Departments

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MAGA

  • SOURCE: NBC News
    5/9/2023

    MAGA School Board Faces Backlash in Colorado

    When a right-wing slate of school board candidates took office in Woodland Park, Colorado, they hoped to "flood the zone" with rapid changes to curriculum, teacher policy, charter schools, and more. The public has become less enthusiastic, even many conservatives. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/18/2023

    The Common Evangelical Roots of Insurrection in America and Brazil

    by Raimundo Barreto and João B. Chaves

    A century of international evangelical network-building and theological development have brought militant Christian nationalism to the forefront of right-wing politics in both nations. 

  • SOURCE: Slate
    1/9/2023

    New Anthology Mistakes the Roots of the Problem as "Misinformation" Rather than Power

    by Paul M. Renfro and Matthew E. Stanley

    The new "Myth America" offers insight into some recurrent myths about history from some excellent scholars, but it hews too closely to the idea that historical lies are a Trumpian phenomenon, rather than a broader aspect of the pursuit and consolidation of power for MAGA and New Democrats alike. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/5/2023

    Why the Fringe is in Charge of the GOP

    by Richard H. Pildes

    The ability of a couple dozen hardliners to derail the Speaker election reflects deep transformations in the power of congressional leaders to wield power through commitee assignments and campaign funds. Will this make governing impossible? 

  • 1/4/2023

    Republicans (Finally) Rally Around McCarthy as Speaker

    Kevin McCarthy has secured the speakership through apparent deals allowing a group of right-wing hardliners to have greater influence over legislation and more investigative power. Historians followed the voting and discuss what comes next. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    12/2/2022

    The Biggest Threat to America's Stability is the Class Divide

    by Kim Phillips-Fein

    We mistakenly bemoan "polarization" instead of reckoning with the economic power of radical right-wing elites, who have the resources to fund growing organizations, and the growing number of people disaffected from the social order who are susceptible to their messages. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    11/16/2022

    Trump is Back In, Officially

    by Tom Nichols

    "Donald Trump wants to return to the White House. His candidacy should be the final test of whether the United States has truly overcome the lure of authoritarianism."

  • SOURCE: Current
    10/27/2022

    What Does It Mean to Be Baptized for Trump?

    by John Fea

    100 Trump supporters were baptized last week in Pennsylvania, at a rally featuring a who's who of MAGA world. A Christian historian wonders: what do we make of a spiritual commitment to Trumpism, and of the political appropriation of the conversion experience? 

  • 9/11/2022

    Arena Rockin' The Vote?

    by George Case

    Dismissed, derided, or even deplored by critics, and out of step with the trends, arena rock acts still pack them in in much of America. Is it the sonic key to understanding Trumpism? 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    9/6/2022

    It's Also Frightening When Trump Tells the Truth

    by Tom Nichols

    Showing his belief that the democratic process is only legitimate when he wins, Trump demonstrates the nihilism at the heart of MAGA, which Joe Biden correctly called out last week in his speech. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/1/2022

    Historically Speaking, Biden's "Semi-Fascist" Description of MAGA is Correct

    by Federico Finchelstein

    The global authoritarian movement, of which MAGA is a part, is becoming increasingly intolerant of democracy and committed to fighting imagined threats to the nation. It's an ominous direction that tracks with the past rise of fascist regimes. 

  • SOURCE: The Baffler
    8/18/2022

    Ailing Empires: The Rhetoric of Decline in Britain and the US

    by Jed Esty

    If the US is following behind Great Britain in experiencing the strains of a collapsing empire, can Americans, their leaders, and their thinkers learn any lessons from the comparison and make a post-imperial society that is more humane and less nasty? 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    7/26/2022

    The Fatally Selective Memory of "Make America Great Again"

    by Leonard Steinhorn

    "The 1950s were great only for some Americans. Restoring that America — as many Republicans are attempting to do in places where they wield political power — would hurt almost everyone else."

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    2/3/2022

    For Trump and Trumpists, the Law is Always White

    by Melissa Gira Grant

    In singling out the Black elected officials who thwarted his bid to steal the election and are investigating his political and business affairs, Trump evoked the Reconstruction-era rhetoric of white southerns under attack, which, as Eric Foner wrote, justified a massive wave of racist political violence. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    7/14/2021

    The Moral Collapse of J. D. Vance

    by Tom Nichols

    The "Hillbilly Elegy" author's standing as an honest voice on the right vanished as he decided embracing Trumpism was necessary for his Senate campaign.