Happy Holidays!
As things wind down on an exceptionally tiring year, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s subscribed to this newsletter.
As you can see, we crossed the 10k mark for overall subscriptions and, as promised, Henry Kissinger died not long thereafter. (That’s a clear case of causation, don’t argue.)
And we’re creeping up to 500 paid subscribers, too, which is awfully nice. I especially appreciate those of you who started as free subscribers and decided it was worth paying a little and upgraded. Much appreciated. (And thanks for the notes some of you have sent in with the paid subscription. Hilarious.)
It’s my sad duty to remind you that we’re entering an election year, which means a place called CAMPAIGN TRAILS is going to get a lot busier. As always, I’ll be trying to place our political moment in historical context and, given Trump’s past record of making insane claims about the past, I’m sure I’ll be doing a good bit of fact-checking as well. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, it’s the holiday season and worth taking a moment to unclench our collective fists, if only to grab another sugar cookie. Go ahead, you’ve earned it.
Might as well turn this into another Ask Me Anything, so have at it in the comments.
Where's the picture of Sarge? We need us some Sarge!
I’m reading The Fear Brokers, a book that Thomas McIntyre, a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, wrote about the emerging New Right in 1978 as the New Right was in the process of unseating him. I mean, how else would I spend my free time?!
Anyway, the similarities between then and now are wild. Free-floating right-wing grievance that would cohere for a time around single issues, revolutions in political communications (direct mail then, a host of social media platforms now), an uncertain and divided center-left, the shadow of a racist demagogue (George Wallace then, Trump now) whose voters the ideologically committed right wing was trying to cement, inflation (considerably worse then, of course). Roger Stone himself even shows up.
Do you think it’s valid to understand today’s Republican Party as nothing so much as the apotheosis of the New Right of that time?