The White House release of that ‘ASMR’ video of a migrant being shackled and deported was rightly attacked for its shocking dehumanization. But it revealed something else. From Nuremberg rallies to Trump rallies, we usually think of fascist leaders mobilizing popular support by igniting feelings of fear, anger, vengeance, and the violent targeting of demonized
Dear Readers, I’d like to share two new articles. The first, for LOGOS, is on the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden I attended last week. The second, for New Lines Magazine, is on the deeper crisis of liberal democracy of which fascist election denialism is a critical symptom. Hoping for the best tomorrow, or
Concerns over Joe Biden’s fitness to stand for election turned into full-blown panic after his senescent debate performance against Donald Trump last week. A steadily-growing number of Democratic Party leaders, along with the New York Times Editorial Board, has called on him to step aside. Meanwhile, other elected Democratic officials have vociferously defended him. Although
The Supreme Court decision granting Trump presidential immunity from prosecution sets an astounding precedent for executive abuse of power that goes well beyond the seizure of power already planned for by Project 2025. It is tempting to view this ruling as one borne of our distinctly authoritarian age – a reasoning brought to flower
At the first Republican debate tomorrow night we will no doubt see most of the candidates onstage condemn the various indictments against Trump for conspiring to steal the 2020 presidential election. With the exception of Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie, these challengers feel they must tread lightly in their criticisms, since Trump remains overwhelmingly popular
If we have been in the midst of a Third Reconstruction, as historian Peniel Joseph has argued, then the expulsion today of two Black lawmakers from the Tennessee state legislature is an attempt at a Third Redemption. A Republican supermajority expelled two Black Democratic lawmakers from their seats for joining a protest calling for action
A far-right flank in the House of Representatives has disabled Congress far more effectively than the rioters who stormed the Capitol two years ago today.
The New York Times broke a story two days ago revealing that Samuel Alito leaked a 2014 Supreme Court contraception decision, weeks before it was publicly announced, to anti-abortion activists. The story also details the extraordinary access these activists have to other justices as well – at restraurants, hunting retreats, and even prayer sessions in
This week John McNaughton, artist laureate of the Trumpist right, unveiled his newest work, “Politically Incorrect.” The painting was released on the third day of hearings by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack – hearings that opened by dramatically portrayed the role the Proud Boys in the capitol assault, and closed
In exploring the contemporary politics of whiteness, Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes offer a powerful analysis of white precarity embedded in an antiracist critique of white supremacy in multicultural times. Producers, Parasites, Patriots is a necessary and welcome work.
— Cristina Beltrán, New York University
“This important volume places race at the center of political development in America. Leading lights and fresh voices in the field sweep across the history exploring new ways to think about the impact of racial division on the shape of the political order and the dynamics of its change. There is no better introduction to this subject, one of the massive facts of the American experience.”
—Stephen Skowronek, Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University
“Evocative and analytical, this historical portrait shows how racial change in the South opened the door to conservative mobilization. Its powerful account of how a cross-regional alliance of white supremacists and business-oriented anti-New Dealers fundamentally reoriented American politics advances our understanding not just of pathways to the present, but of prospects for the future.”
Ira Katznelson, author of When Affirmative Action Was White