The Washington Post has published a database of American enslavers. It includes some familiar names: Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Breckinridge, Preston Brooks, Aaron Burr, Pierce Butler, John C. Calhoun, Charles Carroll, Henry Clay, De Witt Clinton, Davy Crockett, Jefferson...
Senate
U.S. Senators on the Senate Health Committee who seem to care less about public health
In case you didn’t see it, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, testified yesterday before a Senate health committee hearing. Here is his exchange with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: Here is Fauci last night on CNN: Here...
The Democratic race for Pat Toomey’s Senate seat reveals the divisions in the party
The frontrunner is Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. His top challenger is western Pennsylvania congressman Conor Lamb. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: One candidate promises he won’t be a centrist Democratic senator like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. Another...
Dr. Oz is running for a U.S. Senate seat. He’s been there before.
Oz is running for Pat Toomey’s Pennsylvania Senate seat. Get up to speed here. But as Ian Ward reminds us at Politico, he has been there before. Here’s a taste: On a hot summer morning in June of 2014, Mehmet...
Dr. Oz joins the Pennsylvania Senate race
Sean Parnell is out. Dr. Mehmet Oz is in. Here is The Washington Post: Mehmet Oz, who rose to fame as “Dr. Oz” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Tuesday he is launching a Republican campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania,...
Is Sean Parnell’s Senate campaign over?
Pennsylvania Republicans are having a hard time finding someone to run against Conor Lamb or John Fetterman for Pat Toomey’s U.S. Senate seat. Now a judge has decided that GOP frontrunner Sean Parnell‘s kids can only visit him three weekends...
Is Dr. Oz the answer for Pennsylvania Republicans?
The Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey is up for grabs in 2022 (Toomey is not running for reelection). Pennsylvania Republicans are looking for a candidate that can win next year. The GOP frontrunner right now is Sean Parnell,...
Episode 24: “Let the People Speak”
The Senate debates and then votes on a Federal Marriage Amendment Episode 24: “Let the People Speak” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1,...
The anti-Critical Race Theory bills keep coming
Last week we took a close look at Josh Hawley’s “Love America Act.” Now we have the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act. The Senate sponsors are Republicans Marco Rubio, (FL), Kevin Cramer (ND), and Mike Braun (IN). Here...
Senate passes $3.5 trillion dollar budget framework. Hyde Amendment is saved. Anti-Critical Race Theory amendment passes.
It’s a done deal. Elections have consequences. The American people rejected Trumpism in 2020. Now the Democrats, who rode the anti-Trump wave into office last November, have the power to get some things done. National Public Radio explains what is...
Who is J.D. Vance? Apparently a lot of Ohio GOP voters haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy
In his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance interpreted Appalachia for a largely educated, non-populist reading public. He was able to do this because he left Appalachia for Yale Law School. He...
The Democrats announce a $3.5 trillion “go-it-alone” infrastructure plan to supplement the bipartisan deal
While Joe Biden waits for his bipartisan infrastructure plan to get through Congress, Senate Democrats have announced another infrastructure plan that will provide funds for everything that did not make it into the bipartisan plan. This would include funding for...
Only six Republican senators voted for a commission to study the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812
It looks like American historians will need to do the work. John Hope Franklin once called historians “the conscience of the nation.” A Senate vote on a bill to create an independent commission to study the January 6, 2021 insurrection...
Val Demings (D-Fla.) is planning a run against Marco Rubio
Demings was a House manager in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial and was on Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist. Political scientists Ashley Daniels and Pearl Dowe think Demings has a chance of taking Rubio’s Senate seat if she can mobilize Black...
What did anti-1619 Project U.S. senators learn about race from their school textbooks?
The Root just published excerpts of U.S. history textbooks used in schools attended by the thirty-eight Republican senators, including majority leader Mitch McConnell, who recently signed a letter criticizing the New York Times 1619 Project and critical race theory. Here...
Josh Hawley’s path to the insurrection
Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who once had the support of liberal Republican John Danforth, is now the poster-boy for the far-right Republican Party. In this longform piece at The Washington Post, Michael Kranish chronicles how Hawley ascended to such...
Conor Lamb for Senate?
It looks like the moderate Democratic congressman from western Pennsylvania might make a run at Pat Toomey’s open seat in 2022. Here is Sarah Ferris and James Arkin at Politico: Rep. Conor Lamb has begun telling some donors and supporters...
Which U.S. Senate seats are most likely to flip in 2022?
According to CNN’s Simone Pathe they are: Pennsylvania: Pat Toomey (R) currently holds the seat. He is retiring. Georgia: Raphael Warnock (D) currently holds the seat. Wisconsin: Ron Johnson (R) currently holds the seat. North Carolina: Richard Burr (R) currently...
A pro-Trump Pentecostal preacher will run against Jim Lankford in the 2022 Oklahoma U.S. Senate race
Jackson Lahmeyer is the pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here what is written on the “Who We Are” page of the church website: Most people are familiar with the name Sheridan Christian Center. It was one of the...
The longest filibusters in U.S. history were launched to stop the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964
Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: At his first White House news conference Thursday, President Biden said he agreed with former president Barack Obama that the filibuster is “a relic of the Jim Crow era.” This follows a Tuesday statement...