From fifteeneightyfour blog, Donald T. Critchlow on a who’s who of when Hollywood was Right, why some Reagan supporters did not support Goldwater in 1964, why Barry Goldwater fell out with Ronald Reagan, and what the Left and the Right can learn from Hollywood politics. Lawrence Freedman on how Reagan’s Southern strategy gave rise to the Tea Party. From Salon, Josh Eidelson interviews Frances Fox Piven on the Tea Party and slaveholder ideology; and Theda Skocpol on what drives the angry right. Is the Tea Party racist? Ask some actual, out-of-the closet racists. Peter Beinart on Sam’s Club Republicans vs. the Tea Party. Even if the Tea Party flames out, right-wing populism could hobble America for decades. Reading from Left to Right: A symposium on American Dreamers and The Reactionary Mind. Jeremy Varon reviews A New Dawn for the New Left: Liberation News Service, Montague Farm, and the Long Sixties by Blake Slonecker. Peter Beinart on the rise of the New New Left (and more and more). From Jacobin, Evan Burger on a selfish Left: The Left doesn’t need a renewed emphasis on morality; and Chris Maisano on social democracy for our time. Jonathan Cohn on how liberals have won a lot — here's one reason. Liberalism’s greatest critic: Gerald Russello reviews For the Republic: Political Essays by George Scialabba. The Nationalist Left rises: Post-1960s progressives have been captured by a spirit of militarism. Cole Carter on how a revived utopianism will amount to nothing if the left doesn’t change the way it relates to the American people.
