Ronald Reagan

Photographer David Hume Kennerly’s Exclusive Glimpse of Gerald Ford’s Presidency

The Editors

Kennerly’s collection of images includes the inner workings of the White House, the Ford family, and the end of Ford’s presidency after losing to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election. This is the first time Kennerly's photos have been on display. Kennerly was named "One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography," by American Photo Magazine. He served as contributing editor for Newsweek for more than a decade and a contributing photographer for Time and Life magazines.

‘9-22’: Animated Drama Explores Deceptions of U.S. Foreign Policy

Tara Taghizadeh

The film 9-22, is about a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who ends up fighting for his life, as he struggles to investigate the untold, dark history of U.S.-Iran relations in the 1980s to save his client (an imprisoned former Navy Special Operations pilot). 9/22/1980 was the date Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and started the Iran-Iraq war. 9/22 was also the name of Saddam Hussein’s chemical warfare program’s code name. 

Celebrity Politicians Are Nothing New in America

Angelo Franco

Part of running a campaign is also acting the part, and actors can be pretty good at that. Celebrities can have more talent in front of audiences, generally; and they may be more apt to deal with scandals more deftly, in part because the public assumes that scandals are simply part of their lives. Reagan himself was a skilled performer who used a combination of theatrics and performance in radio and television pseudo-events to basically play the part of a president. Yet, these same useful assets may prove to be a double-edged sword because celebrity, inevitably, brings scrutiny.

The Rise and Fall of the Republican Party

Tyler Huggins

Post-Romney/Ryan defeat, Republicans ordered an autopsy report on their '12 campaign season. The report, entitled the Growth and Opportunity Project exposed several large anachronisms and rifts in the party. To quote directly from the report: "These are voters who recently left the Party [sic]. Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is 'scary,' 'narrow-minded,' and 'out of touch" and that we were a Party of 'stuffy old men.' This is consistent with the findings of other post-election surveys." 

All Eyes Are on Supreme Court Over Fate of Voting Rights Act

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The GOP’s hoped-for trump card to stave that off as long as possible is the Supreme Court. The conservatives on the court read the election tea leaves and three days after President Obama’s re-election announced that they would take up a challenge to the Act. They dropped strong hints that they may well vote to gut the Act. Justice Anthony Kennedy said he was troubled by the provisions. Chief Justice John Roberts bluntly said that things have changed in the South and that blacks supposedly vote everywhere in the South without any barriers or prohibitions. 

The Race for the White House and the Issue of Racial Divide

Edward Wyckoff Williams

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week found that Romney enjoys the support of white males over President Obama by a margin of 2-to-1: 65 percent to 32 percent. And among working-class whites without college degrees, President Obama trails Romney 58 percent to 35 percent. Why does it matter? White males made up 36 percent of the total electorate in the last presidential contest, and whites in general made up 74 percent of all voters.

Romney, Like His Republican Predecessors, Focuses on the ‘Southern Strategy’

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Romney and Ryan, like Reagan before them, rip a page directly from the time-tested Southern Strategy playbook of Richard Nixon for GOP presidential candidates. The strategy has always had two prongs. One is to attack the liberals and bloated and tax-and-spend big government. The second is to firmly lock down the majority popular and electoral vote in the 11 old Confederate and Border states. 

The Long and Necessary March to American Health Care Reform

Matthew Rudow

Talk of the end of American exceptionalism seems to be everywhere lately, but in at least one area, the United States inarguably reigns supreme.  Currently, per capita health care expenditures in the U.S. are approaching $8,000 a year, far more than anywhere else in the world.  The nation with the second-highest per capita cost, Norway, spends  $2,500 less per person per year.  What do Americans get for their money?  A life expectancy of 78.2 years, slightly ahead of Panama and Libya.

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