Republican Party

• 
• 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: New York Times
  

  Trumpism Grips a Post-Policy G.O.P. as Traditional Conservatism Fades

  by Jonathan Martin

  This year's CPAC meeting shows a remarkable Trumpian orthodoxy among Republican officials that stands out in contrast to the intense public debates that have followed previous electoral defeats. 

• 
• 2/28/2021
  

  Twenty Years Ago, Rioters Tried to Stop a Presidential Vote Count – and Succeeded

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  On November 22, 2000 a mob succeeded in deciding a presidential election. 

• 
• 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: MSNBC
  2/20/2021
  

  As Long as Trump Controls the GOP, We Won't Have a Third Party

  by Kevin M. Kruse

  For a variety of institutional reasons, pro-Trump and Never-Trump factions will fight to control the Republican Party, rather than to create a competitor to it.   

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/25/2021
  

  The Republican Party Is Now in Its End Stages

  by Tom Nichols

  "The Republican Party has become, in form if not in content, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the late 1970s."

• 
• 2/21/2021
  

  Cynicism and Political Blunder: A Postscript to “The January 6th Assault on Congress and the Fate of the GOP’s Faustian Bargain"

  by Jeffrey Herf

  Mitch McConnell's decision to condemn Trump after voting for his acquittal wasn't just an act of cowardice. The acts taken together constitute a major tactical blunder in the emerging battle for control of the Republican Party. 

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• 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: New York Times
  2/17/2021
  

  Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio’s Conservative Provocateur, Dies at 70

  The conservative talk radio host and de facto head of the Republican Party died on February 17 after a long career of airing right-wing grievances and attacking liberals, feminists, environmentalists, Democrats, and Black political leaders.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/16/2021
  

  Convicting Trump would have Required Accepting a Half-Century of Republican Guilt

  by Steven M. Gillon

  Senate Republicans could not convict Donald Trump without also accepting their party's collective blame for the politics of white male resentment and Christian nationalism that the party has cultivated for decades before MAGA. 

• 
• 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."

• 
• 2/14/2021
  

  What Becomes of a Broken Party?

  by James Robenalt

  The Republican Party seems to be refusing the opportunity to save itself by rejecting Trumpism. His acquittal in a second Senate trial means he will be free to demand the party bend to his will or be destroyed. 

• 
• 2/14/2021
  

  Trumpism after Trump: Beyond Fascism

  by Gavriel Rosenfeld

  Understanding the future of the far-right grievance politics catalyzed by the Trump presidency, it might be helpful to think of it as "MAGA-ism," a 21st century American phenomenon.

• 
• SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
  2/8/2021
  

  In America’s ‘Uncivil War,’ Republicans Are The Aggressors

  Thomas Zimmer and Joanne Freeman represent historians among the scholars commenting on the asymetric polarization of American politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/4/2021
  

  How the GOP Surrendered to Extremism

  by Ronald Brownstein

  Historian Matthew Dallek says that the prominence of conspiracy theorists and the far right in the Republican Party's base means that there will be no move to push extremists out like there was after Barry Goldwater's 1964 candidacy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  2/3/2021
  

  The GOP’s Bolshevik Moment

  by Fred Kaplan

  Alexander Kerensky's tenure as Russia's only prime minister between the overthrow of the Czar and the Bolshevik takeover was cut short in part because he viewed Lenin as an ally against his monarchist enemies. Republican Party leaders risk the same fate if they accept the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene as allies against Joe Biden.

• 
• SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
  2/3/2021
  

  The GOP Might Still Be Trump’s Party. But That Doesn’t Mean There’s Room For Him

  Political scientist Julia Azari, a scholar of presidential mandates, suggests that while the grievance politics Donald Trump exploited will remain part of the Republican Party's strategy, the GOP will probably find another standard bearer; even popular ex-presidents have been eclipsed in their parties. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  1/28/2021
  

  The Republican Retreat From Governance

  Dartmouth history professor Bethany Moreton argues that the GOP focus on social issues (and embrace by some of QAnon) isn't divorced from economic policy, but reflects the political decision to forego any social provision for child care and health. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/28/2021
  

  Opinion: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Vile New Antics Highlight A 50-Year GOP Story

  Washington Post Political Columnist Greg Sargent says that Marjorie Taylor Greene's conspiratorial bigotry reflects a historical problem with the Republican Party: the porous boundary between the mainstream and the extremist fringe. But that boundary is weaker than ever today.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/14/2021
  

  A TV Documentary Shows the Deep Roots of Right-Wing Conspiracy

  New Yorker critic Richard Brody discusses the 1964 broadcast of "Danger on the Right" on the John Birch Society.