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Kevin M. Kruse Profile picture
Kevin M. Kruse
@KevinMKruse
No longer posting here. Try the same handle on Substack, Bluesky & Threads. Didn’t pay for a blue check. CAMPAIGN TRAILS newsletter: https://t.co/B5Q3HztuHd
285 subscribers
Oct 10, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Well, I think my time here is done. This site has gotten steadily worse with every "improvement" Elon has made, but this weekend made it clear that it's no longer a place to get and discuss breaking news.
Sep 23, 2023 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
There's no better way to announce that you've read literally nothing on the party realignment over civil rights than to ask about congressional delegations.

That's not how realignment happened, and anyone pushing this "rebuttal" is either an idiot or a liar.

But let's dig in! Again, as I've discussed many times before, the power of sitting congressmen depended entirely on their seniority in the Democratic Party, which held dominant majorities in Congress. That's why they're the lagging indicator in this process.
Sep 13, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
@CheesedHammer @ericjorgenson8 @flakingbaking @quiltsbypagan @Katb4animals @RickLaManna1 @RepJasonCrow I'm a historian who's worked on this for 25 years, so I could point you to a lot of my published work, starting with my chapter in MYTH AMERICA:

hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kevin-m… @CheesedHammer @ericjorgenson8 @flakingbaking @quiltsbypagan @Katb4animals @RickLaManna1 @RepJasonCrow But I'm happy to provide some primary sources as well.

Here's some news coverage of Prentiss Walker, the segregationist Republican whose first appearance after winning the election was to speak before Americans for Preservation of the White Race: Image
Aug 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This strikes me as a fair diagnosis of a problem, but a wholly impractical solution. The problem of historical falsehoods that get repeated in the literature is certainly real.

We all have our own stories of learning this the hard way, I'd imagine.
Aug 10, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The House GOP has been riling up its base by repeatedly insisting it has the goods to get Joe Biden.

This works fine in the short term, but repeatedly overpromising and underdelivering is only going to make the base mad at them, more than anyone else. You can see this with today's tweets from the Oversight Committee.

It's framed as a huge hit on Biden but once you read it, it's clear the "Biden FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES" framing is a load-bearing beam.

It's a showy announcement meant to suggest much more than is actually there.
Jul 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Any discussion of Florida's effort to replace the original AP standards for African American history with the state's own version should directly compare and contrast the two.

Here's the AP:

Here's Florida: https://t.co/Ygf0RWsNBYapcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-a…
fldoe.org/core/fileparse… One thing is readily apparent from even a quick comparison between the two standards -- the claims that Florida's standards are "robust" quickly fall apart when you line them up next to the much more substantial program the AP has put together with specific sources and plans.
Apr 21, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Again, this whole thread is just amazing.

Among those who “alleged” Nixon sought to woo southern racists were Republican strategists like Kevin Phillips and Lee Atwater, and RNC Chairmen like Ken Mehlman and Michael Steele who apologized for it. Here’s Kevin Phillips in 1970 talking on the record to the NYT about how Republicans would win over the “Negrophobe” southern whites who voted for Wallace in 1968. (They did!)
Apr 21, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This whole thread shows how people who don't understand this history can get things wildly wrong.

The Democratic senators he references here were all longtime conservative segregationists. Their elections *confirm* the charges against Nixon instead of refute them.

Let's look: Arkansas Democrat John McClellan: signer of the Southern Manifesto who attacked Eisenhower for sending troops to Little Rock and called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the "Discrimination Act of 1964."

In 1972, the American Conservative Union gave him an 80% conservative rating.
Mar 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Look, all @johnthune wants is to wait until there’s a week without a mass shooting here and *as soon as that happens* he’s totally willing to talk about gun reform. Let me just look at the list of mass shootings this year and maybe I can find a window for @johnthune …

Oh wow. Huh.
Mar 19, 2023 • 10 tweets • 1 min read
Diaperman President Underpants
Mar 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Mar 3, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
(wipes tear) It’s so beautiful Image I’m just so damn happy Image
Feb 17, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Well, shit Status report:

Still weak and feverish. Following the good advice here to sleep and hydrate. Crashed for 12 hours last night. Might need to Google “bed sores”
Jan 25, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
In my MYTH AMERICA chapter on the Southern Strategy, I mention this 1951 debate between two Republicans that unfolded in the pages of Collier’s Magazine.

The title gives the question: “Should the G.O.P. Merge with the Dixiecrats?” ImageImage Making the case for the merger — as he had been for years — was Sen. Karl Mundt, a conservative from South Dakota. ImageImageImage
Jan 11, 2023 • 20 tweets • 10 min read
With the good news that MYTH AMERICA is a New York Times Bestseller, I wanted to take a moment to thank each one of our amazing contributors and to urge you to read all their work.

A very important thread! Our first chapter is by our amazing Princeton colleague @DavidAvromBell, a French historian who bravely joined a bunch of Americanists for this project.

Check out his recent Men on Horseback, a terrific study of hero worship in the age of revolutions

us.macmillan.com/books/97803747…
Dec 29, 2022 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
@LoneVoiceorg @Mark_Wylie001 @OrdnancePackard You mean something like this? @LoneVoiceorg @Mark_Wylie001 @OrdnancePackard Or maybe the change in State party platforms like this?
Dec 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Are you going to talk about how they violated their own policies by repeatedly refusing to kick him off for violations of Twitter’s rules before the election or nah Twitter gives Trump a pass, 2017:

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Nov 30, 2022 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Every now and then, a past project and a new one collide in the absolute coolest ways.

A short thread: In my chapter on the Southern Strategy in MYTH AMERICA, there are a few appearances by the wonderfully named Wirt A. Yerger, Jr., who chaired the Mississippi GOP from 1956 to 1966, transforming it from a moderate and biracial party to one known as "lily white and hard right."
Nov 29, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Twitter's getting pretty glitchy tonight. Godspeed. The website in the last few minutes:
Nov 24, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This reminds me of a story an English friend told me about his First American Thanksgiving. This was the mid 90s, and Gareth — a friend of a friend — was taken by a friend to a big family Thanksgiving in South Carolina.

Huge family meal, somewhat formal, decidedly Old South.
Nov 23, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Wow, Japan. Gonda makes an amazing series of saves and then they get the equalizer. What a game. Amazing!