Introducing Ronald L. Feinman's Blog and Archiving His Past Articles

Ronald L. Feinman has contributed over 100 articles to the History News Network since 2016. His articles will now appear on this blog as individual entries. 

Ronald L. Feinman received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate School in 1975. His dissertation advisor was Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Dr. Feinman is the author of “Twilight of Progressivism: The Western Republican Senators and the New Deal” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981) and “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, 2015, Paperback Edition 2017). In addition to this blog, Dr. Feinman has blogged at TheProgressiveProfessor.com since 2008 and is a political and historical Commentator on Radio Station WWGH, 107.1 FM, Marion, Ohio. Dr. Feinman has spent nearly a half century as Professor of American History, Government and Politics and is still teaching a US Presidency class at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida every Fall and Spring term.

Here are his previous articles for the History News Network, in alphabetical order. 

12 Months of Horror—1/12/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167969) 

19 Presidents in a Row Promoted Social and Environmental Programs to Benefit Ordinary Americans, And then Came Donald Trump--5/20/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org)/169052)

6 Presidents Who Never Lost An Election--4/30/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171863

A Trump Win Might Wreck the Republican Party—1/17/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161689)

After 13,000 Days in Retirement, It’s Time To Reassess Jimmy Carter’s Presidency--12/25/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163777

An Accident of History Gave Us Anthony Kennedy –7/1/18 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169428

An Account of Presidents Demonstrating Moral Courage on Major Issues Includes These 14 Leaders-2/25/18 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168253)

Another Difference between Democrats and Republicans Is How They Pick Their Veeps – 5/29/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162751

Another Remarkable Thing About the 2020 Presidential Election is that 4 of the Potential Candidates Would Be Over 80 in Office- 9/23/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169856) 

A Voting History of American Jews From 1916 to Today—8/27/19 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172878)

Barack Obama: Politics and Presidential Rankings --2/16/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171261)

Between Hillary and Bernie: Who’s the Real Progressive?-- 2/6/16 (http://historynewsnetowrk/org/article/161928)

Can Trump Work Out a Deal or Two With the Democratic Leaders of Congress?-1/1/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164776

Can We Count on the GOP to End the Trump Presidency?-8/6/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166560)

Could Donald Trump Carry the Electoral College and Become President?-5/1/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/artoc;/162647)

Could Gary Johnson’s Candidacy Cause a Constitutional Crisis in November?-7/31/16 (http://historynewsnetwork/article/163503)

Democrats Are About to Set a Historical Record as the First Political Party to Win Six Out of Seven Popular Vote Victories for the White House-9/11/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163744)

Do Donald Trump And Barry Goldwater Have Much in Common?- 8/7/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163358)

Does the GOP Have a Moral Obligation to Nominate Trump just Because He’s the Front Runner? -4/3/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162396)

Donald Trump Has Created a Constitutional Crisis on the 42nd Anniversary of Richard Nixon’s Resignation – 8/10/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163583)

Donald Trump Has to Stop Dropping Hints of Violence Against Hillary Clinton – 9/21/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163920)

Donald Trump is Making Richard Nixon Look Good by Comparison -5/24/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166977)

Donald Trump is No Richard Nixon – 11/18/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170064)

Donald Trump is No Ronald Reagan – 8/14/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163473)

Donald Trump is On His Way to Second or Third Shortest Presidency in American History -2/15/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165201)

Donald Trump is Worse Than George Wallace - 9/17/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166922)

Donald Trump Was the Oldest Elected President in 2016. Are We Ready to Elect the Youngest President in 2020? -9/2/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169821)

Donald Trump’s Not the First President to Put Relatives on the Public Payroll, but no Family Matches His in Possible Improper Behavior -12/10/17  (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167624)

Donald Trump’s Selling the White House to Corporate America -12/9/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164607)

Donald Trump’s Suggestion that He Might Not Accept the Victory of His Opponent is Ghastly -10/2/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163992)

Get Ready for California to Dominate Presidential Politics in 2020 -10/28/18 (http://historynewsnetwork/org/article/170292)

Have We Entered a New Era of Political Assassination in America? -10/25/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170324)

Hillary Clinton Confessed to Having Both Public and Private Positions? That’s Not Shocking and It Shouldn’t Bother You -10/9/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164087)

History Will Clash with History in the 2020 Election -3/17/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171511)

How Common is it for Former Presidents to Remain Active in Public Life? -11/23/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164127)

How Conservatives Could Steal the Election -5/10/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162760)

How Does Trump Compare with the Worse Egotists We’ve Elected to the Presidency? -6/12/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162887)

How Likely is it that the Democrats Will Take Back Congress? -2/6/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168200)

How Many Contested Conventions Have There Been? -4/28/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162693)

If you’re a New Yorker 2016 Is Your Year -4/17/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162505)

Is Donald Trump the Most Dangerous Presidential Candidate in American History? -4/24/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162420)

Is Donald Trump’s War on Obama Unprecedented? -6/25/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165975)

Is Trump Too Old to Be President? -6/11/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166033)

It’s Possible Donald Trump Could Win a Smaller Percentage of the Popular Vote than Any Other Major Presidential Candidate -10/8/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164027)

Jared Kushner”s Not the First In-Law to Take a High-Profile Spot in an Administration -- 5/28/17 (http://hisstorynewsnetwork.org/article/166043)

Jeff Sessions’s Troubling Legacy—8/20/19 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172813)

Just 43 Republicans Joining with Democrats Could End Donald Trump’s Presidency -8/20/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166717)

Mike Pence is No Gerald Ford -5/13/18 (http://histgorynewsnetwork.org/article/169012)

Netanyahu Finally Has the President He Wants. History Suggests There Will Still Be Problems -5/21/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165899)

No Matter Who’s Elected President November 8, They Aren’t Likely to Win a Majority of the Vote -10/23/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164208)

No Way Will Either Trump or Sanders Be Elected President -2/12/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161966)

Now Bloomberg’s Thinking About Running? -1/24/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161810)

Obama Hasn’t Spoken Out Against Trump Yet, But Will He? -3/19/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165406)

One Has to Wonder after Hurricane Maria How Trump Would Treat Hawaii and Guam -10/22/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167229)

One of These 4 Western Governors Could Be the Next Democratic President -12/2/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170522)

One Thing the Democrats Don’t Need to Worry About -5/15/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162762)

Our Sad Record When Presidents Get Sick – 9/13/16 (http://historynewsnetwork/org/article/163842)

Religion Could Decide the Election of 2016 -9/18/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163650)

Should We Be Worried About Trump’s Brain? -11/26/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/167493)

Six Times the Failure of a Political Nomination Changes American History- 2/3/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171126)

So the Supreme Court is Above Politics? -7/15/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163384)

So  You Are Considering Voting for a 3^rdParty Candidate for President? -10/30/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164225)

So You Think Trump’s Victory Was an Outlier Because the Election Was so Close? -2/16/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165182)

The 2 Constitutional Crises We Narrowly Averted in 1948 and 1969 -10/15/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164028)

The 2020 Election and Presidential Age -7/2/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172434)

The 2020 Election Presents a Unique Opportunity to Elect a “New Generation of Leadership” -7/9/19 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172492)

The Constant Threat of Mass Shootings Requires Increased Protection for Presidential Contenders -8/6/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172727)

The Constitutional Crisis We’d Face If Donald Trump Actually Became President -9/4/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163734)

The Election of 1940 and the Might-have-Been that Makes One Shudder -3/1/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161880)

The Electoral College System Gone Mad -12/16/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164625)

The End of the Trump Presidency Now Looms -4/22/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168780)

The Expansion of Presidential Power Since 1973 -5/26/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172065)

The GOP is Dying -6/5/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162963

The GOP is Fast Undoing the Good Deeds of Richard Nixon -4/30/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165791)

The GOP President Historians Say They Like More and More -6/10/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168907)

The GOP Wasn’t Always the Party of Right-wingers -12/15/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170611)

The Last Serious, Qualified Third-Party Candidate for President Was…? -3/5/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165276)

The Long History of Unjust and Lawless Attorneys General -7/28/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172654)

The Loss of Republican Principle -5/9/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171922)

The Red Scare: From the Palmer Raids to Joseph McCarthy to Donald Trump -4/2/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171640)

The Republican Party’s Weird 52 Year Curse -3/4/16 (http://historynewsnetwork/org/article/162187)

The Reputations of Presidents Keep Changing -5/5/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162039)

The Senate’s Incomplete Hall of Fame -9/9/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169939)

The Two Vice Presidents Who Got Along Best with Their Presidents -2/7/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165101)

There’s an Ominous Parallel with the Fight Over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -11/26/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167554)

These 10 People Might Run for President in 2020 and None Have Government Experience -10/7/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170030)

These 11 People Came Close to Being President of the United States -3/22/16(http://historynewsnetwork.org161656)

These 15 GOP Senators From the Past Could Show Mitch McConnell and His Colleague How to Do the Job -9/15/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169959)

These 9 Justices Failed to Vote the Way Their Party Expected -10/14/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170179)

These Two Midwestern Democrats Could Be Serious Contenders for the Presidency in 2020 -12/9/18 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170578)

These Two Presidents Also Had Bad Starts -7/30/17 (http://historynewsnetwork/org/article/166533)

They Ran For President Before. Will They Run Again in 2020? -9/30/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169840)

Three Presidents-Elect We almost Lost: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy -11/13/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org?164377)

Three Unexpected Deaths That Shaped Presidential History -3/10/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171459)

Trump Faced Long Odds Winning the White House, but...-1/29/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164946

Trump’s Got No Mandate -12/15/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164602)

Trump’s Not the First GOP President with Weak Ties to the Party -8/27/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166689)

Trump’s Racking Up the Worst Record on the Environment Since Reagan -10/28/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167300)

We Judge Presidents in part by Who Precedes and Follows Them -4/21/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171785)

What 2020 Presidential Hopefuls Can Learn From Carter, Clinton, and Obama’s Foreign Policy -2/24/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171332)

What Are the Chances that a Member of the House of Representatives Will Be Our Next President? -11/11/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170371)

What do Nixon, Reagan and Trump Have in Common? -10/1/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167055)

What is it About September that Makes It Disastrous Month For Presidents and Presidential Candidates? -8/27/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163632)

What Studying the Presidents Teaches: Even Winners Can Lose -11/10/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164151)

What We Learn When We Compare Obama’s Two Victories with This One Election from the Past -9/25/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163093)

What Would Other Presidents Have Thought Of Donald Trump? -11/4/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170141)

What’s With All of These People Who Attack the White House? -1/10/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161627)

Who Else is Trump Like? -4/23/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165709)

Who in Their Right Mind Would Wish to be Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential Running Mate? -7/3/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163210)

Who Will Win? -11/4/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164329)

Why 2019 Marks the Beginning of the Next Cycle of American History -6/4/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172129)

Why President Donald Trump Could Be as Bad as Nixon – Or Worse -7/10/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163219)

Why the Democrats Are Likely to Become the Majority Party for Decades to Come -7/24/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163064)

Why the Midwest is the Key to the Future of American Politics -10/21/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170250)

Why This Historian is Worried for His Country -1/12/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161663)

Why We Need a Crash Course in the 25th Amendment -1/22/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164868)

Why We Need to Be Worried About Mexico -1/15/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164890)

Will 2020 Be “The Year of the Mayor” in Presidential Politics? -11/25/18 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170478)

Will Beto O’Rourke Follow the Path of Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush to the Presidency? -1/20/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170955)

Will the GOP Crown Paul Ryan as Its Presidential Nominee? -4/9/16 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162522)

Yesterday Was the 100th Anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt’s Death. Here’s How His Legacy Still Shapes the United States Today -1/7/19 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170867)

You Think History’s Predictable? Consider This -3/12/17 (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165377)