What's the Matter With Republicans?

"'It's a spirit of rebellion against what people see as liberals who are overly sensitive, or are capable of being triggered, or hypocritical,' says Marshall Kosloff, co-host of the podcast 'The Realignment,' which analyzes the shifting allegiances of and rise of populist politics. 'It basically offers the party a way of resolving the contradictions within a realigning party, that increasingly is appealing to down-market white voters and certain working-class Black and Hispanic voters, but that also has a pretty plutocratic agenda at the policy level.' In other words: Owning the libs offers bread and circuses for the pro-Trump right while Republicans quietly pursue a traditional program of deregulation and tax cuts at the policy level."

Derek Robertson at Politico describes the "weird journey of a tongue-in-cheek catchphrase from conservative-mocking putdown to the defining tenet of the Republican Party's way of life."

And Doyle McManus at the Los Angeles Times notes the health threat during the pandemic because "[h]alf of Republican men say they don't want the vaccine."

"Attack Your Accuser"

"For author Sam Roberts, the essence of Cohn's influence on Trump was the triad: 'Roy was a master of situational immorality . . . . He worked with a three-dimensional strategy, which was: 1. Never settle, never surrender. 2. Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately. 3. No matter what happens, no matter how deeply into the muck you get, claim victory and never admit defeat." 

Marie Brenner at Vanity Fair traces Donald Trump's relationship with Roy Cohn.

"This Long-Standing Tendency on the Right"

"The idea that the left is depraved, corrupt, and ruthless has been an important strain of American conservatism since the movement began. But in the Trump era, it has metastasized. Right-wing policy ideas have been so thoroughly discredited—does anyone even argue anymore that trickle-down economics will ensure mass prosperity?—that the only apparent reason for conservatism's existence is to fight back against evil liberals. This is, of course, not the sign of a healthy political movement. The right's support for McCarthy has been a long-standing embarrassment for American conservatism. Its embrace of Trump may be history repeating itself."

David A. Walsh at The Washington Monthly explains that "[s]ince the 1950s, the conservative movement has justified bad behavior—including supporting Donald Trump—by persuading itself that the left is worse."

"It Could Happen Here"

"In his desperate bid to win the presidency, Donald Trump has increasingly embraced the rhetoric and logic of the extremist far right in American history. The elements were there for all to see from the beginning of Trump's campaign—the fanning of fears about illegal immigration, about Mexicans bringing drugs and crime, about Muslims bringing terrorism; fears of outsiders, of globalization, of difference. Trumpism is modern-day McCarthyism—stoking hysteria about treason and betrayal, fomenting ever-more outlandish theories of an establishment out to get the ordinary people that he 'alone' can save, and denying the legitimacy or even decent intentions of opposing politicians. But prior to Trump no extremist movement or politician ever captured the nomination of a major political party. And none ever had the masterful command of communication media that Trump has had of television and the internet."

Larry Diamond at The Atlantic asks "whether those in Donald Trump’s party who fail to denounce his democratic disloyalty are not themselves doing great damage to American democracy."

"Desegregating the American Tradition of Paranoia"

"The most relevant comparison for Carson isn't to Cain but to Michele Bachmann, the last Presidential aspirant who, despite membership in a group with a history as targets of discrimination, came to represent the twitchy ideals of American panic. Carson has written of his youth, 'Many of the whites in those days found ways to rationalize their unjust treatment of fellow human beings, arguing that they were not racists but rather protectors of traditional values.' Carson’s presence as a potential Presidential candidate represents a triumph, albeit a cynical one, over those rationalizations. He's moved the country one step closer to that moment when we will be measured not by the color of our skin but by the content of our conspiracy theories."


Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker looks at Ben Carson.

"They're Here Already! You're Next!"

"Siegel himself—as well as many associated with the original 'Body Snatchers,' including Kevin McCarthy and producer Walter Wanger—said they never thought of it as a political parable. Perhaps for that reason, their version remains the most Rorschach-like, the most richly suggestive of all science-fiction allegories."

Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times revisits Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

"What Motivates the Outpouring of Rancor against Muslims"?

"Paranoia and prejudice have long been instruments of right-wing politics in America, from the Red Scare and McCarthyism to the Nixonite Southern strategy. The current outbreak of Islamophobia represents the latest product of the same old manufacturing process."

Joe Conason in Salon explains why lower Manhattan now hosts anti-Muslim demonstrations.

"These Bolshevik Balladeers"

"We did not know that the folk boom was a reverberation of an earlier boomlet, a foray into American music roots, many of whose movers and shakers were as Red as a bowl of cherries. Who on our suburban street knew that Woody Guthrie, the hero of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan, had been a columnist for the Daily Worker? Or that the man from whom we heard rollicking sea chanteys, a Briton named Ewan MacColl, was at one point kept from entering the United States as an undesirable alien? Then there was the cuddly-looking guy with the slightly pedantic six-record set and companion volume, Burl Ives Presents America’s Musical Heritage. If my parents or any of the neighbors were aware that Ives had been summoned, in 1952, to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and had identified Pete Seeger as a communist, they kept the details to themselves."

Lauren Weiner in First Things traces the political underpinnings of the 1950s folk revival.