Tag: Conservatism (US Politics)

When a North Dakota Teen’s Killing Became a Right-Wing Talking Point

They received numerous threatening letters, too, Ms. Brandt-Duda said. One was written on the margins of an article about the incident from The New York Post, she said. The newspaper covered the case extensively and also published an opinion column arguing that the “president of the United States, supported by a fan-girl media, spouts irresponsible […]

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Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Exposed Long-Growing Rifts in Texas G.O.P.

The impeachment of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, by a majority of his fellow Republicans has exposed an undercurrent of division and discontent that is roiling the Republican Party in the most populous state where it still enjoys near total political control. While the vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday tore suddenly […]

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With Debt Ceiling Deal in Hand, McCarthy and Biden Turn to Task of Selling It

“Terrible policy, absolutely terrible policy,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to the work requirements for food stamps and other public benefit programs. “I told the president that directly when he called me last week on Wednesday that this is saying to poor people and people who […]

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The Right Is All Wrong About Masculinity

There is a certain irony in discussions of masculinity. The group that is most convinced of a crisis of masculinity, the American right, is also busy emasculating itself before our eyes. It correctly perceives that young men are facing an identity crisis, yet it is modeling precisely the wrong response. The release of the Missouri […]

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DeSantis Steps Up Attacks on Trump, Hitting Him on Crime and Covid

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida escalated his hostilities with former President Donald J. Trump on Friday, arguing that his Republican presidential rival was weak on crime and immigration, and accusing him of ceding critical decision-making during the coronavirus pandemic to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci. In an appearance with the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Mr. DeSantis […]

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Ken Paxton Fighting for Conservative Causes Has Helped Him Survive Legal Woes

A decade ago, in a courthouse north of Dallas, a lawyer forgot his $1,000 Montblanc pen in a metal detector tray and returned to find that it had been taken. A review of surveillance footage turned up the culprit: Ken Paxton, who was a Texas state senator. A few years later, Mr. Paxton, by then […]

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After Backlash, Target Becomes Latest Brand to Shift Pride Marketing

For years, Pride Month, the annual celebration for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans, has afforded companies a marketing opportunity to tap into the buying power of a group with growing financial, political and social clout. Yet, while these efforts have always faced some opposition, brands and marketers say the country’s current political environment — especially around transgender issues […]

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Takeaways From DeSantis’s 2024 Twitter Campaign Announcement

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s glitch-marred 2024 debut on Twitter was a distraction from his chance to introduce himself as a serious contender to take down former President Donald J. Trump. It was a much-anticipated moment for the Florida governor to reset after months of dropping in the polls, which made the painfully long 20-plus minutes of […]

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Ron DeSantis Joins 2024 Race, Hoping to Topple Trump

Ron DeSantis, the pugnacious 44-year-old governor of Florida who has championed conservative causes and thrown a yearslong flurry of punches at America’s left, entered the presidential race on Wednesday, giving Donald J. Trump the most formidable Republican rival he has faced since his ascent in 2016. Mr. DeSantis filed paperwork declaring his candidacy with the […]

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How Ron DeSantis Maximized the Might of the Florida Governor’s Office

Few knew what to expect from Ron DeSantis when he was first elected Florida governor in 2018 as a little-known congressman. He had barely eked out a victory. He had almost no ties to the State Capitol. His policy agenda seemed unclear. But he knew, at least, how he wanted to govern: He directed his […]

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G.O.P. Split in Texas Breaks Wide Open With Drunkenness Accusation

The barely concealed disdain brewing for months among top Republicans in Texas burst into public view this week when the attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is under indictment, accused the speaker of the Texas House of performing his duties while drunk and called for the speaker’s resignation. The move on Tuesday sent a shock through […]

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What Has Trump Cost American Christianity?

So it’s useful to ponder why the intuitive answer for, say, an Iowa Republican might be very different from the natural answer in New York or Boston or Washington, D.C. Consider some recent analysis by the politics and religion writer Ryan Burge, who tried to parse whether there was any kind of “Trump effect” in […]

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The DeSantis Delusion

Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Hutchinson and Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host, have been in the race for a while. Tim Scott filed his paperwork last Friday and made a public announcement on Monday. Pence and Chris Christie are expected to join the fray in the coming days or weeks, and three current governors — […]

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Why It’s Far Too Soon to Say DeSantis Is Done

Is the Ron DeSantis campaign already over? After the last few months, it’s hard not to wonder. His poll numbers have plummeted. Would-be donors seem skeptical. Pundits have questioned whether he should even run at all. But as he finally announces a presidential bid, expected later today, it is worth mulling his path back to […]

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The Campy Masculine Pleasures of Gerard Butler and ‘Kandahar’

Butler has been making nostalgic, midbudget action films so steadily, for so long, that he has perfected his own formula. Images and themes from “300” recur across Butler’s films. There’s loyalty to the homeland and its defenders, the passing of “respect and honor” from father to son, soft homophobia toward “philosophers and boy-lovers” by half-naked […]

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Ron DeSantis Floats ‘7-2 Conservative Majority’ on Supreme Court

On the eve of declaring his candidacy for president, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has begun articulating a new rationale for why Republicans should nominate him over former President Donald J. Trump, saying he could “fortify” the Supreme Court’s conservative majority during a potential eight years in office. “You would have a 7-2 conservative majority […]

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Public Criticism Might Be the Best Way to Reform the Supreme Court

Perhaps the most famous example of the court’s responding to public criticism came in 1937. After the 1936 election, in which President Franklin Roosevelt ran as much against the court — which was blocking economic measures meant to respond to the dire conditions of the Depression — as against Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, Justice […]

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Tim Scott Announces Presidential Campaign, Adding to Trump Challengers

Tim Scott, the first Black Republican elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction, announced his campaign for president on Monday, adding to a growing number of Republicans running as alternatives to former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Scott’s decision, which followed a soft rollout in February and the creation of an exploratory committee […]

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Ron DeSantis’s Takeover of a Progressive College

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination this week. Much of the narrative around him has focused on who he isn’t — Donald Trump. But DeSantis has also claimed the national spotlight for his role in the culture wars. In Florida, he has made education a […]

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Tim Scott’s Run for President Shines a Spotlight on Black Republicans

Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, addressed the Charleston County Republican Party at a dinner in February, offering a stirring message of unity and American redemption that has become the center of his stump speech. The next day, he called the chairman of the county party to ask for his support. Mr. Scott told the […]

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A Loud Republican Minority Opposes More Ukraine Military Aid

A congressional delegation of five Republicans and two Democrats met with representatives of Ukraine’s Parliament this month in Poland, where the Ukrainians thanked the delegation for American aid and asked for F-16 fighter jets to help in the war against Russia. Three members of the delegation described the meeting as cordial and informative. One left […]

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A Loud Republican Minority Opposes More Ukraine Military Aid

A congressional delegation of five Republicans and two Democrats met with representatives of Ukraine’s Parliament this month in Poland, where the Ukrainians thanked the delegation for American aid and asked for F-16 fighter jets to help in the war against Russia. Three members of the delegation described the meeting as cordial and informative. One left […]

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Analysis: Durham Report Failed to Deliver After Years of Political Hype

The limping conclusion to John H. Durham’s four-year investigation of the Russia inquiry underscores a recurring dilemma in American government: how to shield sensitive law enforcement investigations from politics without creating prosecutors who can run amok, never to be held to account. At a time when special counsels are proliferating — there have been four […]

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How the Comstock Act Law Is Key to the Abortion Fight

The group emphasizes on its website that the act provides for “criminal penalties” up to five years in prison for a first offense. “The law still means what it says — abortion-causing items are not to be mailed,” the group’s website says. “Congress has had the option to change that in the past. It didn’t.” […]

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Without Tucker Carlson, Far Right Loses a Foothold in the Mainstream

When Joe Kent ran for Congress last year, he was a political neophyte challenging a six-term incumbent congresswoman for the Republican nomination. But he also had one of the most valuable boosters in Republican politics: the now-former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Mr. Carlson made Mr. Kent a regular on his prime-time show, which in […]

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The Republican Embrace of Vigilantism Is No Accident

Although it is possible the jury made a mistake when it handed down a guilty verdict, neither Carlson nor Rittenhouse nor Abbott tried to argue the case on the merits. Instead, they made a simple assumption: that any violence against a left-wing protester is justified on its face. Perry had lived out the right-wing fantasy […]

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Pence Looks Toward 2024 Run, Using Reagan’s Playbook, Not Trump’s

Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to soon declare a long-shot campaign for the White House against the president under whom he served, pitching himself as a “classical conservative” who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots, according to people close to Mr. Pence. Mr. Pence is working to carve out space […]

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Conservative Support Surges for Daniel Penny After Killing of Jordan Neely

Little is known about the political views of Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine charged with fatally choking Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. But since Mr. Penny’s arrest on Friday on second-degree manslaughter charges, he has been quickly embraced by right-wing political figures and groups. A campaign to raise money for his legal defense […]

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