Over at CNN, Zachary Wolf interviews Andrew Jackson scholar Daniel Feller on comparisons on the “spoils system.” Here is a taste: WOLF: You’ve written extensively about the spoils system. How would you describe it to Americans today? FELLER: It is a system […]
historical analogies
Trump supporters–including Eric Metaxas and Todd Starnes–compare his felony convictions to a “lynching”
Kristina Karama, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said that “we witnessed the political lynching of Donald Trump today.” She was not the only one. Evangelicals Eric Metaxas and Todd Starnes also played the lynching card in the wake […]
Mike Godwin gives us permission to compare Trump to Hitler
The originator of “Godwin’s Law” weighs in! Here is Mike Godwin’s piece at The Washington Post: My very minor status as an authority on Adolf Hitler comparisons stems from having coined “Godwin’s Law” about three decades ago. I originally framed this “law” […]
Tom Nichols: “The United States now faces a different kind of violence, from people who believe in nothing…”
Political scientist Tom Nichols largely rejects the comparison between our current age and the United States Civil War. As he puts it, “at least the Civil war…was about something.” Here is a taste of his piece at The Atlantic: The […]
Is the Build Back Better Act dead?
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod does not think so. He asks us to remember the Affordable Care Act. Here is a taste of his New York Times op-ed: No historical parallel is perfect, but the near-death and revival of the […]
“No, getting vaccinated isn’t like being forced to wear a yellow star”
When it comes to understanding the present, historical analogies can only do so much. For a nice introduction to the use of historical analogies check out Current Managing Editor Jay Green’s essay “Public Reasoning by Historical Analogy: Some Christian Reflections” […]