I believe politics is a team sport. That, for awful and unfortunate reasons beyond any of our control, the American system only… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
“But honesty was a dull blade to take into a knife fight with Richard Nixon — who was simply willing to lie.” — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
It takes two things to make a political lie work: a powerful person or institution willing to utter it, and another set… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
In American religious history, theological qualms tend to get pushed aside when politics intervenes. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I think that all politicians who aspire to the presidency are a little nuts, but for different reasons. What kind of person… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
When the 2008 victory of Barack Obama and the defeat of grumpy old John McCain began looking, um, inevitable, I started fielding… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
It is a lesson of the sixties: liberals get in the biggest political trouble - whether instituting open housing, civilian compliant review… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Ronald Reagan knew audiences. It was a key element of his political genius. One of the things at which brilliant politicians are… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
My politics of optimism and hope still casts its lot with the Democrats - in the optimistic hope that the dying embers… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Here is a truism about the psychology of politicians: there is almost nothing so soul-definingly traumatic for them as losing an election.… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
There are two strategies available in a partisan political environment for communities working for justice. You can join the Democratic Party -… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, given the rules of the American political game, people who try to participate by self-righteously refusing to identify with one or… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
Racial rhetoric has been entwined with government from the start, all the way back to when the enemy was not Obamacare but… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
“King had marched six weeks earlier through the Mississippi town where the civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner were murdered. He… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
“Nixon has been the subject of more psychobiographies than any other politician. His career vindicates one of that maligned genre's most trustworthy… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
“It is a lesson of the sixties: liberals get in the biggest political trouble—whether instituting open housing, civilian complaint review boards, or… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share Image
I love trade magazines - any trade's magazine: by entering into what is taken for granted in a world not your own, you better… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
When the 2008 victory of Barack Obama and the defeat of grumpy old John McCain began looking, um, inevitable, I started fielding inquiries about… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Watergate got us to think of leaders as mere mortals. America began to think of itself in a very different way - I would… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Part of the fantasy certain pro-reform Republicans like to broadcast about Hispanics, family-oriented, churchgoing traditionalists, is that they are somehow natural conservatives, just waiting… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
The history of American higher education over the twentieth century is an extraordinary one, the story of the creation of a powerhouse set of… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
The only times during my religious instruction I remember hearing God's name invoked with any sincere conviction at all was in the oft-repeated and… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year's defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Computers have cut-and-paste functions. So does right-wing historical memory. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Empirical debunking cannot reach the deepest fear of the reactionary mind, which is that the state - that devouring leviathan - will soon swallow… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
I think that all politicians who aspire to the presidency are a little nuts, but for different reasons. What kind of person aspires to… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Chicago's privatization mania began during Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration, which ran from 1989 to 2011. Under his successor, Rahm Emanuel, the trend has… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
One thing Republicans understand: In American elections, you have to choose from among only two people - not between the perfect and the good. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Social conservatism, business conservatism: the one side constitutes the other, like some infernal Mobius strip. — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
Sometimes I like to think that the responsibility of every new generation of Democrats is to devise a program that mints new Democrats for… — Rick Perlstein Copy Share
