The announcement that NBC / MSNBC hired former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor prompted an “open revolt” by MSNBC “stars,” who went directly to their TV and social media audiences to denounce the hiring because (among other things) McDaniel supported Trump’s lie that the election was stolen. In response to the revolt, the network executives […]

I am trying to change the focus of my blog. Instead of responding to the latest outrage (or debunking the latest conspiracy theory) I plan to go deeper into legal history to offer a better understanding of what is happening today. Last week I wrote about the Right to Vote. I left off when the

First, some business. I have finished the series about misinformation and outrage in what I have been calling the MSNBC-CNN-Left-Leaning-Social-Media outrage ecosystem. Since last week, I linked the parts together, added a few sections, and revamped the conclusion. The series begins here. *  *  * And now, for this week’s topic: The Right to Vote

The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle This is Part 6. It’s generally best to follow the advice given to Alice and the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “Begin at the beginning, go on to the end, and then stop.” But if you must read out of order, here are all the links: Part 1: There are

The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle This is Part 6. It’s generally best to follow the advice given to Alice and the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “Begin at the beginning, go on to the end, and then stop.” But if you must read out of order, here are all the links: Part 1: There are

“The more I think about it,” Heather Cox Richardson said this week, “the more it seems the main story of the past decade has been Russian disinformation to undermine U.S. democracy.” This was a notable comment because Richardson follows all the major political stories from the perspective of a political historian, and she has been

In the 1980s and earlier, the Republicans hated the former Soviet Union because, in the former Soviet Union, the government owned all the nation’s resources and industries. The Republicans believe all (or almost all) resources and industries should be privatized. When the Soviet Union broke up, the Russian Federation was established as a constitutional republic,

I’ll start with some news: Tuesday was the publication date for my latest book, A Firehose of Falsehood.(I sent out birth announcements for my first book in 2001, and have done a birth announcement for each book since. OK, so it’s cheesy.) Let’s Talk about Demagogues The ancient Greeks gave us the word democracy. Demos

First, a few words about the Colorado Trump-Ballot issue Oral arguments on the Trump-Ballot issue were on Thursday so I updated my earlier blog post on section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Click here for the updates. Also, some personal news: Teri Earns an A I turned in the manuscript for my book on the

These are some of the books I read between 2018 and 2023. I found it instructive to put these summaries together. (If I talked about a book recently, I put a link to the blog post instead of offering a summary here.) Come for the story of how the Party of Lincoln became the Party

This week I plan to demonstrate that any democratic government—by its very nature and under its own terms—will have a dangerous anti-democratic opposition. The opposition can be blunted and, with constant work, can be prevented from weakening or toppling the democratic institutions, but anti-democratic opposition can never be eliminated because (1) too many people have

*  *  * This week, I will address these questions: How do democracies thrive and how do they die? How can backsliding democracies be saved? How can nations begin a (peaceful) progression from an authoritarian government to a more democratic government? My method will involve a journey through the work and writings of the following:

I woke up on the morning of Wednesday, November 9, 2016, feeling as if I had just lived through the election of 1824. That was an election that pitted John Quincy Adams against Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson was a populist, a hothead, a demagogue, an unrepentant enslaver, a slaughterer of Native people, and a speculator

I am updating this page with new analysis of the new briefing that has been filed. Since I wrote this page, the following briefs have been filed:  Trump’s brief is here (January 18). An Amicus Brief filed by 17 members of Congress is here (January 18). An Amicus Brief by a group of election lawyers

No Time To Panic A Mastodon user said this: There is never a time to panic. Even in an airplane emergency, a cool head saves lives. But Teri! Trump is openly running for president as an autocrat and he has a non-zero chance of winning! Yup. If you haven’t been paying attention, Trump is echoing