conservatism

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/21/2023
  

  When Right Wingers Struggle with Defining "Woke" it Shows they Oppose Pursuing Equality

  by Adam Serwer

  "To believe that the disadvantages of race, class, and gender imposed lawfully over centuries never occurred or entirely disappeared in just a few decades is genuinely “radical” in a negative way; to believe that creating those disadvantages was wrong and that they should be rectified is not."

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/14/2023
  

  The Local Roots of Marjorie Taylor Greene's "National Divorce" Rhetoric

  by Michan Connor

  To understand her embrace of secessionist rhetoric, don't look to the Civil War; look to the political conflict that erupted in Atlanta's suburbs in the 1990s and 2000s. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jacobin
  3/7/2023
  

  Edmund Burke's Defense of Order Indulged Racism and Antisemitism

  by Aidan Beatty

  A critic argues that a founding document of modern conservatism was steeped in the author's belief that Jews were responsible for exporting French radicalism; while few right-wingers today seem to actually read Burke, some carry on this legacy.

• 
• SOURCE: New Statesman
  3/4/2023
  

  Why is the Right Obsessed with Gramsci?

  by Alberto Toscano

  A lack of familiarity with the actual writings of the Italian Marxist hasn't stopped the right, including Christopher Rufo and Nate Hochmann, from placing Antonio Gramsci at the center of a conspiracy theory about leftists seeking to conquer social institutions to undermine American society. 

• 
• SOURCE: Current
  3/8/2023
  

  WDJD (What Did Jesus Do)?: Do Evangelicals Care?

  by Adam Jortner

  While American leftists could find much to embrace in the Gospels, the political actions of many white Evangelicals is likely to push them away. Is it too late to reverse the merger of evangelicalism with conservative movement politics? 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/27/2023
  

  Review: The Right-Wing Abuse of Adam Smith

  by Kim Phillips-Fein

  Glory M. Liu's account of Adam Smith's reception in America explains how American politicians read selectively in Smith's capacious writings on political economy and public morality to construct a self-interested view of the market as a natural phenomenon, writes historian Kim Phillips-Fein. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/23/2023
  

  Texts by Youngkin UVA Appointee Full of Culture War Grudges, References to Faculty and Administrators as "Numnuts"

  Bert Ellis's text conversations with other Republican appointees to the university's Board of Visitors show his adamant opposition to recognizing the history of slavery in building the institution, diversity initiatives, and other changes to UVA traditions, pledging a "battle royale for the soul" of the institution. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/21/2023
  

  You Can't Have Ideological Conflict When One Side Abandons Ideas

  by Timothy Noah

  Sociologist Daniel Bell described ideology as "the commitment to the consequences of ideas." If this doesn't describe the GOP today, the author wonders how well the term "party of ideas" ever applied. 

• 
• SOURCE: Substack
  2/15/2023
  

  The Threat of Christian Nationalism

  by Kristin Du Mez

  "Because Christian nationalists believe that God is on their side and that the fate of Christian America is at stake, among staunch adherents there is no space for compromise."

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  2/13/2023
  

  Florida's Higher Ed Battles are, in Fact, Highly Precedented

  by Barrett J. Taylor

  Understanding the processes and agendas at work in the DeSantis administration's push to change higher education in Florida can help provide perspective on what's new, what's familiar, and what's at stake in the future. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  1/23/2023
  

  Posthumous Limbaugh Book Skirts His Toxic Legacy

  The collection of transcripts from Rush's radio program emphasizes the positive ways he built solidarity with his audience while occluding the negative ways he maintained it by stirring resentments against others and lying about his political opponents. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Progressive
  1/3/2023
  

  Despite Aggressive Rebrand, Charles Koch is Still Fighting Against Democracy

  by Nancy MacLean and Lisa Graves

  The media have latched on to Charles Koch's recent expressions of regret over partisanship. But this is a rebranding, not a redirection. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/5/2023
  

  Why the Fringe is in Charge of the GOP

  by Richard H. Pildes

  The ability of a couple dozen hardliners to derail the Speaker election reflects deep transformations in the power of congressional leaders to wield power through commitee assignments and campaign funds. Will this make governing impossible? 

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  12/20/2022
  

  Are Conservatives Really Pulling Ahead in the Comedy Race?

  Does a ratings boost for Greg Gutfeld's late-night show mean that today's conservatives are the funny ones and liberals are too "woke" to laugh? Answering the question means looking past party loyalty to ask what makes humor, says humor historian Teresa Prados-Terreira. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/12/2022
  

  Review: When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress

  by Jeff Shesol

  Jefferson Cowie's new book traces the current resurgence of racist and antigovernment radicalism through the history of George Wallace's Alabama home county. 

• 
• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  12/12/2022
  

  Why Can't the US Press Name the Bad Faith in Evangelical Politics?

  by John Stoehr

  Head-scratching accounts of "conflicted" evangelicals voting again and again for manifestly ungodly candidates would vanish if the media consulted (or hired) ex-evangelicals, who would explain the movement seeks power, not piety. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  12/9/2022
  

  Michael Kazin on J. Edgar Hoover, and Beverly Gage's Acclaimed Biography

  by Michael Kazin

  The signal contribution of Gage's book is not to examine Hoover's ideology or the details of his personal life, but to show how the FBI director built power and broad support, among even liberal Americans, for intrusive surveillance and repression of activists. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/25/2022
  

  Are Elite Conservatives Getting Too Weird to Win?

  by Graham Gallagher

  The right's move toward European nationalism, conservative Catholicism, and other departures from domestic conservative tradition are troubling to scholars of reactionary politics. But they might just seem weird to voters. 

• 
• SOURCE: Talking Points Memo
  11/30/2022
  

  From Rugged Individualists to Aggrieved Victims: The Rhetorical Trajectory of the Right

  by Paul Elliott Johnson

  Forms of grievance and victimhood have always been central to far-right politics. Only recently have mainstream conservative politicians felt free to embrace them without coming off as whiners. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/29/2022
  

  Did Today's Right Originate in the 1990s? (Review)

  by John Ganz

  Nicole Hemmer's book "Partisans" looks to a generation of conservatives who found the Reagan Revolution inadequate and laid the foundations for MAGA during the Clinton years.