In a new Social Science History article Robert Lieberman argues that the study of US politics shares origins, concepts & methods with the field of comparative politics. Recognizing this helps us understand the current crisis of American democracy & governance.
Open access! https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2024.5
“I believe that Trump can be placed among a long line of demagogues who possess the skills needed to tap into the fears and anxieties of a group of people that perceives itself as marginalized, at risk and not in control.”
There’s nothing groundbreaking about protesters’ tactics of taking over university buildings or erecting encampments on college lawns.
These students – knowingly or unknowingly – are part of a long history of radical student organizing. There are echoes of both the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s and more recently, of South African apartheid in the 1980s.
It’s been 1 year since Seattle’s Mayor signed a racial and social justice law, placing its existing Race and Social Justice Initiative under the city’s office of civil rights and charging the whole city government with ‘implementing change toward ending institutional racism.’
“The problem is not a general lack of historical knowledge but its disparity along racial lines. Black students do know this history, or at least more of it than their white peers.”
Former President Donald Trump is now selling Bibles for $59.99, inscribed with the phrase "God Bless the USA" and accompanied by copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But he's not the first U.S. ex-president to sell Bibles for his own purposes. After leaving office, Thomas Jefferson put together "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” which was a private exercise undertaken to make sense of Jesus's teachings. The Miami Herald contrasts the two books, saying of Trump's Bible: “The use of flag imagery and political texts in conjunction with the bible suggests a dangerous politicization of Christianity and religion more broadly — the exact phenomenon that Jefferson feared.”
Like Donald #Trump, scandal followed Richard #Nixon throughout his political career.
Like Trump, Nixon positioned himself as the defender of the common person against the political elite.
Like Trump, Nixon made expansive claims of immunity.
And, like Trump, Nixon always managed to claw his way back into the political forefront.
West Virginia and Georgia are eyeing laws that would allow criminal charges against school librarians for distributing books that contain "obscene matter." This material often includes books on gender identity and sexual orientation. Axios has created this @Flipboard Storyboard, which also includes information on proposed book bans in Oregon, Florida and Texas.
If you're not familiar with the story about the last time a presidential candidate completely and self-servingly sabotaged a major American foreign policy priority to boost his chances of election, I offer you this one about Richard Nixon and LBJ's peace talks in Viet Nam in 1968. Spoiler alert: the bad guy gets away with it in the end.
I finished How to Hide an Empire and I didn't think I could be more disgusted with the U.S., but I am. And I even already knew a lot of what was in the book.
What did the Founders mean by calling America’s self-government an “experiment?”
“The human-made nature of our institutions has always been a source of both hope and anxiety,” writes Thomas Coens of University of Tennessee.
“Hope that America could break the shackles of old-world oppression and make the world anew; anxiety that the improvisational nature of democracy leaves it vulnerable to anarchy and subversion.”
#RomancingTheVote, a genre romance authors-let effort that raised over US$750,000 for the 2020 and 2022 elections, mostly through silent auctions and funneling donations to Democratic candidates.
They're ramping up their efforts again, but since Xitter is, well, shitty, you can sign up for email notices here: https://forms.gle/h4yHf8VKQmsGaNQS8
Reminder: #RomancingTheVote is back! You can register to receive notifications when the auction starts (or to donate items/help) by filling a simple google form.
The donation form will be open from the second week of June, so donors can send the final pictures and descriptions in. The auction will run from July 1st through July 5th.
Pictured ⬇️
A 1950 poster shows Superman – a refugee from another planet and a character created by two Jewish immigrants to the U.S. – teaching this lesson to school kids. #USPolitics
This week on The Boomerang. My interview for Foreword Reviews with historian Gary Scott Smith of Grove City College about his book on how Hillary Rodham Clinton's Methodist faith has informed her politics. Enjoy!
The U.S. Supreme Court takes up #gerrymandering again this year – looking in particular about how a judge can tell if South Carolina’s new map was done to unconstitutionally dilute Black voting power, or primarily to dilute Democrats’ voting power, which would be legal.
Last term’s decisions upholding the Voting Rights Act don’t apply or offer many clues.