Republican Party

Political InQueery: The Trick of Measuring Up

Science post by EvMaroon on June 27, 2011 - 11:25am; tagged 2012 election, Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, Tea Party.

Ronald Reagan making a face Ronald Reagan has nearly reached mythic status in this early part of the 21st century as something of a Republican's Republican. Every year in Congress, no matter which party controls the House, at least one representative introduces a bill to name something big after Reagan, or to build a monument, or make space on Mt. Rushmore, and so on. But looking at Reagan's domestic agenda reveals that his rhetoric was a lot closer to current Tea Party talking points than his actual politics. Reagan may have been the first President to cast doubt on the sanctity of "government," but are conservatives overstating the man? And when we look at the candidates in the running for the White House, do any of them meet the new standards of the extreme right wing?

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Is Meghan McCain the new heartbeat of the GOP or the new headache?

Article by Jonanna Widner, Danine Spencer, Illustrated by Alyx Jolivet, appeared in issue Consumed; published in 2009; filed under Social commentary; tagged conservative women, Daily Beast, gay marriage, John McCain, Meghan McCain, Republican Party.

You may know her as John McCain’s cute, blonde, 24-year-old daughter, whose site, McCain Blogette, may have been the first campaign-trail travelogue to dish about its author’s favorite cosmetics and love of Tupac. You may have seen her appearances on The Rachel Maddow Show or Politically Incorrect. And you may have heard about her kerfuffle with conservative columnist Laura Ingraham, who made fat jokes about the young McCain, to which she responded in a Daily Beast column titled "Quit Talking About My Weight, Laura Ingraham." What you may not know is that Meghan McCain is currently being shined up as the new face of Republican politics in a time when that party is grasping wildly at relevance. She’s pro-God, pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-military—but, as she’s constantly pointing out, pro-sex and pro-gay as well. Two writers ponder the polarizing upstart.

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Adventures in Feministory: Anna Elizabeth Dickinson

DigiBitch post by Kjerstin Johnson on July 27, 2009 - 3:22pm; tagged Adventures In Feministory, American history, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, Civil War, Feministory, oration, Republican Party, slavery, suffrage.

If you think politics today is a boy’s club imagine 1860s America. The Civil War was beginning, slavery was not yet illegal, and women were still a good eighty years from receiving the right to vote. Yet one fiery young woman was able to become a national celebrity through her impassioned speeches on social reform. Anna Elizabeth Dickinson had her first anti-slavery piece published at the age of fourteen. As an advocate for black suffrage in addition to emancipation, and equal opportunity and pay for women in addition to the vote, Dickinson was one of the best-known reformers of her time.

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