The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

The latest Trump indictment led to another round of conservatives describing the United States as a “third world country” and a “banana republic.” At the same time, Al Sharpton questioned whether Republicans wanted “George III or the confederacy” for their continued support of Trump. American politics are historically stupid. The Untied States isn’t in danger of becoming a “banana republic.” The analogy doesn’t work. Nor …more

The new Florida K-12 history standards have upset the left. Kamala Harris recently suggested that teachers in Florida would be required to tell students that slavery benefited black Americans. Various historians immediately whined to the establishment media that this was an effort to “revise” the past, to minimize the institution of slavery, and, hilariously, to support white guilt. That last point illustrates how stupid these …more

In 2009, I wrote my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers as a way to bring attention to what I called the “greatest generation” of Americans. This doesn’t mean that Americans had forgotten the founding generation. Hardly. They were being discussed all the time. But I did have the sense that it was getting harder to talk about their accomplishments without bowing your head …more

I’ve talked about this issue many times on my Podcast. Americans are angry, so much so that we are seeing rhetorical conflict unmatched since the 1850s. At least we could define “woman.” Regardless, all of the hand wringing and angst over the current polarization of American politics misses one key ingredient: centralization of power. The culture war would not be an issue if we had …more

Did Jefferson Davis reply to the Emancipation Proclamation with a threat to enslave all blacks in America? That is what some historically challenged people on social media think. Their evidence is a broadside reportedly published in January 1863 by the Richmond Enquirer as “An Address to the People of the Free States by the President of the Southern Confederacy.” In other words, Jefferson Davis went …more

This isn’t a popular opinion, but the Supreme Court made a grave mistake in the recent decision striking down affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. I told a colleague the Court was just trimming around the edges. He disagreed. Let me explain. The Court used 14th Amendment incorporation to invalidate affirmative action admissions policies for Harvard and UNC. While many conservatives …more

Mark Levin is really bad at history. In one of his rants over the weekend, Levin took the time to promote his forthcoming book, The Democrat Party Hates America. Now, more most American conservatives, this is read meat. I agree with some of his assessment. But the devil is in the details. You see, Levin blames every “evil” in American history on Democrats while the …more

Could Trump’s indictment be good for the GOP in 2024? This is a bold assertion based on the belief that Trump will be forced to support whomever gets the nomination–if he doesn’t–because only a Republican president would dare pardon him. I don’t necessarily buy it. Trump doesn’t seem to be taking the entire matter seriously, and I’m not certain he would see any jail time …more

It seems every crisis in America is a “Constitutional crisis.” Why? Because Americans have forgotten–or have never been taught–about federalism. You see, one size fits all, top down government results in all of the political angst we have in the United States. It’s quite simple. The founding generation realized that Connecticut and South Carolina were never going to see eye to eye on a variety …more

According to a Ron DeSantis “rapid response” organizer, you can call yourself a Republican or a conservative if you are anti-Lincoln. I actually agree with the first part, but the second is just laughable. Ron DeSantis has been a very good governor in Florida, but as I have said many times, it would be better to have 50 Ron DeSantis governors than DeSantis as president. …more