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Scott Porch is a contributing writer for The Daily Beast on books and politics. He is also a podcast producer for Starburns Audio and a contributing writer for Decider.

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The Americans Who Give Nationalism a Dirty Name

way past dog whistles

Sometimes they’re white nationalists, sometimes Christian nationalists, but as sociologist Samuel Perry says, “It’s complicated, but it’s essentially an ethnic identity.”

Scott Porch | Published Nov 06, 2022

Trump Turns the Georgia Primary Into His Personal Vendetta

POLITICS AS PAYBACK

“I think Georgia is the biggest test for Donald Trump’s influence in the entire nation,” says political reporter Greg Bluestein.

Scott Porch | Published May 18, 2022

Louis Menand Dynamites the Cliche of the Sleepy Fifties

dig deeper

The Pulitzer-winning historian spent a decade researching and writing “The Free World,” a reexamination of Cold War America that turns a lot of old assumptions inside out.

Scott Porch | Published Oct 01, 2021

How to Tackle a Bullying, Alcoholic, Racist Named Hemingway

CANON FODDER

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick portray an insecure, vain, depressed, unfaithful, visionary modernist in PBS’s “Hemingway”, and reframe his complicated place in the literary canon.

Scott Porch | Published Apr 04, 2021

Kill the Senate Filibuster or Watch Biden’s Agenda Die

Bye Bye Bipartisanship

Don’t count on a sudden wave of bipartisanship, says former Senate aide Adam Jentleson.

Scott Porch | Published Jan 10, 2021

The Constitution Has Always Been a Construction Zone

WORK IN PROGRESS

One of the smartest things Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison put into the Constitution was a way to fix it, says journalist and historian Thomas E. Ricks.

Scott Porch | Published Dec 13, 2020

Blame Comey First and Last for Trump Taking the White House

GAME CHANGER

Think 2020 has been crazy? Read “October Surprise,” in which reporter Devlin Barrett traces the FBI’s cascade of missteps that led to the surprise election of Donald Trump.

Scott Porch | Published Oct 26, 2020

 The Year the GOP Lost to Carter and Embraced the Dark Side

DIXIE FRIED

In Rick Perlstein’s "Reaganland," Jimmy Carter beat the Republicans’ Southern Strategy in 1976 but got overwhelmed by it in 1980. What happened in between?

Scott Porch | Published Sep 20, 2020

Ezra Klein: The Real Reason U.S. Politics Is So Broken

UNRIG THE SYSTEM

The Vox founder argues in a new book that political polarization is real—but not the problem we think it is.

Scott Porch | Published Mar 01, 2020

Will Obama Voters Who Switched to Trump Switch Back in 2020?

CHANGE UP?

Podcast host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau goes to Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, and Arizona and talks to Obama voters who strayed from Democrats in 2020.

Scott Porch | Published Jan 31, 2020

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