History

The Electoral College Didn’t Protect Slavery 0
- History
- October 23, 2020
The presidential election in 2016 reminded Americans of the role played by the Electoral College in electing our president. Proponents of abolishing or nullifying the Electoral College and replacing it with a direct-election scheme are trying to delegitimize the traditional process by claiming it is a remnant of America’s racist past, created as part of
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19th Century Political Kidnappings Are Why We Regulate Poll Place Behavior 0
- History
- October 22, 2020
Author Edgar Allan Poe, the 19th-century master of American macabre, may have died of dirty politics. According to legend, a gang of party “poll hustlers” kidnapped and drugged him. They forced him to vote, then abandoned him near death. Details are murky, but we do know Poe died in Baltimore days after an election. The
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The History of the Supreme Court in Nine Justices: Reconstruction and Court Packing 0
- History
- October 21, 2020
Continuing our Oracle of Bacon-style journey through the history of the Supreme Court, we cover the years between 1863 to 1941. Part one can be found here, covering the Court’s first session in 1790 through the Civil War period. 4. Stephen Johnson Field (May 10, 1863 – December 1, 1897) Stephen Johnson Field served with James
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The History of the Supreme Court in Nine Justices: Foundation and Secession 0
- History
- October 19, 2020
If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed, she will be the 115th justice to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, spanning 231 years of the court’s history. The Supreme Court first convened on February 2, 1790, in a session with no cases on the docket. It would have begun on February 1, but a quorum
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The Exceptional Catalog of American Polling Failures 0
- History
- October 15, 2020
The question looms in nearly every U.S. presidential election, even in this year’s race: Could the polls be wrong? If they are, they likely will err in unique fashion. The history of election polling says as much. That history tells of no greater polling surprise than what happened in 1948, when President Harry Truman defied
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Why Biden and Boris Are Both Using ‘Build Back Better’0
- History
- October 12, 2020
The Trump campaign shared a video on social media this week, claiming Joe Biden had ripped off a slogan from British prime minister Boris Johnson. “We have a great opportunity to build back and to build back better” (emphasis added), Biden said in the video, dated July 9, 2020. Then rolled a video of the
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