bid to win the speakership has nothing on the epic 1856 contest that pitted abolitionists against proslavery members of Congress.
Hand tossing a coin.

Why Is America Always Divided 50–50?

Despite wrenching economic and political changes in the country, Democrats and Republicans keep finding themselves nearly tied in election after election.
Timeline of the history of American political parties to 1880, depicting intertwined streams of Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans.
original

What is Political Realignment?

An annotated collection of resources from the Bunk archive that help explain the shifting sands of American politics.
Joe Biden signing a document
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Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Exposes Our Allergy to Taxes

The rise of a new tax politics has made it harder to address our problems, and now it threatens democracy, too.
Illustration of Annette Gordon-Reed.

Majority Rule on the Brink

The legacies of our racial past, and the prospects ahead for an embattled republic.

America’s Crisis-Industrial Complex

Are alarmist narratives about a “new civil war” obscuring the real battle in US politics: the fight for democracy?
American politicians with supporters and German citizens in the background

1989-2001: America’s Long Lost Weekend

From the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, we had relative peace and prosperity. We squandered it completely.
Blue and red donkey logo of the Democratic Party.

Hope in the Desert: Democratic Party Blues

In 'What It Took to Win,' Michael Kazin traces the history over the past two centuries of what he calls ‘the oldest mass party in the world’.
Ron DeSantis at podium at CPAC.
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Instead of Boosting Democracy, Primary Elections Are Undermining It

Why our politics are growing ever more extreme — and democracy itself is under siege.
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama walking together

How to Tell the History of the Democrats

What connection does the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have to the party of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris?
Former President Donald Trump in Selma, North Carolina

The Historians Take a First Crack at Donald J. Trump

On the promises and perils of very recent history.
At the filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico, in October 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA/Library of Congress.

Cowboy Progressives

You likely think of the American West as deeply conservative and rural. Yet history shows this politics is very new indeed.
Bill Clinton speaking to a crowd.

How the Democrats Ditched Economic Populism for Neoliberalism

On the pro-business transformation of the Democratic Party.
Artistic painting showing President Truman (depicted with glasses) in the foreground, and a sketch of President Biden in the background. The two figures are surrounded by America's colors and stars from the American flag.

What Joe Biden Can Learn From Harry Truman

His approval rating hit historic lows, his party was fractious, crises were everywhere. But Truman rescued his presidency, and his legacy.
Portrait of Roscoe Conkling taken between 1860 and 1865.

The Senator Who Said No to a Seat on the Supreme Court — Twice

Roscoe Conkling was a successful politician and an able lawyer. But the colorful and irascible senator had no desire to serve on the high court.
Stack of Latino history books with checkmark on top

There’s No Such Thing As ‘The Latino Vote’

Why can’t America see that?
A bronze statue of Civil War soldiers on horseback, in front of the U.S. Capitol building.

How Twitter Explains the Civil War (and Vice Versa)

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.

Republicans Are Moving Rapidly to Cement Minority Rule. Blame the Constitution.

Democracy is in trouble, but a lawless coup isn’t the real threat.
Protestors on a march, holding signs that read "Healthcare is a Human Right" and "Insulin or food should not be a choice: Medicare for All"

Health Care Reform’s History of Utter Failure

Repeated failures by both political parties to get a decent policy through our 18th-century constitutional structure led to the Affordable Care Act.
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.
partner

Gerrymandering's Surprising History and Uncertain Future

Both parties play the redistricting game, redrawing electoral boundaries to lock down power.
illustration of Joe Biden and upside-down Capitol building

Is a Democratic Wipeout Inevitable?

Even when the president’s party passes historic legislation, voters don’t seem to care.

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