Author: Heather Cox Richardson

How Conservatives turned their firepower from the USSR to American democracy after the Cold War ended

On December 26, 1991, banner headlines read: “Gorbachev, Last Soviet Leader, Resigns; U.S. Recognizes Republics’ Independence.” On December 25, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, marking the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, often referred to as the Soviet Union or USSR. Former Soviet republics had begun declaring their independence in March 1990, the Warsaw Pact linking the USSR’s Eastern European satellites into a defense treaty dissolved by July 1991, and by December 1991 the movement had gathered enough power that Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine joined together in a “union treaty” as their leaders announced they were...

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Insight about the abuse of power by MAGA Republicans and their “Three Stooges” antics to avoid governance

The Associated Press ran a story by national political reporter Brian Slodysko on December 14 titled “The Republican leading the probe of Hunter Biden has his own shell company and complicated friends.” It told the story of how Representative James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, has a financial history that looks a great deal like that of which he accuses the Bidens, including a shell company that appears to ethics experts to have problematic connections to a campaign donor. Comer is leading the House impeachment effort against President Joe Biden, an effort that Philip Bump...

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Thugs and vermin: Political sycophants downplay Trump’s unhinged speech echoing Nazi propaganda

In a speech on November 11 in Claremont, New Hampshire, and then in his Veterans Day greeting the day after on social media, former president Trump echoed German Nazis. “In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day [sic] we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Racists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream…. Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who...

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Casualty of chaos: Why the Republican Party’s problem continues to be America’s problem as shutdown looms

The Republican-dominated House of Representatives remains unable to agree even to a way forward toward funding the United States government. This is a five-alarm fire. The continuing resolution for funding the government Congress passed in September when then–House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) could not pass appropriations bills runs out on November 17. If something is not done, and done quickly, the U.S. will face a shutdown over Thanksgiving. This will not only affect family gatherings and the holiday, it will hit Black Friday — which, as the busiest shopping day of the year, is what keeps a number of...

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Biblical republic: Why adherents of Christian nationalism reject the central premise of democracy

On October 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed. It had been rocked five days before, when heavy trading early in the day drove it down, but leading bankers had seen the mounting crisis and moved in to stabilize the markets before the end of the day. October 24 left small investors broken but the system intact. On Monday, October 28, the market slid again, with a key industrial average dropping 49 points. And then, on October 29, the crisis hit. When the gong in the great hall of the New York Stock Exchange hit at ten o’clock, the...

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Republican’s political image of cowboy individualism continues to play out at the cost of lives

Data from the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an astonishing rate of 4.9% in the third quarter. We also learned that in Lewiston, Maine, a single shooter killed at least 18 people, more people than died by gun homicide in Maine in the whole of 2021, and injured at least 13 others. These two things are the results of two dramatically different worldviews. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the administration’s other economic advisors have resurrected the idea that the government can promote economic growth by regulating businesses, protecting...

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