Delegates after Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/via Getty
Political conventions used to pick presidential nominees in private. Now the public picks the nominee and then the party has a big party at the convention, writes a scholar of US elections.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after he visited outside St. John’s Church across from the White House on June 1, 2020, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The Insurrection Act of 1807 was not intended to be a national call to war against the American people.
United States Postal Service mail carrier Frank Colon, 59, departs on his delivery route at the Remcon Circle Post Office amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 30, 2020 in El Paso, Texas.
PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images
The United States Postal Service plays a vital role in US civic life, one that helped shape American society more than 250 years ago and continues to characterize it today.
George Washington would have thought wearing a mask was manly.
National Portrait Gallery, Gilbert Stuart portrait/A. Papolu, illustration
A biographer of George Washington says that the father of the country would have no problem wearing the kind of protective gear that President Trump shuns.
Despite voter dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic parties, they are likely to persist.
Shutterstock/Victor Moussa
Despite the fact that only 38% of Americans say they think the Democratic and Republican parties are doing ‘an adequate job,’ they’re unlikely to disappear.
On Jan. 3, 2012, voters sign in on caucus night at Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa.
AP/Evan Vucci
How did a small, rural state become so influential in the presidential nominating process? A political scientist traces the development of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus.
‘Washington Crossing the Delaware,’ by Emanuel Leutze.
Emanuel Leutze/Wikimedia Commons
George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 led to victory, but his troops were bound to suffer from terrible weather, which led to more casualties than the battle.
The U.S. Capitol, where the vote to impeach President Trump is expected to take place.
AP/J. Scott Applewhite
The impeachment vote is the latest, and most extreme, example of a power struggle between the executive branch and Congress that has existed since George Washington was president.
Christmas tours to mansions often present a ‘magical’ experience to tourists, but they ignore the realities of the lives of slaves who worked there.
Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau/Flickr
Fictional accounts of white Southerners make it seem like it was fun to be a slave on a plantation at holiday time. Many of today’s tours repeat such stories.
Congress and President Trump are engaged in a power struggle that historically has been avoided by the courts.
AP/J. Scott Applewhite
President Trump refuses to provide information to lawmakers in the impeachment inquiry. But courts have been reluctant to take such cases for fear of upsetting the government’s balance of power.
An impeachment inquiry was launched about President Trump’s dealings with the Ukraine on Tuesday.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The conflict between Congress and President Trump over his dealings with Ukraine’s president is just the latest version of a long-running struggle for power between the two branches of government.
George Washington faced many challenges regarding his teeth.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
As we celebrate the nation’s founding, it’s a good time to note the heroism of George Washington. The British were a pain, to be sure, but what really caused him trouble were his teeth.
One of the objectionable panels depicts a dead Native American.
Dick Evans
‘The Life of Washington’ was painted in the 1930s by an artist who sought to upend a rosy narrative of US history. Now some are saying its images ‘traumatize’ viewers – and ought to be taken down.
How partisans argue tells a lot about how the public sees democracy.
Shutterstock
US history is filled with instances where one partisan side charges that the other side’s positions will lead to national ruin. Now, both sides accuse the other of betraying their country.
What virtues must a president have?
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Presidents Day celebrates the American president – not only as a political leader, but as a moral leader. But can a president be a person of strong moral character, as well as a strong leader?
Letter from President Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
AP/Wayne Partlow
After the recent government shutdown and breakdowns in functioning within all three branches, it looks like the separation of powers system is broken or unbalanced. It is – and it isn’t.
Global Scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC and Hopkins P Breazeale Professor, Manship School of Mass Communications, Louisiana State University
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State