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How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular

Evangelicalism and the more liberal “mainline” Protestantism must be understood in a dialectical relationship to one another, rather than in isolation.
Black and white photo of Woody Guthrie holding a guitar labeled "this machine kills fascists"

I've Got Those Old Talking-Blues Blues Again

The Folkies and WWII, Part Two.
Portrait photo of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Justice Jackson Offered Democrats a Road Map for Securing Equal Rights

Tying the fight for equal rights to the founders and the Constitution has worked before.
The Almanac Singers playing various instruments, including guitars, a banjo, and an accordion.

"Which Side Are You On, Boys..."

Watching the Ken Burns series on the U.S. and the Holocaust and thinking about American folk music.
Photo of Newt Gingrich speaking into a microphone.

To Understand the Modern GOP, Look at the Reactionary ’90s

The most vitriolic and morally panicked conservative figures of the 1990s contributed just as much to modern American conservatism as Ronald Reagan did.
Black and white portrait of Joseph Lane in his suit.

What if Joseph Lane of Oregon had become President in 1861?

How would the presidency have looked under Joseph Lane, a Democrat, as opposed to Abraham Lincoln?
Paul Ryan against a background of graph paper and a dotted line.

The Struggle for the Soul of the GOP

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?
U.S. President Harry Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson, sit in the back seat of a car.

Harry Truman Helped Make Our World Order, for Better and for Worse

Institutions meant to secure peace, from NATO to the U.N., date back to Truman’s Presidency. So do the conflicts threatening that peace.
Black and white photograph of Harold Washington, 1980s.

A 1980s Blueprint on How to Be a Leader

A new film shows how Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, stood up to a majority-white city council to push through infrastructure improvements for all.
African American and white participants in the 1963 march on Washington, holding signs demanding voting rights, jobs, and an end to police brutality.

How Protest Moves From the Streets Into the Statehouse

In The Loud Minority, Daniel Gillion examines the relationship between electoral politics and protest movements.
Picture of intersections

What Infrastructure Really Means

Making sense of current fights over a word we borrowed from the French long ago.
Collage-style design of Milton Friedman and his work

The End of Friedmanomics

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.

History As End

1619, 1776, and the politics of the past.

The Unreconstructed Radical

Thaddeus Stevens was a fierce opponent of the “odious” compromises in the Constitution, and of the North’s compromises after the Civil War.
Political cartoon of women marching in Revolutionary War costumes, waving a flag that says "Constitutional Amendment"
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The 1940s Fight Against the Equal Rights Amendment Was Bipartisan and Crossed Ideological Lines

Support for and opposition to the ERA are not positions that are fundamentally tied to either conservatism or liberalism.
A man walks amongst deteriorating giant busts of U.S. presidents.

Take Me to Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class

For more than three centuries, something has been going horribly wrong at the top of our society, and we’re all suffering for it.
FDR with eyes crossed out with red line

Is It Time to Cancel FDR?

Today’s progressives are children of the old Republican Party, not the New Deal Democrats. Roosevelt and his followers stood for nearly everything they oppose.
William Walker

The Manifest Destiny Marauders Who Gave the “Filibuster” Its Name

Long before Southern Democrats filibustered Civil Rights legislation, “filibusteros” were conquering slave territories for the United States.
Mitch McConnell wearing a mask
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McConnell’s Task: Purging the Crackpots and Bigots

The impeachment exposed the need for Republican leaders to banish the extremists and bigots from their movement.
Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican National Convention

How the GOP Surrendered to Extremism

Sixty years ago, many GOP leaders resisted radicals in their ranks. Now they’re not even trying.
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.
This 1856 political cartoon depicts the responses of the three candidates to the results of the election. Winning Democrat James Buchanan sits reading the returns of the election while newspaper editors approach from the left. Behind them the defeated Republican candidate John C. Fremont rides off into the West. To the right the second defeated candidate, Millard Fillmore, laments his fall into the “caverns of Know-Nothingism.”

Here’s What Happens to a Conspiracy-Driven Party

The modern GOP isn't the first party to embrace huge conspiracies. But the lessons should be sobering.
Herbert Hoover in January 1933

Herbert Hoover Did Something Donald Trump is Unwilling to Do

While Herbert Hoover was deeply critical of his successor, he put aside his differences to ensure the peaceful and democratic transition of power.
President Abraham Lincoln, bareheaded at center, giving the Gettysburg Address, Pennsylvania, 1863

The Party of Lincoln Ignores His Warning Against Mobocracy

“There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law,” declared the man who would be America’s sixteenth president.
Ronald Reagan at a news conference in Los Angeles on Jan. 4, 1965, after announcing that he would run for governor of California.

Long Before QAnon, Ronald Reagan and The GOP Purged John Birch Extremists From The Party

Six decades ago, leaders in the GOP backed away from the conspiracy theories peddled by the leader of the increasingly influential John Birch Society.

Minority Rule Cannot Last in America

It never has.
The Lincoln Memorial.
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Channeling Lincoln’s Ideological Balancing Act Will Lead Biden to Success

In his time, the 16th president drew comparisons to a famous tightrope walker.
Mail-in ballot in a mailbox.
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Holding an Election During the Civil War Set the Standard for Us Today

On-time elections are a key part of ensuring the promise of American democracy.
Graffiti on a wall spelling "vote"
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Refusing to Accept the Results of a Presidential Election Triggered the Civil War

The danger of President Trump's rhetoric.

How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court

As Lincoln recognized, it's not enough to question the decisions, justices, or even the structure of the Court. We need to challenge the foundation of its power.

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