Zealots and Pluralists

A moderate Republican almost diagnoses the problem.

Calcified Democracy

A deep dive into why our politics are so broken.

Reparative Semantics? Or Gobbledygook?

Do last year’s words belong to last year’s language?

One of Last Ties to Slavery Passes at 90

Possibly the last child of an American enslaved person has died.

The Confederacy and Today’s Military

It goes deeper than base names.

Fear of a White Scholar

President Biden had a meeting with some historians. The horrors.

Judicial Supremacy vs Popular Constitutionalism

Who should have the final say on the law of the land?

Originalism and the Declaration of Independence

The implications of modes of interpretation.

Minority Rule in a Winner-Take-All System

How long can the unsustainable be sustained?

Commercializing Juneteenth

The longstanding celebration that become a national holiday last year is being exploited for profit!

January 6 Committee Public Hearings: Day 1

The laying out of the case begins.

The Identity Politics of Identity Politics

Who gets to claim Latino heritage?

Two Years After George Floyd

Very little progress has been made towards racial justice.

The Least Dangerous Branch?

The apparently eminent demise of abortion rights has reignited an old debate.

Respectability Politics

A Black columnist argues that Will Smith set back a whole race.

[Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson] [Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson]

The Right Is Having A Hard Time Framing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson As An Extremist

If this is the best they have, they don’t have a lot

Merriman Smith ‘Canceled’ Posthumously

A man most have never heard of is being reassessed more than a half-century after his death.

When Concern Trolling, Always Check For Unintended Uncomfortable Parallelisms

It’s always a good idea to reread a text before referencing it, especially if you’re a history Ph.D. like Newt Gingrich

Portrait of a Robert E. Lee astride his horse, Traveller. Lee is bare-headed, wearing a military uniform, sitting very erect with his sword at his proper left side. His proper left hand is on the reins, and his proper right hand hangs down, holding his hat. The horse is in a walking pose with his proper left front hoof raised. On the front of the base is a relief depicting a fighting eagle with wings expanded, surrounded by clusters of oak leaves. On the back of the base is a relief of a garland. Portrait of a Robert E. Lee astride his horse, Traveller. Lee is bare-headed, wearing a military uniform, sitting very erect with his sword at his proper left side. His proper left hand is on the reins, and his proper right hand hangs down, holding his hat. The horse is in a walking pose with his proper left front hoof raised. On the front of the base is a relief depicting a fighting eagle with wings expanded, surrounded by clusters of oak leaves. On the back of the base is a relief of a garland.

Two Confederate Statues Meet Their Fate

Two controversial monuments are gone.

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery

A just verdict—but just a verdict.

Is Autocracy Really Winning?

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

Robert Moses Bridge Story Debunked

A favorite anecdote from Robert Caro’s first masterpiece is likely untrue.

Evangelical Politics in the Time of Polarization and Covid

A piece in The Atlantic inspires thoughts.

The Power of Mythology

It does not create better deliberation.

Who Decides American History?

Legislatures and school boards politicize what our kids are taught.

An Example of Illegal Voting

An arrest underscores what the problem isn’t.

‘Conservatives’ and Critical Race Theory

New York Times columnists are not a representative sample.

Book Review: Kill Switch

Discussing the filibuster.

A Last-Minute Holiday

That escalated quickly.

Juneteenth to be National Holiday

It passed the Senate unanimously.

SBC Picks a New Leader

And linkages to broader US politics.

Some CRT Theory/Politics of Race Thoughts

You know, some light weekend thoughts.

Nikole Hannah-Jones Suing for Tenure at Place She Doesn’t Work

A truly bizarre controversy at Chapel Hill.

Conservatives and Critical Race Theory

The latest bogey man is likely not well understood.

Joe Manchin’s Weird Filibuster Defense

It doesn’t work like the movies, Senator.

Assessing the Party Fringes

AOC v. MTG: one of these things is not like the other.

1776 Report ‘Plagiarized’?

Large chunks of a hackish report were lifted from previous works of Commission members.

1776 Report Should be 86’d

A parting shot from the Trump administration.

They Had the Votes

Disconnected representation in action.

Making it Harder to Vote

Lots of places in the US don’t make it easy.

Rethinking the 1619 Project

Great journalism can result in lousy history.

But, the Founders!

If we embrace the Founders to justify the present, let’s think about what we are doing.

The Dark Side of “It’s a Republic, not a Democracy”

I couldn’t help myself.

Stupidity Was The Other Plague We Mismanaged

Having failed to prevent or contain it, aggressive stupidity is now washing over us.

CJCS: Civil War was “Treason”

General Milley speaks an obvious truth. Will apologists listen?

More McGirt Musings

What has the Supreme Court wrought?

A Diminished, Surreal July 4th

The crowd for DC’s fireworks celebration was small but weird.

Mississippi to Remove Confederate Symbol from its Flag

The Magnolia State is the last in the nation to have the stars and bars on its state banner.