Rick Shenkman
@rickshenkman.bsky.social
Historian’s can’t predict the future. We can’t even agree on the past. Journalist & historian. Author of POLITICAL ANIMALS: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics (Basic Books).
It’s a human being problem.
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 AM
It’s a human being problem.
Signs of the future were visible though. Think: Hard Hat riot in NYC etc. But it took Iraq, 2008 crash, and a black president to give us Trump.
November 10, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Signs of the future were visible though. Think: Hard Hat riot in NYC etc. But it took Iraq, 2008 crash, and a black president to give us Trump.
What held back the GOP was the public. These were the years of the Great Compression. Voters weren’t in an angry mood. Yet. So the demagogues had less room to maneuver.
November 10, 2025 at 12:42 AM
What held back the GOP was the public. These were the years of the Great Compression. Voters weren’t in an angry mood. Yet. So the demagogues had less room to maneuver.
Remember, McCarthyism raged at the height of the Cold War. So just how sober was the GOP during this period? While we remember Buckley’s National Review (circulation 40k) it was the Birchers Spotlight magazine (300k) that was far more popular. (HT @rickperlstein.bsky.social).
November 10, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Remember, McCarthyism raged at the height of the Cold War. So just how sober was the GOP during this period? While we remember Buckley’s National Review (circulation 40k) it was the Birchers Spotlight magazine (300k) that was far more popular. (HT @rickperlstein.bsky.social).
But for Watergate we would have seen a president undertaking the extreme measures Trump has taken against the administrative state in Nixon’s second term, as he plotted with Haldeman. This was during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. So Linker’s analysis comes up short.
November 10, 2025 at 12:42 AM
But for Watergate we would have seen a president undertaking the extreme measures Trump has taken against the administrative state in Nixon’s second term, as he plotted with Haldeman. This was during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. So Linker’s analysis comes up short.