My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

In this episode, we go ‘across the pond’ and think about politics, with our special guest Stephen Byrne from WhatAmPolitics Podcast, a listener to the program and someone that Bruce has spoken to whenever UK events happen. We discuss: Why is Britain voting for the 3rd or 4th time in 3 years? What does this […]

The Saturday Night Massacre was the name given to the triple firing of a special prosecutor investigating President Nixon, the AG and the deputy AG on the same night in 1973. After the firing of the FBI Director by President Trump, all eyes are looking back on this historical event. Are they right to do […]

Will the real JFK please stand up.   What image should we have today of the 35th President.  Our interview with author and Boston Globe reporter Thomas Oliphant, about his book Road to Camelot Inside JFKs Five Year Campaign.  We talk about how we should view the President who will turn 100 this month. We […]

A tremendous upheaval in politics occurred with a new President influenced by new media and speaking new political language, with a willingness to bend the rules.  The upending culminates in a radical foreign policy no one expected and few, at that time, understood, so different it was literally thought to be from outer space. We discuss: […]

The textualism of conservative Justice Scalia and liberal Justice Hugo Black is contrasted and compared as we anticipate the arrival of Neil Gorsuch to the Court.  Gorsuch is a committed textualist.  What does that mean?  We look at that, we look at all of the different ways judges think, and the (often straw-manned) concept of a […]

Presidents and Intelligence, from Kennedy to Trump.  With a particular focus on the PDB or the Presidents Daily Briefing with Dr. David Priess, the Author of The President’s Book of Secrets. We discuss: Tension Presidents and The CIA, In History and Today How Kennedy’s Pace Dictated How Agencies Work What the President’s Daily Brief Does and […]

It’s a crazy time, but Bruce’s Fourteen Points about Politics in 2017 seeks to provide some clarity on what’s going on and where both parties stand.  The points include going Back to the Past, Clarity on Reelections and Midterms, About Town Halls, The 8 Million Ignored People and Getting a Media Game. We discuss: Presidents are […]

Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s deputy COS who revealed the existence of the taping system in the White House, gets only a small mention in Watergate history but he has a lot to contribute to the understanding of it.   He recently spoke to Bob Woodward in a new book and his account and the records he kept for […]

Thomas Eagleton was selected as the Vice Presidential candidate for the Democrats and candidate George McGovern. It seemed like the right choice. Then everything went wrong. Yet there is more to the story than most know, and a recent book has revealed new details. What was the Nixon White House role? And what’s this about […]

Looking at the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Summer, Mothers of the Disappeared and the American Revolution, we look at change, from despair to anger to moderation.  These stories are used to answer the question – What does political change take?  What numbers does it take?  How do you know when it’s happening?  We looked at […]

…and probably for a good reason. 1968 and an announcement of a bombing halt over Vietnam by LBJ in the last week of the election has all sides moving in many directions. Evidence points to Nixon campaign involvement in scuttling talks through a third party connected to South Vietnamese elites, that the FBI became aware of […]

Who is the Most Underrated President?  What was FDR’s Waterloo?  What is an Executive Order and how are they used?  How has the concept of Executive Power changed?  A President’s Day conversation with Bob Crawford and Ben Sawyer from ‘The Road to Now’ Podcast.  Love talking to these guys. (Now, the interview starts with a […]

The 1969 occupation of the former federal prison by Native American activists was the beginning of a movement and a shift in perception that lives on today. http://www.myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.com/alcatraz.mp3 We discuss: Why Alcatraz? The 1973 Standoff at Wounded Knee,  South Dakota Vine Deloria and “Custer Died for Your Sins” NoDAPL as Part of an Arc of […]

George Washington is a distant figure.  Sometimes, because of the distance in time, he appears too ancient to influence America’s debates today.  But he was a real person, and he was involved in politics and dealt with partisanship.  He also left behind instructions for future generations. Daily Beast.com Editor-in-Chief, CNN Political Analyst John Avlon joins […]

Not everyone can be an FDR, but everyone tries. A look at the American tradition of 100 days – the period in which the President, supposedly, must get everything done.  A White House mastering it, and another White House, besieged by the press, not mastering it.  A professor turned politician driving Congress in a forgotten fight. […]