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Robert S. McElvaine
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Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and Chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi and a longtime Democratic and progressive activist. He is the author of ten books, including The Great Depression, Mario Cuomo, What's Left?—A New Democratic Vision for America, and Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes and the Course of History. He has written scores of articles and op eds for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and many others. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown).

Entries by Robert S. McElvaine

A Day That Shook the World

(1) Comments | Posted June 11, 2013 | 8:46 AM

Some days stand out from almost all others in their significance. Most of the dates we remember, such as Dec. 7, 1941, Nov. 22, 1963, and Sept. 11, 2001, are notorious for a single event. On rare occasions, there is a concurrence of two major events on a single day....

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Romney as Zelig

(3) Comments | Posted November 1, 2012 | 9:04 AM

Surely the biggest mystery of the 2012 presidential campaign -- even greater than that of what was wrong with President Barack Obama in the first debate -- is this: Who is Mitt Romney? The conundrum deepened at the final debate, when the Republican candidate took different positions on almost every...

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The Poster Boys of 1960 & 2012

(0) Comments | Posted October 15, 2012 | 12:30 PM

It's time to modify and recycle a famous political poster used against Richard Nixon in 1960.


2012-10-12-nixonusedcar2012.jpg


2012-10-12-Romneyusedcar.jpg

The Three R's -- Romney, Ryan and the Republicans -- are trying to sell the...

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Romney's Identity Theft

(265) Comments | Posted October 6, 2012 | 10:30 AM

"When I got on the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney," President Obama said in his Denver speech the morning after the first presidential debate. "But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney."

DNA tests would show that the person on stage...

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The GOP's Big Lie on Job Creation

(3) Comments | Posted August 27, 2012 | 9:13 AM

2012-08-24-AverageAnnualJobGainLoss194520092012.jpg

The entire Republican case in the election rests on the following claim, being made in varying wordings in the stump speeches of both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan:
"Without a doubt President Obama inherited a difficult situation. Here's the problem: He made...
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The Olympics & American Politics

(0) Comments | Posted August 14, 2012 | 8:37 AM

Progressive Point of the Day: This is part of a series of brief pieces that offer suggestions to the Obama campaign and progressives on effective points to raise and ways to frame their argument. Consider it an advice column for Democrats, who have been having messaging problems for years. Despite...

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Job Policies: An Experiment

(4) Comments | Posted August 11, 2012 | 11:46 AM

Progressive Point of the Day: This is part of a series of brief pieces that offer suggestions to the Obama campaign and progressives on effective points to raise and ways to frame their argument. Consider it an advice column for Democrats, who have been having messaging problems for years. Despite...

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THE Question for Voters

(1) Comments | Posted August 3, 2012 | 5:34 PM

Progressive Point of the Day: This is the second in a series of brief pieces that will offer suggestions to the Obama campaign and progressives on effective points to raise and ways to frame their argument. Consider it an advice column for Democrats, who have been having messaging problems for...

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Un-Favorite Son

(16) Comments | Posted July 26, 2012 | 5:57 PM

Progressive Point of the Day: This is the first in a series of brief pieces that will offer suggestions to the Obama campaign and progressives on effective points to raise and ways to frame their argument. Consider it an advice column for Democrats, who have been having messaging problems for...

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Loving v. Leviticus

(4) Comments | Posted June 13, 2012 | 4:49 PM

Forty-five years ago this week, in a landmark decision with a wonderfully appropriate name, Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court declared laws banning interracial marriage unconstitutional.

In those days political and religious conservatives were stoking fears about sex and who would to be permitted to have it with...

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Striking at the Source of the War on Women

(10) Comments | Posted May 3, 2012 | 4:10 PM

The generals of the opposing armies in the current political "War on Women" have had their radar and their reconnaissance patrols focused on battlefields on Capitol Hill, in state capitals from Richmond to Phoenix, from Concord to Austin, in Rome, and on the positions taken by presidential candidates. These battles...

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Rep. Allen West: "Eleven of Jesus's Apostles Were Communists"

(7) Comments | Posted April 16, 2012 | 2:54 PM

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Following up on his startling revelation last Tuesday that "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party," freshman Republican congressman Allen West of Florida issued a new bombshell on Sunday. West announced that...

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Pope Cannot See What Is Good & Evil

(0) Comments | Posted April 8, 2012 | 3:52 PM

Pope Benedict XVI was correct when he proclaimed during the Vatican's Easter Vigil mass that people today "cannot see . . . what is good and what is evil."

An appropriate place for him to start to remedy this problem is with himself and the Church's hierarchy.

In...

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Protestants Marrying Santorum Should Use Contraception

(54) Comments | Posted March 8, 2012 | 2:09 PM

Pity the poor right-wing Protestants. Leaving aside Ron Paul (as is the common practice in the media and, increasingly, elsewhere), there are four candidates remaining in the presidential race. The three top Republicans are comprised of two Roman Catholics and a Mormon.

It has been traditional among many right-wing Protestants...

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Re-Birth of a Nation?

(64) Comments | Posted February 24, 2012 | 4:53 PM

Among the favorites to win the Oscar for Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards is the first silent movie to captivate audiences in many decades, The Artist. But it is another silent film, now just three years shy of its one hundredth birthday, that has the most to say to...

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Obama Can Win Big With FDR Formula

(13) Comments | Posted January 25, 2012 | 12:00 PM

Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn't always "Franklin D. Roosevelt."

As President Barack Obama devises his reelection strategy, he should understand the implications of this statement and act on them. Whether this election will have major consequences for our future and what Obama's place in history will be could both depend on...

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The Party of Cain

(108) Comments | Posted December 7, 2011 | 10:20 AM

Herman, we hardly knew ye.

But, then, neither did the Republican voters who flocked to you several weeks ago. Herman Cain has two qualifications that were enough to make him the frontrunner for his party's nomination, and both are to be found in his surname: It is not Romney, and...

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'Nut Country' 48 Years Later

(19) Comments | Posted November 22, 2011 | 4:44 PM

"We're heading into nut country today," President John F. Kennedy said to his wife on the morning of November 22, 1963, in the third year of his presidency, as he showed her an ad, bordered in the black of a funeral announcement, that the John Birch Society had placed...

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Boehner Admits to 'Capital Strike'

(68) Comments | Posted September 16, 2011 | 1:47 PM

In 1937, when the economy went into a renewed nosedive during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed that the cause was a "capital strike" by businessmen intent on destroying him and the New Deal. Roosevelt had the FBI launch an investigation of a possible criminal conspiracy by the...

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Investors Prefer Fact-Based to Faith-Based Economics

(0) Comments | Posted August 4, 2011 | 11:41 AM

So, President Obama signs the terms of surrender -- his, progressivism's, the Democratic party's and that of common sense -- capitulating to the extremists of the Tea Party who held the economy and the nation's full faith and credit hostage. And what happens? The stock market takes a...

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