A politician who wields a comeback with skill can use it as both a bludgeon and a shield, damaging the opponent without hurting their own popularity with voters.
Jerry Falwell Jr., right, during commencement ceremonies at Liberty University in May 2017.
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Richard Flory, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The appeal of Jerry Falwell Jr., who resigned as president of Liberty University following a sex scandal, came from his family legacy. His late father, Jerry Falwell Sr., wielded enormous influence.
People practice social distancing by standing apart during a news conference in Washington D.C.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
As the coronavirus spreads far and wide, a political philosopher argues that it is a time to understand that the idea of individual happiness does not work without thinking of the larger good.
Thousands of Armenian-Americans gather to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Los Angeles, California on April 24, 2018.
Ronen Tivony/Nur via Getty Images
As Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is marked around the globe, a historian examines the little-known players in the long-running fight in the US Congress to pass a bill acknowledging the Genocide.
Qasem Soleimani pictured in 2018.
EPA/EPA-EFE/Iranian Supreme Leader's Office
Self-deprecating humor can be a savvy campaign strategy – but only for certain candidates.
Honduran migrant Vicky Chavez with her daughter Issabella on May 31, 2018 in the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, where she sought protection from deportation in late 2017.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Mario Garcia, University of California, Santa Barbara
The number of migrants living in churches has spiked recently in anticipation of threatened immigration raids, but churches have long protected refugees in an act of faith-based civil disobedience.
The U.K.’s Tony Blair, left, campaigned on ‘modernizing’ the welfare system. Bill Clinton, right, campaigned on reducing welfare in the U.S.
REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Democratic presidential candidates share many ideas and opinions. What they don’t share, writes one historian, is the label ‘liberal.’
President Jimmy Carter, right, surrounded by journalists after announcing he was lifting the travel ban on Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea and Cambodia, March 9, 1977.
AP Photo/file
Both presidents brought border traffic and trade to a standstill in hopes of changing Mexican policy in the drug war. And both failed to achieve their goals.
More Americans agree with plans to raise taxes on the wealthy.
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Calvin Coolidge, during one stretch of his presidency, was getting 15 hours of shut-eye each day, while William Howard Taft was known for nodding off during public events.
On January 18, 1919 the Great Powers met for the opening of the Versailles Conference.
US Signal Corps
The Versailles Conference set up the ill-fated League of Nations. We must not allow the United Nations to suffer the same fate.
Salvadoran immigrants were pivotal in the Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles in 1990. It earned wage increases for custodial staff nationwide and inspired today’s $15 minimum wage campaign.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Central Americans who came to the US in the 1980s fleeing civil war drew on their background fighting for social justice back home to help unionize farmworkers, janitors and poultry packers in the US.
Reagan: conservatism with a different face.
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If you want to understand the new face of conservatism in the US, there’s only one place to look.
GOP President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill at the April, 1983 signing of bipartisan social security legislation.
AP/Barry Thumma
Most Congresses since the 1970s have passed more than 500 laws, ranging from nuclear disarmament to deficit reduction. Will today’s bitter partisanship hamstring the new Congress’ productivity?
President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Mark Reinstein/www.shutterstock.com
Though his education initiative staggered while he was in office, the late former President George H.W. Bush had an influence that continues to shape education policy, an education historian says.
President Trump says an alliance with Saudi Arabia is necessary, despite evidence the country’s crown prince ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.