Novel Theories of History

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Over at In These Times, David Sirota advances a new theory of American history:

The birthing of the most famous political periods and the success of their transformative agendas almost always hinge on struggles between Radical Teabaggers and Establishment Douchebags. And typically, the teabaggers of a prior era have defined the next epoch’s politics.

The point that Sirota’s trying to get at is another riff on his familiar refrain—progressives need to embrace populism, or, as he puts it in this piece, “stop spending their time ridiculing teabaggery and start co-opting it through their own brand of full-throated populism.” But couching such an argument in the language of UrbanDictionary is a new twist. It’s definitely an attention-grabber.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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