My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

not a surprise in my book, but the SCOTUS recently ruled on Trump's executive order of 2025 denying citizenship by birth in the United States. We look at the arguments, and the two takes by Kavanaugh (on the concurring side) and Gorsuch (on the dissenting side, but not fully with the Trump position). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forgotten but once famous, Whitelaw Reid was a top journalist and politician of his time. In 1906, as ambassador to Britain, the former vice-presidential candidate was asked by Cambridge University to explain why the British lost the American Colonies. Although he shuddered and thought he would rather speak on any other subject, he gave that speech and it serves a good history of the events that l...

First - The history of the Declaration -- the actual document, and how it was saved from British capture.  Then we speak with listener Jason Petri about his Signers Playing Card project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Tom McMillan, we take a look at some of the assumptions of 1776 in the history books. First of all, why July 4th and Not July 2nd? And what about May 15th, when Adams got delegates to move and issued his own Declaration-like preamble? And a second look at Jefferson's authorship of the Declaration: writer or draftsman? We are part of Airwave Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

Nixon's first bombing campaigns had the names of mealtimes which seem to also correspond with the years of his first term: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972. In this ( 2021) episode we look at Nixon, Kissinger and the Paris Peace Accords that ended the Vietnam War. In addition to providing some additional context for the Saigon 1975 situation so much in the news today, we revisit whether the accord was a sha...

Average Americans, in the form of a DC jury, get the evidence. They hear the tapes, and they are shocked. But what will shock them more is what happens when Nixon testifies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress should be doing a lot more, and they would in Listener Page Brousseau's world. He and Bruce talk about Michigan, Article I, tariffs, and partisanship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nixon shoves, Bob Strauss declines money, and another break-in happens, and no one talks about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this series, we uncover the lesser-known stories of Watergate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris joins the show again - it' s been a while. We catch up and talk today's politics. Chris's Instagram is @doctor_nov Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From 2010, but still spot on...Lincoln had just one miderm in his Presidency, and it didn't go well. He very nearly lost control of Congress during a war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, no big deal, we just tackle about every significant problem we have in our politics today (back in 2021). norm-breaking, free-speech and free-speech limits, threats and violence, double impeachments, pushing envelopes and reverse virtue signaling is all part of this episode. Also, Abigail Adams, a treaty won by a forceful speech, a shadowy organization rising up to oppose a Presid...

I talked with Peter about bank robberies in California in the 1970's through the 1990's and why it was the bank robbery capital of the country. Peter's book is Norco 80 about a deadly robbery in CA in 1980. https://www.amazon.com/Norco-80-Spectacular-Robbery-American/dp/1640092129 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stories from the 1968 election, including an important factor driving it, and a bit about 1968 radio. And a little bit from the late political advisor David Gergen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We join Alex Hastie of Ohio v. The World Podcast once again! and Author Paul Dickson (https://www.amazon.com/Bonus-Army-American-Epic/dp/0802714404) to discuss the Bonus Army march of veterans seeking compensation during the Great Depression, and the horrible way they were treated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It had a short history, but within the time of the Civil War, the Confederate States had two Congressional elections. The second in 1863 (and 1864 in some states) should be seen as a midterm, and like those in the Northern states, it didn't go well for the party in power, that being the increasingly unpopular government of Jefferson Davis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

Kevan Whitten has been listening for at least a decade and a half. He's from Maine (So we have to talk James Blaine) and he's talks about the program and asks Bruce a big question. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The midterm election that didn't. In 2002, With national security on the minds of voters and a poor message in opposition, the President's party gained seats in the House for the first time in a first-term Congressional election since FDR's time. George W. Bush's GOP also gained back the Senate. But it's hard election to analyze. We'll try, with a little help from a former President. Learn more ab...

We've been podcasting for 20 years and Billy Paige has listened to the show for all of those years. We talk to him and other listeners in some special episodes in the next couple of months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nixon's first presidential midterm election (the election in which the House and Senate would be up for election) would turn out to be his last, but no one knew it at the time. Nixon tried something Presidents hadn't tried and took off in Air Force One to boost GOP candidates and attack hippie "thugs" across the country. He hoped to reverse the midterm trend. He did not, and he blamed bad audio an...

This phrase may have been stated by a Pennsylvanian in the 1880's described as a "German." as we talk about in this episode about family, assimilation, education and immigration. But it's not so simple. There were many German Americans, and two types in particular stood out from and sometimes in contrast with each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The island-hopping and Second-front hoping after Pearl Harbor did not bring FDR a reverse of the traditional midterm curse or a victory for his party. The GOP and anti FDR Democratic winners of this midterm would ensure there would be scrutiny of the war effort and that New Deal programs domestically would be ended. They would lay the seeds for Truman's difficult Presidency and the eventual GOP re...

In the last episode of the series, we ask the question of where Reagan fits in today's politics, given that parties have shifted so much since his Presidency. We also summarize the series, and ask new questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting with the Reykjavik Summit of 1986 and a fly on the wall view of the events there, we look at the pro-Reagan and anti-Reagan arguments regarding his role in the ending of the Cold War, and try to capture everything Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A TV show affects Reagan deeply. The question is often asked if Reagan won the Cold War. Usually, the only period examined is Reagan's second term. But if one looks at Reagan's first term, we see a perhaps unproductive stance and an unpopular hawkish stance that terrified many Americans and some allies, and was not helping to thaw the cold. Had the Presidency ended in 4 years, no significant progr...