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Republican Party

  • SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
    4/7/2021

    April 6, 2021: On the Republican Party

    by Heather Cox Richardson

    Since the time of Lincoln, the Republican Party has been part of a bipartisan understanding that expanding the nation's infrastructure – meaning investing in all sorts of supports to economic and social activity – has been a boon to prosperity. That commitment is fraying today. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    3/26/2021

    Bill Brock was the Forgotten Father of the Modern GOP

    by Seth Blumenthal

    Bill Brock lost two related battles: to keep the Republican Party establishment in charge of conservative policy priorities and to marry fiscal conservatism with some more moderate positions on social issues. A biographer argues that conservatism and the country are worse off for not following Brock. 

  • 3/21/2021

    Rally 'Round the Rune: Fascist Echoes of the CPAC Stage

    by Mark Auslander and Jay Ball

    The incorporation of a Norse rune associated with the SS into the stage of the recent CPAC conference probably isn't an accident; the choice reflects the cultural cachet of Norse myth on the far right, the conservative movement's desire to maintain deniability about its ties to the far right, and the recognition that the design would be crystal clear to viewers of internet memes. 

  • SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
    3/13/2021

    Letters From an American, March 13, 2021

    by Heather Cox Richardson

    What are the historical underpinnings of the immigration system, and what do politicians really mean by invoking a "border crisis"? 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    3/8/2021

    What Is Happening to the Republican Party?

    by Jelani Cobb

    The historian and New Yorker writer consults a roster of political historians (including Marsha Barrett, Thomas Patterson and Heather Cox Richardson) to ask whether Trumpism has the potential to break the Republican Party as previous factional splits have disrupted prior incarnations of the American party system. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    3/9/2021

    The G.O.P. Isn’t Going to Split Apart Anytime Soon

    by Jamelle Bouie

    The Times columnist checks in with a number of political historians and argues that, while pundits are comparing today's GOP to the Whigs and Federalists, a more vital comparison is to the 19th century Democratic Party, which held on to power through aggressive use of anti-majoritarian institutions. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    3/8/2021

    The John Birch Society Never Left

    by Rick Perlstein and Edward H. Miller

    Journalists are calling for the Republicans to follow the lead of William F. Buckley and stand up to far-right extremists in their ranks. The problem is that neither Buckley nor the GOP of the 1960s did any such thing, instead perfecting the technique of speaking to two audiences. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    3/8/2021

    What the Election of Asian American GOP Women Means for the Party

    by Jane Hong

    The success of Asian-American Republican women candidates in Orange County suggests that the parties' efforts to appeal to a multiracial electorate must focus on the distinct histories and concerns of ethnic communities. 

  • 3/2/2021

    Historians on CPAC 2021

    The annual conservative meeting showed that Donald Trump still holds the steering wheel of the Republican Party. Historians on the speeches, the stage design, and the golden idol. 

  • SOURCE: The Week
    2/18/2021

    Rush Limbaugh Taught Republicans To Rage

    by Neil J. Young

    Even from the perspective of today's degraded political culture that he helped bring about, Limbaugh's cruelty remains shocking.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    2/15/2021

    McConnell’s Task: Purging the Crackpots and Bigots

    by Kevin M. Schultz

    William F. Buckley Jr. was able to advance conservative ideas by publicly dissociating from antisemites, Ayn Rand cultists and John Birch conspiracists on the right-wing fringes. Mitch McConnell's problem leading America's conservative party is that all those groups are back with a vengeance. 

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    2/15/2021

    Jews Fear what Follows after Republicans Applauded Marjorie Taylor Greene

    by Deborah Lipstadt

    "Having spent decades studying, teaching, researching and fighting antisemitism, Greene’s claims were familiar territory. All of them – space lasers, 9/11, school shootings, Trump’s election loss and so much else – shared a common theme: conspiracy."