Sometimes when a mob boss kills someone who betrayed him he’ll leave the body out in the town square for hours or days, a mix of final humiliation and example to others. Also, Breitbart just fired Steve Bannon.
With a new biography of Ulysses S. Grant out by the man who helped put Alexander Hamilton back in the center of 21st American popular culture, I’m late to the game to sing Grant’s praises. I have not read Chernow’s book. But I have been rereading Grant’s memoirs. I began writing this post at the end of last year when the valorization of Confederate military leaders was more at the center of our public debate. But these are issues of long standing, going on two centuries. They remain as present and consequential as they’ve ever been and Grant is at the center of that.
Until relatively recently Grant, at least as President, had a poor historical reputation. His strengths as a military leader were also overshadowed in the popular imagination by Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee and others. But in both cases, much of Grant’s dim reputation was directly tied to the way national unity was built in the late 19th century on the abandonment of the country’s newly freed African-American citizens and what we might call the Union theory of the war itself. I have always found it notable that the official records of what we call the Civil War, published by the US government are entitled The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. Read More
This data point didn’t make it into Tierney Sneed’s new story on the Ohio voting rights case before the Supreme Court Wednesday. But it’s pretty telling (Prime access).
Good morning. As Josh has mentioned, one of our goals for this year is to give more guidance into how TPM works, what we’re working on on a given day, what events we’re focused on and why. In that vein, we’ll be publishing calendars on busy days — and eventually every day — showing which events our reporters and editors have their eyes on, where we have reporters deployed, what stories we’re working on and what we’re expecting over the course of the day. Here’s the first. Read More
After voter suppression forces failed out with their ‘fraud’ commission, the Supreme Court may give them a better shot at advancing their goals. Check out our story.
A few thoughts on the Trump/Bannon (Prime access) war and why Bannon may not be as done as we think.
Interesting thoughts here from Zack Roth (Prime access) on the anti-democratic authoritarianism of today’s GOP right and how the issues involved in the Trump/Russia probe and various strategies of voter suppression both stem from the same ideological source.
Rush pool report on comments from Trump press aide Hogan Gidley aboard Air Force One on whether there’s any redemption possible for Bannon. Most notable is reference to Ivanka’s and Don Jr’s ‘sacrifice’ in serving their nation. To criticize “two of the president’s children are serving this nation, sacrificing in their service, it is repugnant, it is grotesque.” More quotes after the jump … Read More
A week ago I said we were at the end of the beginning of the Trump/Russia story. The big question of whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has been answered for anyone who has their eyes open. They did. The question is how far it went and what was involved. But there’s another question, related but distinct, which is in my mind perhaps the biggest question or mystery about the whole story. Read More