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Today marks the anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s deeply unpopular “Malaise speech,” which actually was not deeply unpopular and actually never used the word “malaise.” In the late 1970s, the United States was reeling from crises on several fronts, ranging from economic “stagflation” (a new term coined to describe the
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Last night on CNN, Sen. Tommy Tuberville once again refused to denounce white nationalism, insisting that white nationalists are not, in fact, racist and that such a characterization is merely “some people’s opinion.” This is a line that Republicans in the Trump era have made themselves walk. They agree,
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As we hit the one-month mark for Campaign Trails, I wanted to send along a quick celebratory update (and, as promised, some Sarge pictures too). First and foremost, thanks to everyone who’s subscribed to the newsletter so far. We’ve gotten off to a great start, as you can
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For the last two days, Senator Josh Hawley has been busy stepping on one rake after another, trying to find some quotation from the founding generation that supports a Christian nationalist vision of America. First, he tweeted out a completely fake quote from Patrick Henry, which as Seth Cotlar noted,
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One of the things I like about Substack is I actually get to write my own headlines. This title is what I wanted to call this piece I did for Washington Post a while back, but I was tragically overruled. In that piece, I talk briefly about Nixon’s campaign
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Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which means we’re guaranteed to see plenty of social media posts about how A Higher Percentage of Republicans Voted for the Civil Rights Act.™ Consider this post a handy pre-buttal for your convenient use if
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After yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action programs, conservative politicians and pundits predictably resorted to trotting out The Only Martin Luther King Jr Quote They Know.™ And as you might expect, the trollier corners of the right were especially trolly: All right, let’s dig in. Despite
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With today’s stunning decision outlawing race-conscious affirmative action policies at universities, Chief Justice John Roberts has completed a long conservative crusade. Sweeping aside the historical evidence that shows the Constitution has never been “colorblind” and that affirmative action programs were intended and have been proven to work, as the
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I just read this brilliant opinion — technically a ruling about the gun rights of felons, but really a broadside against the abomination of judicial “originalism” — and only at the end noticed that it comes from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. (Wait, wait, I promise
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Few social movements trace their birth to an event as unexpected and dramatic as the one that gave public life to the cause of gay liberation. On Friday, June 27, 1969, a group of Manhattan police officers set off to close down the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the
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On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court handed down one of its biggest rulings in the “school prayer” case of Engel v. Vitale. In light of recent proposals calling for a return of school prayer, I thought it might make sense to run through a little of this history. (What
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With new reporting from Pro-Publica showing that Associate Justice Sam Alito — just like Associate Justice Clarence Thomas — has been receiving generous “gifts” from conservative billionaires with business before the Supreme Court, it’s worth remembering the time conservatives hounded a liberal justice off the bench for improper financial ties to