Tropics of Meta may be a good, clean, family blog about historiography, but we do occasionally stray into political coverage and commentary. Over the last eight-plus years, we have watched the grotesque pageant of American (and indeed international) politics, the scheming machinations of venal politicians, flim-flam carnival barkers, and snake-oil salesmen, the baying cries of alt-right dudes on Bumble and the unwashed waft of the union bosses and the dirty mac brigade in the Wisconsin state capitol. A lot has happened. You can find all of our politics posts here, but we’ve picked a sampling of notable pieces from the last two years as we all tried to make sense of this jarring and strange phase of American political history.
If you’ve not had enough politics after this long and deadening electoral season, then you can kill some time, fill the deep existential void in your life, destroy productivity, and while away the hours until 9pm EST with these posts…
Our ill-advised but still insightful Is Trump Sui Generis? series from right before the November 2016 election.
Oral histories of the Women’s March and an interview with Morna Gerrard: Becoming Legible: Anger, Hope, and Power in the Women’s March of 2017
Deep insight from Ansley Erickson on the huge stakes of American politics, seen from Argentina: Looking North from Buenos Aires: State Violence, Women’s Bodies, and What There Is to Lose
Stan Thangaraj on the politics of basketball: Marching to Madness, Marching to Politics: The NCAA, Collegiate Politics, and Student Empowerment
Looking back at Nick Galifianakis’s doomed campaign against Jesse Helms in 1972, and what it foretold: Not One of Us: How a North Carolina Election in 1972 Presaged Today’s Politics
J-Tebb gives the view of a Red State native in Blue Country, and the partisan divide: Listen to the Bubble Jumpers
Mike Burr, our senior West Virginian correspondent, on how you solve a problem like Joe Manchin: A Hard Man in a Hard Time: Joe Manchin and the Fight for West Virginia
Blake Smith asks a good question about the anti-globalization, anti-immigrant politics sweeping the Western world: Is Marine Le Pen a Jacobin? Globalization, Revolution, and the French Election
David Walsh on the vexed politics of reproductive choice and the allure for Dems of caving on the issue: Can Democrats Win by Peeling Off Pro-Life Voters? Probably Not
Friend-of-the-blog Carolyn Bourdeaux launched her bid for the US House in Georgia’s Seventh district in 2017; today is her big day.
J-Wow goes to a Trump rally: Artisanal Despair and Farm-to-Table White Nationalism: Watching Trump in Austin
Sayf gives a baleful and unintended prophecy about the true nature of American citizenship in August 2016: No, American Citizenship Is Not Necessarily Inclusive