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By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. In understanding what makes Donald Trump and his MAGA movement unique, I would argue it is both their incitement to violence and their dehumanization of opponents. That rhetoric echoes fascist tradition that sees...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Back in November, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a new code of conduct. The announcement came in response to mounting criticism of the unethical behavior of certain justices, particularly Clarence Thomas. His...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. The stories about corruption at the U.S. Supreme Court keep mushrooming. We first heard about Justice Clarence Thomas accepting expensive gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow that Thomas never reported. After Thomas...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Although this association has rarely been made, the similarities between the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement are marked. Both movements have preached the centrality of...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. While the great battle against fascism in World War II was fought in Europe, there was also a fight against fascism inside the United States in the 1930s-1940s. There is little recollection now that there was a...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. The sedition convictions of Oath Keepers’ leaders, Elmer Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, returned focus to the events of January 6. While the January 6 Committee has done an excellent job ferreting out facts, there...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. When I was growing up, my family belonged to Main Line Reform Temple, a reform Jewish congregation in the Philadelphia suburbs. I was bar mitzvahed and confirmed there. For about ten years, I regularly attended...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Going as far back as the Richard Nixon presidency, the Republican Party has played the law and order card, arguing that they are the party that will keep Americans safe from crime and disorder. Of course, Nixon was...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Around seven years ago, I started raising the question of whether Donald Trump and the MAGA movement he led were fascist. Numerous academics and mainstream journalists pooh-poohed that characterization as imprecise...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. I think it is fair to say that fear of immigrants in the United States is out-of-control. And it’s not just in the United States. Fascist and far-right politicians have persuaded citizens in many countries that the...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. With mass shootings practically a daily event, defenders of unrestricted gun owner rights typically invoke the mantra of the Second Amendment. Attention is rarely paid though to the historical circumstances...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. The Democrats are facing a scary mid-term election. Parties in power typically lose ground in the mid-terms. Add high gas prices and inflation to the mix, issues where voters often blame office-holders, and...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.You might think that if some political partisans had a plan to steal a presidential election, it would be kept top secret. That is not the case with the Republican Party. Their plan to steal the 2024 presidential...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Among truly great Americans, I would bet Thaddeus Stevens might be the least well known. An extremely controversial figure in his lifetime, Stevens was a leading light of the abolitionist movement both before and immediately after the Civil...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently compared the abortion rights debate to the struggle to end slavery. Speaking at Colorado Christian University on Jan. 22, she said: “Lincoln contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

In studying the history of Italian and German fascism in the 1930s, it is fair to say that the world was not adequately warned about the danger. To a shocking extent, the American press of that era whitewashed and minimized the fascist threat. This...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Mass shootings have become institutionalized as an almost normal part of American life, as have the responses to such shootings. After each massacre, victims, their families and gun-control advocates bemoan the latest atrocity and call for background...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

How does a corrupt, high-ranking government official, who is under criminal investigation, maintain his grip on power? On TV, I saw Roger Stone describe the game plan: “Admit nothing, deny everything and counterattack.”Stone was not the first in...

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Back on Feb. 16, the New Hampshire Bar Association held its annual mid-year meeting. This year the program was a little different. Instead of the usual continuing legal education event, the bar brought in two historians, Anne O’Rourke and Willliam...