Category: Elections

Seeking Solace from History? The 1876 & 2020 Elections and Threats to Democracy

Reflections on the lessons studying the 1876 presidential election has for our contemporary situation. Analytically, what do we gain by considering these periods togetherSurely, we’re not interested in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not approach. (“Next up: The parallels between the assassination of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy!”) And we know that history does not “repeat […]

The Once & Only 19th Amendment Centennial Course: A 2020 Blog: Women & Mass-Level Electoral Politics & Power Since the 19th Amendment

Week 8  Well, the world has changed. Spring break is over and this is the first week we worked remotely using Zoom in the new C-19 world. Thanks to all my students who were great partners in this new venture. Proud to work with them. Now that we have the 19th Amendment in place (in […]

The Once and Only 19th Amendment Centennial Course: A 2020 Blog: Women’s Political Activism to the Civil War

Week 3 Most discussion of the woman suffrage movement, or even the broader women’s rights movement, tends to take that activism out of context. Perhaps there is some discussion of leaders who previously participated in the abolition movement, but the rich development of political activism tends to be invisible. This week’s work was designed to […]

What’s So Funny about the 2016 Elections

Still not entirely back to blogging (teaching a full load of entirely new courses brings me back to the worst things about being a new assistant professor….) but recently I participated in a panel at Emerson College on Comedy and the 2016 Election. It was very interesting, especially listening to the professionals in comedy, and […]

It’s Historic. And It Matters.

It didn’t take a full century from the time the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote, until a woman became the candidate of a major party for the presidency. We left four years to spare. Forty-two countries have had a female head of government. It matters. Until now, we weren’t good […]

Passion and Reason

Some juxtapositions are just too good to pass by without comment. This morning’s Washington Post has an article by Stephanie McCrummen entitled, “At rallies, Hillary Clinton’s supporters are looking for logic, not passion.”  It picks up on an important theme in this year’s campaign which might at first seem like a matter of style, but is […]

Smile, Joe: The Last Really Super Tuesday

Here is a longer version of an interview I did with with Margaret Waterman of BU Professor Voices on the results of the 3/15 primaries.  As of this writing, the Missouri races have not been completed, but I’m looking at the current results and the New York Times Live Model. We’ve had quite a few […]

Gender, Race, Class and the 2016 Democratic Debates: Thoughts for International Women’s Day

Part II of Gender and the Democratic Primaries and Caucuses Underneath it all, there is a real debate going on between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton – and probably even more, between their advocates and surrogates. But I am not thinking about the ones most of the blogosphere talks about most. This debate is class […]

Gender and the Democratic Primaries & Caucuses

For the moment, I’m trying not to think about gender dynamics in the Republican campaigns, primaries, and caucuses. Once it sunk to the level of seeing the relevance of the size of a man’s body bits – his hands and, well, you know — I want to think about more subtle gender matters. Suffice it to […]

Super Tuesday Morning After

Here’s my initial, quick take on Super Tuesday, introduced and in dialogue with Margaret Waterman in the BU Professor Voices series: Super Tuesday has come and gone, and Massachusetts voters (as well as voters from 11 other states and American Samoa) have spoken their minds. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton came out largely victorious, but […]