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America’s first president, George Washington, warned the country in his 1796 Farewell Address against the “the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.” For Washington, writes historian Maurizio Valsania, “finding ways to moderate ‘the fury of party spirit’ was pivotal to the survival of the entire nation.”
Valsania, a professor at the University of Turin who works in the U.S., was reminded of the founders’ antipathy toward political parties – which they saw as factions – as he watched President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Lawmakers from one party applauded while lawmakers from the other party booed or sat on their hands. Valsania wondered: Did early America’s leaders predict today’s politics, where political parties seem to be vehicles of tribalism and obstruction rather than vehicles to achieve the public good?
Like a modern-day Alexis de Tocqueville, Valsania, a European, brings the fresh perspective of a foreigner to the many stories he has written for The Conversation about the early American republic and the men who shaped it. This Presidents Day, we bring you his account of what those early Americans thought about political parties, with the implied question in all of Valsania’s stories: What does this mean for Americans today?
On Saturday, the Carter Center announced former President Jimmy Carter, aged 98, had entered hospice care. Historian Robert C. Donnelly provides a fresh analysis of the 39th president’s Cold War strategy to weaken the former Soviet Union through his focus on human rights.
Also today:
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Naomi Schalit
Democracy Editor
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During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, many Congressional Democrats stood and clapped, but the GOP did not.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino
Americans are not the first to fret over the potential harm that parties can inflict. But parties can also promote the common interest.
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Education
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Elena G. van Stee, University of Pennsylvania
The pandemic put a spotlight on inequalities among college students. But students’ resources were unequal all along.
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Politics + Society
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Robert C. Donnelly, Gonzaga University
President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy efforts may have been far more effective than critics have claimed.
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George R. Goethals, University of Richmond
Historians change their views of presidents over time, often because of the country’s changing views on race and moral leadership.
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Nichola D. Gutgold, Penn State
On Presidents Day, a women in politics scholar examines the meaning, and sometimes outsized focus, on first ladies’ fashion choices.
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Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University
Disaster-hit Turkey is due to stage a presidential vote in June. Erdoğan’s handling of the earthquake response – and his role in the country’s perceived lack of preparedness – may be his undoing.
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Adam Seagrave, Arizona State University
President Lincoln was a statesman. John Brown was a radical. That’s the traditional view of how each one fought slavery, but it fails to capture the full measure of their devotion.
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Science + Technology
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Linda Charmaraman, Wellesley College; J. Maya Hernandez, University of California, Irvine
Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous teens have different online experiences – both positive and negative – than their white peers. These differences are overlooked when research focuses on white kids.
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Kenneth Noll, University of Connecticut
Fossil evidence of how the earliest life on Earth came to be is hard to come by. But scientists have come up with a few theories based on the microbes, viruses and prions existing today.
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Ethics + Religion
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Michael Blake, University of Washington
A political philosopher argues that while all American presidents may lie, those who appear to lie for the public good are often celebrated.
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