How Authoritarians Took Over the GOP

Introduction

Donald Trump and Trumpism are the culmination of a decades-long shift in the Republican Party away from the constitutional principles conservatives share with most Americans to the authoritarianism embraced by radicals within the party. It’s been a transformation driven by a strategy that prioritized partisan conflict over collaborative government and courted an angry, fearful populism, aided by a news media that reported, but mostly failed to heed, the warnings from inside the GOP.

Following the nearly unprecedented period of good feelings, patriotism, and relative unity between the parties that came after World War II, the shift from bipartisanship to extreme partisanship has been a radical one. For many Americans, the period of political and social advancement from the New Deal to the Great Society, withdrawal from Vietnam, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency seemed to assure a progressive future. Even the ascent of Ronald Reagan, supply side economics, and a push for market-based solutions to society’s problems seemed normal amidst the expected swings of the political pendulum. The productive bipartisanship that continued for much of the 1980s blinded many in politics and the news media to the larger threat as democratic norms began to fall.

The bond that unites Americans around the idea of democracy has always been a fragile one. Starting with the compromise on slavery in our Constitution, tensions between citizens holding different worldviews have lingered at or near the surface of our politics. For the most part, the aspiration to live in a nation of freedoms ruled by popularly determined laws has held the country together. But to borrow from Judge Learned Hand, it’s not the laws and constitutions that make democracy strong – it’s when liberty lies strong in the hearts of men and women. In those moments, power is more easily shared. When one party or the other feels it has lost influence, the sense of power that comes with liberty ebbs. This is when our democracy is most fragile and our union most vulnerable.

This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.

Our current crisis dates to when Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) ran for president in 1964 on a platform that rejected the good government policies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a two-term Republican president. Goldwater favored a conservatism that went well beyond concern for fiscal responsibility. Conservatives like Goldwater objected to the expansion of the federal government and the tax revenue it needed to support the Democrats’ social welfare programs – programs that were expanded by Eisenhower Republicans. Instead, Goldwater favored smaller government, emphasizing states rights and the role of business in lifting American prosperity. Goldwater’s overwhelming loss and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society initiatives – and perceived liberal favoritism by the news media – angered and frustrated conservatives at their apparent exclusion from policymaking and the national narrative.

Years later, in 1971, at the request of the US Chamber of Commerce, Lewis Powell, soon to be nominated to the Supreme Court, proposed a strategy to combat what he said was a broad attack on the American economic system. As a corporate lawyer familiar with the federal government’s efforts to implement new laws protecting the environment, workers, and consumers, Powell proposed an equally broad response that included but went far beyond marching an army of lobbyists into Washington. He recommended the establishment of counterparts to each facet of liberal culture – think tanks, academic curriculum, and media – that would propound ideas and perspectives more consistent with the conservative interests of the business community. He also called for an aggressive effort to place conservative judges in the federal judiciary.

By 1982, conservatives had built a considerable intellectual foundation that closely resembled Powell’s blueprint. The Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and other organizations embodied the recommendations outlined by Powell and served as the catalyst for the conservative movement.

In a more significant development, conservatives in the GOP brought together forces – extreme wealth represented by big business and those who profited from it, religious fervor supplied by Christian fundamentalists, and the Dixiecrats’ racist legacy of slavery and Jim Crow – that gave the movement its political impetus and elected Ronald Reagan president in 1980. The Reagan coalition, as it is often referred to, introduced into mainstream politics three passionate groups whose righteousness was tapped over time to produce a steadily mounting assault on American democracy.

Most significantly, two years before Reagan’s victory, candidate-for-Congress Newt Gingrich (R-GA) declared war, not just on Democrats but on, in his view, the mild-mannered middle-class Republicans who dominated his party. His election to the House of Representatives introduced a nastiness to the conduct of politics that defied the norms of the times and attracted the attention of the news media. Gingrich aggressively courted this attention and the influence it brought him. He rose swiftly up the ranks of the Republican Party. By the early ‘90s, he had unified the party behind a narrative in which Republicans were patriots and Democrats were not, a false but persistent storyline that would divide the nation into red and blue armies of voters.

With the media treating this color war as a captivating story framed within the norms of our two-party system, the populist anger it aroused remained mostly invisible to the general public. Most political observers, including many in the news media, failed to heed the warnings of a deepening fracture within the Republican Party.

By the time Donald Trump ran for office in 2016, our democracy had begun to buckle under assault from the Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus, and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Senate Majority Leader in the last two years of Barack Obama’s administration who packed the federal courts with conservative-minded judges by ignoring the norms of the judicial nominating process. Trump’s presidency, marked by racist tropes, fawning over foreign dictators, and his refusal to accept the peaceful transfer of power – predictably fascist in nature – further emboldened many on the far right to speak their minds and act without fear of reprisals. A surprising number of these Americans seem prepared to discard the Constitution and accept autocratic rule.

Contrary to commonly reported views among political observers, the assault on our democracy did not begin with Donald Trump, nor will it end with him.

The timelines that follow detail this steady transformation of America’s conservative party to one that supports radical anti-American ideas that were once deemed unimaginable by all who believe that to be pro-American and pro-democracy were the same thing.

Yet today, the Republican Party finds itself entertaining some of the same unsettling nativist and authoritarian impulses that characterized Europe throughout the 20th century. These ideals are antithetical to what it means to be a Republican, and what it means to be American.

— from Defending Democracy Together, which describes itself as an “advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans”

Timeline: The Rise of Authoritarians in the GOP

Foundation for Culture Change (1971 – 1982)
Lewis Powell wrote a memo for the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971 that would set the country on a new path that favored big business and policies around fiscal conservatism. He decried the absence [...]
The Path to Power (1978 – 1994)
Powell’s call to realign the centers of American culture around conservative ideas set off a two-phased change in the historical narrative of the country. What once was held as gospel – that the Constitution was [...]
Controlling the Narrative (1988 – 2004)
While the Reagan Republicans pursued a pro-business agenda that emphasized de-regulation and smaller bipartisan government, Newt Gingrich stepped up his assault on the bonds of inter-party collaboration that kept the federal government functioning. As head [...]
When the Authoritarians Came Out (2008 – 2022)
Sarah Palin’s nomination as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate in 2008 was a coming-out party of sorts for the mostly White, racist, homophobic, anti-intellectual fringe that had been courted by the GOP since 1980 [...]
The End of Our Democracy? (2018 – 2024)
The 2024 election is nothing less than a referendum on the Constitution and the continuation of American democracy. This is not hyperbole, not some partisan rant, but a recognition that we are at a crucial [...]
Coda: The Power of the Long Game
Lewis Powell’s 1971 memorandum set in motion a series of events that he could not foresee and did not intend. His only objective was to strengthen the business community’s influence on federal government policymaking by [...]

Sources

The URLs included with the sources below were good links when we published. However, as third party websites are updated over time, some links may be broken. We do not update these broken links. If you are interested in the source, it may be possible to find it by copying and pasting the URL into a search on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. From the search results, be sure to choose a date from around the time our article was published.

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Foundation for Culture Change

Lewis F. Powell, Jr., “Attack on American Free Enterprise System”, US Chamber of Commerce, Aug 23, 1971, https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/, accessed Oct 13, 2018

Eugene B. Syndor, Jr., letter explaining the origin of the Powell memo, Washington and Lee University, https://law2.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellSCSFChamberofCommerce.pdf, accessed Mar 11, 2023

Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson, “The Powell Memo: A Call-to-Arms for Corporations”, Moyers & Company, Sep 14, 2012, https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/, accessed Sep 8, 2022

Mark Schmitt, “The Legend of the Powell Memo”, The American Prospect, Apr 27, 2005, https://prospect.org/article/legend-powell-memo/, accessed Sep 8, 2022

Mark Schmitt, “The Myth of the Powell Memo”, Washington Monthly, Aug 29, 2016, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/29/the-myth-of-the-powell-memo/, accessed Sep 8, 2022

Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson, “The Powell Memo: A Call-to-Arms for Corporations”, Moyers & Co., Sep 14, 2012, https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/, accessed Sep 9, 2022

Nitish Pahwa, “Time to Fight”, Slate, Aug 30, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/lewis-powell-memo-chamber-commerce.html, Mar 13, 2023

The Blueprint: Powell’s Memo

Scholarly Commons, “Powell Memorandum: Attack on American Free Enterprise System”, Washington and Lee University, https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/, accessed Aug 1, 2018

Al Jazeera, “The People vs. America”, https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/the-people-vs-america/1970s.html, accessed Aug 1, 2018

Lewis F. Powell Jr., “Attack on American Free Enterprise System”, Aug 23, 1971, https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=powellmemo, accessed Aug 1, 2018

New Conservatism: The Heritage Foundation

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Arthur L. Laffer, “The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future”, The Heritage Foundation, Jun 1, 2004, https://www.heritage.org/taxes/report/the-laffer-curve-past-present-and-future, accessed Sep 8, 2022

Molly Ball, “The Fall of the Heritage Foundation and the Death of Republican Ideas”, The Atlantic, Sep 25, 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/the-fall-of-the-heritage-foundation-and-the-death-of-republican-ideas/279955/, accessed Aug 30, 2024

Andrew Blasko, “Reagan and Heritage: A Unique Partnership”, The Heritage Foundation, Jun 7, 2004, https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/reagan-and-heritage-unique-partnership, accessed Aug 30, 2024

Jane Meyer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, pg. 61

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Kim Phillips-Fein, “The Mandate for Leadership, Then and Now”, The Nation, Jun 4, 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-conservative-promise/, accessed Aug 30, 2024

Avik Roy, “The Tortuous History of Conservatives and the Individual Mandate”, Forbes, Aug 10, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2012/02/07/the-tortuous-conservative-history-of-the-individual-mandate/, accessed Sep 1, 2024

Model Legislation: ALEC

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Rob O’Dell, “”, Center for Public Integrity, Apr 4, 2019, https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-paste-legislate/what-is-alec-the-most-effective-organization-for-conservatives-says-newt-gingrich/, accessed Apr 11, 2023

ALEC Exposed, “Democracy, Voter Rights, and Federal Power”, Center for Media and Democracy, https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Democracy,_Voter_Rights,_and_Federal_Power, accessed Apr 12, 2023

Jill Richardson, “ALEC Exposed: Warming Up to Climate Change”, Center for Media and Democracy, Jul 27, 2011, https://www.prwatch.org/NODE/10914, accessed Apr 12, 2023

ALEC Exposed, “Taxes and Budgets”, Center for Media and Democracy, https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Taxes_and_Budgets, accessed Apr 12, 2023

ALEC, “A Next-Generation Tax and Expenditure Limitation Act”, Nov 30, 2022, https://alec.org/model-policy/a-next-generation-tax-and-expenditure-limitation-act/, accessed Apr 12, 2023

Libertarian Cornerstone: Cato Institute

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Bob Davis, “In Washington, Tiny Think Tank Wields Big Stick on Regulation”, Wall Street Journal, Jul 16, 2004, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB108994396555065646, accessed Sep 9, 2022

Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, “Creating Your Path to a Policy Career”, https://ia601203.us.archive.org/34/items/StructureOfSocialChangeNewLearnLibertyEdition_201609/Structure%20of%20Social%20Change%20-%20New%20LearnLiberty%20Edition.pdf, accessed Sep 9, 2022

Training and Messaging: GOPAC

GOPAC, “History”, https://www.gopac.org/history/, accessed Sep 12, 2022

Ballotpedia, “GOPAC”, Oct 2017, https://ballotpedia.org/GOPAC, accessed Sep 12, 2022

Stephen M. Gillon, “GOPAC Strategy and Instructional Tapes (1986-1994)”, National Registry/Library of Congress, 2010, https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/GOPACtapes.pdf, accessed Sep 12, 2022

Ceci Connolly, Howard Kurtz, “Gingrich Orchestrated GOP Ads Recalling Clinton-Lewinsky Affair”, Washington Post, Oct 30, 1998, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/ads103098.htm, accessed Sep 12, 2022

University of Houston, “GOPAC Republican Handout, https://uh.edu/~englin/rephandout.html, accessed Mar 2, 2023

Harper’s staff, “Accentuate the negative”, Harper’s Magazine, Nov 1990, https://harpers.org/archive/1990/11/accentuate-the-negative/, accessed Mar 2, 2023

Media and Campus Footprint: Collegiate Network

Wikipedia,, “Collegiate Network”, Mar 2, 2023, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Collegiate_Network, accessed Mar 3, 2023

Wikipedia, “The Dartmouth Review”, Dec 22, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dartmouth_Review, accessed Mar 3, 2023

Sourcewatch, “Madison Center fo Educational Affairs”, Dec 11, 2007, https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Madison_Center_for_Educational_Affairs, accessed Mar 3, 2023

Wikipedia, “The Cornell Review”, Oct 2, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cornell_Review, accessed Mar 3, 2023

Intercollegiate Studies Institute, “Filling the Void Left by Modern Higher Education”, https://isi.org/about-us/, accessed Mar 3, 2023

Targeting the Judiciary: The Federalist Society

Angie Gou, “Cherry-picked history: Reva Siegel on “living originalism” in Dobbs”, SCOTUSblog, Aug 11, 2022, https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/08/cherry-picked-history-reva-siegel-on-living-originalism-in-dobbs/, accessed Sep 21, 2022

People for the American Way Foundation, “The Federalist Society: From Obscurity to Power”, Aug 2002, https://www.pfaw.org/report/the-federalist-society-from-obscurity-to-power/, accessed Feb 20, 2023

Dylan Matthews, Byrd Pinkerton, “The incredible influence of the Federalist Society, explained”, Vox, Jun 3, 2019, https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/3/18632438/federalist-society-leonard-leo-brett-kavanaugh, accessed Feb 20, 2023

Ilyse Hogue, “A “Woodstock” for Right-Wing Legal Activists Kicked Off the 40-Year Plot to Undo Roe v. Wade”, The Intercept, May 10, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/05/10/roe-v-wade-federalist-society-religious-right/, accessed Feb 20, 2023

Lawrence Baum, Neil Devins, “Federalist Court”, Slate, Jan 31, 2017, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federalist-society-became-the-de-facto-selector-of-republican-supreme-court-justices.html, accessed Feb 20, 2023

John Gramlich, “How Trump compares with other recent presidents in appointing federal judges”, Pew Research Center, Jan 13, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/, accessed Feb 20, 2023

The Federalist Society, “About Us/Frequently Asked Questions”, https://fedsoc.org/about-us, accessed Mar 7, 2023

Sheldon Whitehouse, “The Third Federalist Society”, speech, Mar 28, 2019, https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/the-third-federalist-society/, accessed Apr 29, 2024

Don McGahn, speech, C-SPAN (40:45), https://www.c-span.org/video/?437462-8/2017-national-lawyers-convention-white-house-counsel-mcgahn, accessed Apr 29, 2024

The Path to Power

David Osborne, “The Swinging Days of Newt Gingrich ”, Mother Jones, Nov 1, 1984, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1984/11/newt-gingrich-shining-knight-post-reagan-right/, accessed Feb 27, 2023

Politics “is a War for Power”

Frontline, “1978 Speech by Gingrich”, PBS.org, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/newt78speech.html, accessed Apr 3, 2024

CNN Editorial Research, “Newt Gingrich Fast Facts”, CNN, Jun 7, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/16/us/newt-gingrich-fast-facts/index.html, accessed May 7, 2024

The Reagan Revolution

James Reichley, “The Reagan Coalition”, The Brookings Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1982), pp. 6-9, https://doi.org/10.2307/20079772, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Martin Lipton, “The Friedman Essay and the True Purpose of the Business Corporation”, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Sep 17, 2020, https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/09/17/the-friedman-essay-and-the-true-purpose-of-the-business-corporation/#comments, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Lee Edwards, “Barry M. Goldwater: The Most Consequential Loser in American Politics”, The Heritage Foundation, Jul 3, 2014,https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/barry-m-goldwater-the-most-consequential-loser-american-politics, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Republican Party, Republican Party Platform of 1956, Aug 20, 1956, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Republican Party, Republican Party Platform of 1980, Jul 15, 1980, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1980, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Paul Weyrich, speech in Dallas, Fall 1980, https://youtu.be/8GBAsFwPglw?si=MWd3pvwRj-XI8HMH, accessed Apr 5, 2024

Conflict Politics and Performance Find Traction

C-SPAN, House Session May 15, 1984, https://www.c-span.org/video/?171083-1/house-session, accessed Apr 5, 2024

The End of “Fairness”

Wikipedia, “Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_Broadcasting_Co._v._FCC, accessed Apr 24, 2024

Les Brown, “Reported Political Use of Radio Fairness Doctrine Under Kennedy and Johnson Is Causing Concern”, The New York Times, Mar 31, 1975, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/31/archives/reported-political-use-of-radio-fairness-doctrine-under-kennedy-and.html, accessed Apr 24, 2024

Craig R. Smith, “The Campaign to Repeal the Fairness Doctrine”, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, vol. 2, no. 3, 1999, pp. 481–505, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41940183, accessed Apr 26, 2024

Al Tompkins, “How Rush Limbaugh’s rise after the gutting of the fairness doctrine led to today’s highly partisan media”, Poynter, Feb 17, 2021, https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2021/how-rush-limbaughs-rise-after-the-gutting-of-the-fairness-doctrine-led-to-todays-highly-partisan-media/, accessed Apr 26, 2024

Paul Matzko, “The Fairness Doctrine Was the Most Deserving Target of Rush Limbaugh’s Rage”, Reason, Feb 19, 2021,, https://reason.com/2021/02/19/the-fairness-doctrine-was-the-most-deserving-target-of-rush-limbaughs-rage/, accessed Apr 26, 2024

Paul Matzko, “Talk Radio Is Turning Millions of Americans Into Conservatives”, The New York Times, Oct 9, 2020, https://www.cato.org/commentary/talk-radio-turning-millions-americans-conservatives, accessed Apr 26, 2024

Jeremy Hobson, “How Conservative Talk Radio Paved The Road For Donald Trump”, WBUR/Here and Now, Oct 2, 2019, https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/02/conservative-talk-radio-book, accessed Apr 26, 2024

The Rise of “Originalism”

Linda Greenhouse, “Washington Talk: The Bork Hearings; For Biden: Epoch of Belief, Epoch of Incredulity”, The New York Times, Oct 8, 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/08/us/washington-talk-the-bork-hearings-for-biden-epoch-of-belief-epoch-of-incredulity.html, accessed Jul 3, 2024

Ilya Shapiro, “The Original Sin of Robert Bork”, Cato Institute, Sep 9, 2020, https://www.cato.org/commentary/original-sin-robert-bork, accessed Jul 2, 2024

Linda Greenhouse, “Bork’s Nomination Is Rejected, 58-42; Reagan Saddened”, The New York Times, Oct 24, 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/24/politics/borks-nomination-is-rejected-5842-reagan-saddened.html, accessed Jul 3, 2024

Ian Millhiser, “The Federalist Society controls the federal judiciary, so why can’t they stop whining?”, Vox, Nov 19, 2022, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23457938/supreme-court-federalist-society-whine-first-amendment, accessed May 6, 2024

Julia Ingram, “Clarence Thomas’ Long Battle Against Affirmative Action”, PBS Frontline, May 9, 2023, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/clarence-thomas-long-battle-against-affirmative-action/, accessed Jul 6, 2024

Timothy Bella, “The time Clarence Thomas said affirmative action was ‘critical’ for society”, The Washington Post, Jul 1, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/06/30/clarence-thomas-affirmative-action/, accessed Jul 6, 2024

Neal Devins, Lawrence Baum, “Split Definitive: How Party Polarization Turned the Supreme Court into a Partisan Court”, Supreme Court Review vol 2016, last revised Nov 2, 2017, https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/1939/, accessed Apr 30, 2024

Charles Lane, “Roberts Listed in Federalist Society ’97-98 Directory”, The Washington Post, Jul 24, 2005, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/07/25/roberts-listed-in-federalist-society-97-98-directory/07462c8a-f148-4b4f-97f5-b44cfc3c1333/, accessed Jul 2, 2024

Ed Whelan, “Was John Roberts Ever a Member of Federalist Society?”, Confirmation Tales, Feb 22, 2024, https://www.confirmationtales.com/p/roberts-federalist-society, accessed Jul 2, 2024

U.S. Senate, “Supreme Court Nominations (1789 – Present)”, https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm, accessed May 6, 2024

Andy Cerda, Andrew Daniller, “7 facts about Americans’ views of money in politics”, Pew Research Center, Oct 23, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/23/7-facts-about-americans-views-of-money-in-politics/, accessed May 1, 2024

Ashley Balcerzak, “Study: Most Americans want to kill ‘Citizens United’ with constitutional amendment”, The Center for Public Integrity, May 10, 2018, https://publicintegrity.org/politics/study-most-americans-want-to-kill-citizens-united-with-constitutional-amendment/, accessed May 1, 2024

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, “Money, Politics and the American Public, Oct 14, 2014, https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/blog/money-politics-and-american-public, accessed May 1, 2024

Evangel Penumaka, Isa Alomran, “A Supermajority of Voters Support the Freedom to Vote Act”, Data for Progress, Sep 24, 2021, https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/9/24/a-supermajority-of-voters-support-the-freedom-to-vote-act, accessed May 1, 2024

Kristine Liao, “Americans Feel About Who Should Be Allowed to Vote? And Why?”, American Public Media Research Lab, Jun 29, 2021, https://www.apmresearchlab.org/motn/election-policy-views, accessed May 1, 2024

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, “Public Opinion on the Voting Rights Act”, Aug 6, 2015, https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/blog/public-opinion-voting-rights-act, accessed May 1, 2024

Gallup, “Abortion: Gallup Historical Trends”, https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx, accessed May 1, 2024

Gallup, “Where Do Americans Stand on Abortion?”, Jul 7, 2023, https://news.gallup.com/poll/321143/americans-stand-abortion.aspx, accessed May 1, 2024

Pew Research Center, “America’s Abortion Quandary”, May 6, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/, accessed May 1, 2024

The Contract with America

Isaac Chotiner, “Frank Luntz’s Tarnished Legacy”, CBS News, Jan 29, 2007, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/frank-luntzs-tarnished-legacy/, accessed Jun 21, 2024

History, Art & Archives, “Party Divisions of the House of Representatives, 1789 to Present”, US House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/Institution/Party-Divisions/Party-Divisions/, accessed Jun 21, 2024

Jeffrey Gayner, “The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the U.S.”, The Heritage Foundation, Oct 12, 1995, https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/the-contract-america-implementing-new-ideas-the-us, accessed Jun 21, 2024

Ballotpedia, “State Government Trifectas”, Jun 25, 2024, https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas, accessed Jun 19, 2024

Nick Hillman, “Party control in Congress and State Legislatures (1978-2016)”, University of Wisconsin, https://web.education.wisc.edu/nwhillman/index.php/2017/02/01/party-control-in-congress-and-state-legislatures/, accessed Jun 19, 2024

Stephen Moore, “Contract Revisited”, Cato Institute, Jun 23, 2004, https://www.cato.org/commentary/contract-revisited, accessed Jun 19, 2024

Julian Zelizer, speaking about Newt Gingrich in an interview with Jarret Bencks, ”When Politics Got Polarized”, Brandeis Magazine, Fall 2020, https://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2020/fall/arts-and-culture/gingrich.html, accessed Feb 21, 2023

Controlling the Narrative

Michael Weisskopf, “Playing on the Public Pique”, The Washington Post, Oct 27, 1994, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/10/27/playing-on-the-public-pique/45ee175f-0017-4748-9d61-2ad53924a6c2/, accessed Jun 17, 2024

Simon & Schuster, “Tell Newt to Shut Up”, May 13, 1996, https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tell-Newt-to-Shut-Up/Michael-Weisskopf/9780684832937, accessed Aug 15, 2024

Isaac Chotiner, “Frank Luntz’s Tarnished Legacy”, CBS News, Jan 29, 2007, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/frank-luntzs-tarnished-legacy/, accessed Jul 31, 2024

“Language: A Key Mechanism of Control”

CNN Editorial Research, “Newt Gingrich Fast Facts”, Jun 7, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/16/us/newt-gingrich-fast-facts/index.html, accessed Jun 29, 2024

Thomas B. Rosenstiel, “Gingrich’s Plan for Power 10 Years in the Making”, Los Angeles Times, Dec 19, 1994, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-19-mn-10829-story.html, accessed Jun 30, 2024

Dan Balz, Serge F. Kovaleski, “Gingrich Divided GOP, Conquered the Agenda”, The Washington Post, Dec 21, 1994, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/12/21/gingrich-divided-gop-conquered-the-agenda/16a407eb-e31e-41e6-959e-b2a05be50c51/, Jun 30, 2024

Harper’s, “Accentuate the Negative”, Nov 1990, https://harpers.org/archive/1990/11/accentuate-the-negative/, Jun 29, 2024

University of Houston, handout, https://uh.edu/~englin/rephandout.html, Jun 29, 2024

FAIR, “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control”, Feb 1, 1995, https://fair.org/home/language-a-key-mechanism-of-control/, Jun 29, 2024

Peter Stone, “How Newt Gingrich’s Language Guru Helped Rebrand the Kochs’ Message”, Mother Jones, Dec 8, 2014, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/frank-luntz-helped-the-koch-brothers/, accessed Jul 31, 2024

James Salzer, “Gingrich’s language set new course”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jul 5, 2016, https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt–politics/gingrich-language-set-new-course/O5bgK6lY2wQ3KwEZsYTBlO/, accessed Jul 31, 2024

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, “‘Language: A Key Mechanism of Control’”, Feb 1, 1995, https://fair.org/home/language-a-key-mechanism-of-control/, Jun 30, 2024

Jon Allsop, “Kamala Harris in high definition”, Columbia Journalism Review, Jul 29, 2024,https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/defining_kamala_harris_trump_nicknames_media.php, accessed Jul 29, 2024

“A Cultural War”

Pat Buchanan, text of speech to the 1992 Republican National Convention, Aug 17, 1992, https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/buchanan-culture-war-speech-speech-text/, Jul 5, 2024

Tamar Lewin, “THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Issues: Women and Families; Legal Scholars See Distortion In Attacks on Hillary Clinton”, The New York Times, Aug 24, 1992, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/24/us/1992-campaign-issues-women-families-legal-scholars-see-distortion-attacks.html, Jul 5, 2024

Adam Nagourney, “‘Cultural War’ of 1992 Moves In From the Fringe”, The New York Times, Aug 29, 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/us/politics/from-the-fringe-in-1992-patrick-j-buchanans-words-now-seem-mainstream.html, accessed Jul 5, 2024

Unity and Power

David Winston, “The Contract with America’s Legacy”, Roll Call, Sep 25, 2019, https://rollcall.com/2019/09/25/the-contract-with-americas-legacy/, accessed Jul 26, 2024

Michael Weisskopf, “Playing On the Public Pique”, The Washington Post, Oct 27, 1994, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/10/27/playing-on-the-public-pique/45ee175f-0017-4748-9d61-2ad53924a6c2/, accessed Jul 6, 2024

Pew Research Center, “Public Trust in Government: 1958-2024”, Jun 24, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/, accessed Sep 13, 2024

Curtis Gans, “1994 Congressional Elections: An Analysis”, FairVote, 1995, https://archive.fairvote.org/reports/1995/chp3/gans.html, accessed Sep 9, 2024

Pew Research Center, “Party affiliation among voters: 1992-2016”, Sep 13, 2016, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/09/13/2-party-affiliation-among-voters-1992-2016/, accessed Sep 10, 2024

Wikipedia, “Republican in name only”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_in_name_only, accessed Sep 10, 2024

Fox News: GOP-TV

The Associated Press, “Fox News Overtakes CNN in Ratings”, Online Media Daily, Jan 30, 2002, https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/3889/fox-news-overtakes-cnn-in-ratings.html, accessed Sep 6, 2024

Jason Deans, “Fox challenges CNN’s US ratings dominance”, The Guardian, Mar 27, 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/mar/27/tvnews.iraqandthemedia, accessed Sep 6, 2024

Lloyd Grove, “Before Roger Ailes was a disgraced Fox News mogul, he was George H.W. Bush’s ‘wily media man’”, The Washington Post, Dec 8, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/12/08/before-roger-ailes-was-disgraced-mogul-he-was-george-hw-bushs-wily-media-man/, accessed Sep 10, 2024

Editors, “Roger Ailes”, Biography.com, Jun 29, 2020, https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/roger-ailes, accessed Sep 10, 2024

Tim Dickinson, “How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory”, Rolling Stone, May 25, 2011, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-244652/, Jul 26, 2024

NOW, Transcript December 17, 2004, WETA, PDF received Aug 3, 2018

Miguel Jiménez, “Rupert Murdoch’s complicated legacy”, El País, Sep 29, 2023, https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-09-29/rupert-murdochs-complicated-legacy.html, accessed Jul 26, 2024

Voter Fraud: The Little Lie

David Litt, “Claims of ‘voter fraud’ have a long history in America. And they are false”, The Guardian, Dec 4, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/04/trump-voter-fraud-america-false, accessed Jul 29, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson, “Right-Wing Accusations of Voter Fraud Are Not New”, Public Seminar, Oct 19, 2022, https://publicseminar.org/2022/10/right-wing-accusations-of-voter-fraud-are-not-new/, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Andrew Gumbel, “The history of ‘rigged’ US elections: from Bush v Gore to Trump v Clinton”, The Guardian, Oct 25, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/25/donald-trump-rigged-election-bush-gore-florida-voter-fraud, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Mireya Navarro, “Fraud Ruling Invalidates Miami Mayoral Election”, The New York Times, Mar 5, 1998, https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/05/us/fraud-ruling-invalidates-miami-mayoral-election.html, accessed Sep 13, 2024

US Commission on Civil Rights, “Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election”, Jun 2001, Ch. 9, Section 4.1, https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/vote2000/report/ch9.htm, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Katie Sanders, Politifact, “Florida voters mistakenly purged in 2000”, Tampa Bay Times, Jun 14, 2012, https://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-voters-mistakenly-purged-in-2000/1235456/, accessed Feb 17, 2021

Congressional Research Service, “Election Reform: The Help America Vote Act

and Issues for Congress”, Jun 17, 2008, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32685, accessed Sep 13, 2024

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Commission on Federal Election Reform, “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections”, Sep 2005, pg. 18, https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/6/Exhibit%20M.PDF, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Miles Parks, “”, NPR, Mar 6, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161374479/electronic-registration-information-center-eric-florida-missouri-west-virginia, accessed Sep 13, 2024

Karen Kasler, “LaRose says Ohio may drop out of voter registration program he praised last month”, Statehouse News Bureau, Mar 7, 2023, https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-03-07/larose-says-ohio-may-drop-out-of-voter-registration-program-he-praised-last-month, accessed Sep 13, 2024

Brennan Center for Justice, “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth”, 2016, https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/Briefing_Memo_Debunking_Voter_Fraud_Myth.pdf, accessed Jul 31, 2024

Michael Waldman, Justin Levitt, “The Myth of Voter Fraud”, The Brennan Center for Justice, Mar 29, 2007, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/myth-voter-fraud, accessed Jul 31, 2024

Justin Levitt, “The Truth About Voter Fraud”, Brennan Center for Justice, Nov 9, 2007, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/truth-about-voter-fraud, accessed Jul 31, 2024

The Luntz Memo: Controlling the Narrative

Kate Sheppard, “The First Rule of Fighting Climate Change: Don’t Talk About Climate Change”, Mother Jones, Jan 22, 2010, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/gop-pollster-luntz-tells-enviros-stop-talking-climate/, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Oliver Burkeman, “Memo exposes Bush’s new green strategy”, The Guardian, Mar 3, 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2003/mar/04/usnews.climatechange, accessed Jul 30, 2024

Frank Luntz, “Straight Talk”, Luntz Research Companies, pg. 131, https://www.sourcewatch.org/images/4/45/LuntzResearch.Memo.pdf, accessed Sep 21, 2018

Jen Christensen, “Is it climate change or global warming? How science and a secret memo shaped the answer”, CNN, Mar 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/02/world/global-warming-climate-change-language-scn/index.html, accessed Jul 31, 2024

Emily Chasan, Jennifer Rossa, “When ‘Global Warming’ Became ‘Climate Change’”, Bloomberg, Mar 15, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/climate-change-replaces-global-warming-as-preferred-term-for-a-changing-world, accessed Jul 31, 2024

Red-Blue Divide: A Manufactured Narrative

Paul Farhi, “Elephants Are Red, Donkeys Are Blue”, The Washington Post, Nov 2, 2004, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17079-2004Nov1.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_8, accessed Dec 1, 2023

Taylor Orth, Carl Bialik, Eli McKown-Dawson, “100 policies supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans”, YouGov, Nov 17, 2022, https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/44463-policies-supported-by-democrats-and-republicans, accessed Dec 1, 2023

Program for Public Consultation, “Major Report Shows Nearly 150 Issues on Which Majorities of Republicans & Democrats Agree”, School of Public Policy | University of Maryland, Aug 7, 2020, https://publicconsultation.org/defense-budget/major-report-shows-nearly-150-issues-on-which-majorities-of-republicans-democrats-agree/, accessed Dec 1, 2023

NORC at the University of Chicago, “American Values Poll”, Starts With Us, May 2023, https://startswith.us/wp-content/uploads/Report-and-Methodology-For-Website.pdf, accessed Dec 1, 2023

When the Authoritarians Came Out

Richard A. Viguerie, David Franke, “America’s Right Turn”, Bonus Books, 2004, pg. 346

John W. Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience, 2006, Penguin Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, p. xiv

Bookshop.org, “Conservatives Without Conscience”, https://bookshop.org/p/books/conservatives-without-conscience-john-w-dean/11695636?ean=9780143038863, Aug 16, 2024

Elaine Cassel, “The Demise of Conservatism, and The Rise of Authoritarianism: A Review of John Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience”, FindLaw, Sep 1, 2006, https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/the-demise-of-conservatism-and-the-rise-of-authoritarianism-a-review-of-john-deans-conservatives-without-conscience.html, accessed Aug 16, 2024

Chris Cilliza, “In Your Heart, Not Quite Right”, The Washington Post, Aug 9, 2006, https://www.proquest.com/docview/410088592/fulltext/1B5ABEC8CE9F4155PQ/1?accountid=189667&sourcetype=Newspapers, accessed Aug 16, 2024

Publishers Weekly, “Conservatives Without Conscience”, July 11, 2006, https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-670-03774-2, accessed Aug 16, 2024

Ezra Klein, “‘People don’t fully appreciate how committed the tea party is to not compromising’”, The Washington Post, Oct 4, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/10/04/people-dont-fully-appreciate-how-committed-the-tea-party-is-to-not-compromising/, accessed Apr 9, 2023

Robert Steinback, “Electoral Extremism: 23 Candidates On The Radical Right”, Southern Poverty Law Center, Feb 23, 2011, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2011/electoral-extremism-23-candidates-radical-right, accessed Apr 9, 2023

Devin Burghart, Leonard Zeskind, “Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions”, Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, Fall 2010, http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wtvd/docs/IREHR_Report_102010.pdf, accessed Apr 9, 2023

Palin’s Nomination: Trump Before There Was Trump

Tim Miller, “Why We Did It, Harper Collins, 2022, Kindle edition, pg. 8

Ariel Gonzalez, “Sarah Palin and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life”, Huffington Post, May 25, 2011, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-palin-and-anti-inte_b_225798, accessed Aug 5, 2024

Todd S. Purdum, “It Came from Wasilla”, Vanity Fair, Jun 30, 2009, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/08/sarah-palin200908, accessed Aug 5, 2024

Jonathan Martin, John F. Harris, “Palin ‘becoming Al Sharpton’?”, Politico, Mar 14, 2011, https://www.politico.com/story/2011/03/palin-becoming-al-sharpton-051218, accessed Aug 5, 2024

Joshua Green, “The Right-Wing War Against Sarah Palin”, The Atlantic, Mar 14, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/the-right-wing-war-against-sarah-palin/72443/, accessed Aug 5, 2024

Kenneth P. Vogel, “Palin: ‘Tea party’ the future of politics”, Politico, Feb 6, 2010, https://www.politico.com/story/2010/02/palin-tea-party-the-future-of-politics-032628, accessed Aug 5, 2024

The Tea Party: A Rising Tide

CNBC, “Rick Santelli and Rant of the Year”, Feb 19, 2009, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Kathryn Jean Lopez, “Watch for the Palin-Santelli 2012 sign”, National Review, Feb 20, 2009, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/watch-palin-santelli-2012-signs-kathryn-jean-lopez/, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Suzanne Goldenberg, “Tea Party movement: Billionaire Koch brothers who helped it grow”, The Guardian, Oct 13, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/13/tea-party-billionaire-koch-brothers, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Wikipedia, “Tea Party movement”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement#Background, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Jane Mayer, “Covert Operations”, The New Yorker, Aug 23, 2010, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations?currentPage=all, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Maegan Vazquez, Patrick Svitek, “FreedomWorks, an organization that mobilized tea party conservatives, dissolves”, The Washington Post, May 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/freedomworks-closing-tea-party/, Aug 9, 2024

William C. Westermeyer, “How the Tea Party Transformed American Politics”, Sapiens, Feb 17, 2017, https://www.sapiens.org/culture/tea-party-american-political-culture/, accessed Aug 9, 2024

Geoffrey Kabaservice, “The forever grievance”, The Washington Post, Dec 4, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/12/04/tea-party-trumpism-conservatives-populism/, accessed Aug 9, 2024

The Heritage Foundation’s Turn from Conservatism

Heritage Action for American, “Scorecard”, The Heritage Foundation, https://heritageaction.com/scorecard, accessed Aug 30, 2024

Eliana Johnson, Nancy Cook, “The real reason Jim DeMint got the boot”, Politico, May 2, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/why-jim-demint-was-ousted-from-heritage-237876, accessed Aug 30, 2024

Michael C. Bender, “Donald Trump’s Transition Team Relies on a Mix of GOP Traditionalists and Outsiders”, Wall Street Journal, Nov 11, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/the-fall-of-the-heritage-foundation-and-the-death-of-republican-ideas/279955/, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Andrew R. Kloster, “Whither Heritage?”, The American Conservative, Mar 23, 2021, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/whither-heritage/, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Emily Birnbaum, “Google disbands AI ethics board following pushback”, The Hill, Apr 4, 2019, https://thehill.com/policy/technology/437505-google-disbands-ai-ethics-board-following-pushback/, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Colin Lecher, “Inside the Google employee backlash against the Heritage Foundation”, The Verge, Apr 1, 2019, https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18290341/google-heritage-foundation-ai-kay-coles-james, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Lulu Garcia-Navarro, “Inside the Heritage Foundation’s Plans for ‘Institutionalizing Trumpism’”, The New York Times, Jan 21, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Freedom Caucus: The Radicals Organize in Congress

Drew DeSilver, “What is the House Freedom Caucus, and who’s in it?”, Pew Research Center, Oct 20, 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/10/20/house-freedom-caucus-what-is-it-and-whos-in-it/, accessed Aug 12, 2024

Tina Nguyen, “ “Idiots,” “Anarchists,” and “Assholes”: John Boehner Unloads on Republicans in Post-Retirement Interview”, Vanity Fair, Oct 30, 2017, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/john-boehner-on-republican-party, accessed Aug 12, 2024

Drew DeSilver, “Freedom Caucus likely to play a bigger role in new GOP-led House. So who are they?”, Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/23/freedom-caucus-likely-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-new-gop-led-house-so-who-are-they/, accessed Aug 13, 2024

State Freedom Caucus Network, “Find Your Local Representative”, https://statefreedomcaucus.org/#map, accessed Aug 13, 2024

Peder Schaefer, “The Freedom Caucus Has Been Wreaking Havoc On Washington. Now It’s Exporting the Chaos to the States.” Politico, Mar 12, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/12/freedom-caucus-00146569, accessed Aug 12, 2024

Mitch McConnell: Court Packing the GOP Way

Sam Cabral, “Mitch McConnell: From polio survivor to political titan”, BBC, Feb 28, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29908203, accessed Aug 14, 2024

Alec MacGillis, “Why Is Mitch McConnell Picking This Fight?”, ProPublica, Feb 19, 2016, https://www.propublica.org/article/why-is-mitch-mcconnell-picking-this-fight, accessed Aug 20, 2024

Andy Barr, “The GOP’s no-compromise pledge”, Politico, Oct 28, 2010, https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311, accessed Aug 20, 2024

Glenn Kessler, “When did Mitch McConnell say he wanted to make Obama a one-term president?”, The Washington Post, Jan 11, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/11/when-did-mitch-mcconnell-say-he-wanted-to-make-obama-a-one-term-president/, accessed Aug 20, 2024

Marc A. Thiessen, “The tea party owes Mitch McConnell an apology”, The Washington Post, Oct 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mcconnell-could-be-the-most-consequential-conservative-leader-of-the-century/2018/10/23/d91c98a4-d6e3-11e8-83a2-d1c3da28d6b6_story.html, accessed Aug 14, 2024

Kim Soffen, “Trump’s judicial influence could go far beyond putting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court”, The Washington Post, Feb 1, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/judge-appointments/?itid=lk_inline_manual_17, accessed Aug 14, 2024

Jackie Calmes, “How Republicans Have Packed the Courts for Years”, Time, Jun 22, 2021, https://time.com/6074707/republicans-courts-congress-mcconnell/, accessed Aug 20, 2024

John Gramlich, “How Trump compares with other recent presidents in appointing federal judges”, Pew Research Center, Jan 13, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/, accessed Aug 14, 2024

Trump’s Presidency: Shedding Pretense

Martin Longman, “The 12 Early Warning Signs of Fascism”, Washington Monthly, Jan 31, 2017, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/, accessed Aug 21, 2024

Republican National Convention, “Republican Party Platform of 1984”, Aug 20, 1984, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1984, accessed Aug 21, 2024

Brett Schaefer, “Setting the Tone for America’s Relationship with the United Nations”, The Heritage Foundation, Sep 5, 2001, https://www.heritage.org/report/setting-the-tone-americas-relationship-the-united-nations, accessed Aug 21, 2024

Cato Institute, “Cato Handbook for Congress”, 1995, https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-handbook-policymakers/1995/9/104-32.pdf, accessed Aug 21, 2024

James C. Nelson, “The Fascists’ Playbook”, CounterPunch, May 8, 2023, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/08/the-fascists-playbook/, accessed Aug 21, 2024

Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, “How Democracies Die”, Broadway Books, 2019

The End of Our Democracy?

Liz Cheney, tweet on Mar 6, 2024, https://x.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1765409100270309463?lang=en#, accessed Jun 15, 2024

Allie Raffa, Megan Lebowitz, “Harris unrolls dozens of GOP endorsements”, NBC News, Aug 4, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/harris-campaigns-outreach-plan-republican-voters-rcna165040, accessed Aug 13, 2024

Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point, Crown, 2023, Kindle Edition

Gingrich: “The Old Order is Dying”

McKay Coppins, “The Man Who Broke Politics”, The Atlantic, Oct 17, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/, accessed Aug 7, 2024

Tim Elliot, “America Is Eerily Retracing Rome’s Steps to a Fall. Will It Turn Around Before It’s Too Late?”, Politico, Nov 3, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/03/donald-trump-julius-caesar-433956, accessed Aug 8, 2024

Charles Haywood, “The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return (Michael Anton)”, The Worthy House, Sep 8, 2020, https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/08/the-stakes-america-at-the-point-of-no-return-michael-anton/, accessed Aug 8, 2024

Jason Wilson, “‘Red Caesarism’ is rightwing code – and some Republicans are listening”, The Guardian, Oct 1, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/01/red-caesar-authoritarianism-republicans-extreme-right, accessed Aug 8, 2024

GOP Messaging: “We Are Not a Democracy”

Bernard Dobski, “America is a Republic, Not a Democracy”, The Heritage Foundation, Jun 19, 2020, https://www.heritage.org/american-founders/report/america-republic-not-democracy, accessed Aug 7, 2024

Mike Lee, “Of Course We Are Not A Democracy”, Oct 20, 2020, https://www.lee.senate.gov/2020/10/of-course-we-re-not-a-democracy, accessed Aug 7, 2024

Donie O’Sullivan, “These Trump supporters say US isn’t a democracy. And they’re okay with it”, CNN, Jun 13, 2024, https://youtu.be/JixxGmp2yKw?si=-r_K88omFs8uVhkl, accessed Aug 7, 2024

January 6: The Insurrection and Attempted Erasure

Karen Yourish, Larry Buchanan, Denise Lu, “The 147 Republicans Who Voted to Overturn Election Results”, The New York Times, Jan 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html, accessed Sep 2, 2024

Noreen O’Donnell, Nina Lin, “One Year Since Capitol Riot, Republicans Try to Shift Blame. But Here’s What They Said at the Time”, NBC New, Jan 6, 2022, https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/one-year-since-january-6-capitol-riot-republicans-try-to-shift-blame-but-heres-what-they-said-at-the-time/2929779/, accessed Sep 3, 2024

Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin, “‘I’ve Had It With This Guy’: G.O.P. Leaders Privately Blasted Trump After Jan. 6”, The New York Times, Oct 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/politics/trump-mitch-mcconnell-kevin-mccarthy.html, accessed Sep 3, 2024

Stand in the Gap, “J6 Awards Gala”, https://www.standinthegap.foundation/events, accessed Sep 3, 2024

Project 2025: Heritage’s Radical Blueprint

Don Byrd, “What does Project 2025 say about religious liberty and the separation of church and state?”, BJC, Jul 19, 2024, https://bjconline.org/what-does-project-2025-say-about-religious-liberty-071924/, accessed Sep 5, 2024

Andrew Prokop, “Project 2025: The myths and the facts”, Vox, Jul 30, 2024, https://www.vox.com/politics/360318/project-2025-trump-policies-abortion-divorce, accessed Sep 5, 2024

The Heritage Foundation, “A Timeline of Heritage Successes”, https://www.heritage.org/article/timeline-heritage-successes, accessed Aug 31, 2024

The Heritage Foundation, “2017 Mandate for Leadership Recommendations Status”, Jan 23, 2018, https://www.scribd.com/document/369820462/Mandate-for-Leadership-Policy-Recommendations, accessed Sep 1, 2024

Russ Vought, “Executive Office of the President of the United States”, Project 2025, pg. 44, https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-02.pdf, accessed Sep 5, 2025

Tom Shoop, “That Time Reformers Took on Cronyism, Nepotism and Alcoholism in the Federal Workforce”, Government Executive, Sep 1, 2022, https://www.govexec.com/management/2022/09/time-reformers-took-cronyism-nepotism-and-alcoholism-federal-workforce/376577/, accessed Sep 5, 2024

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Credits

Related Problems: Threats to Voting Rights

Author: George Linzer
Published: September 15, 2024
An early, incomplete draft of this storyline was published on April 11, 2023.

Feature image: The American Leader, based on images by Library of Congress on Unsplash and thomas-bethge

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