In today's weekend briefing. We are taking stock of this major moment
and political history this past week, former President Donald Trump
launched a third bid for the White House as he faces multiple federal
and state investigations. That's as Democrats I a generational shift
in House leadership. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was 82 years old announced
that she will not seek re election to leadership. Her heir apparent
New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries, is 52.
Beverly Gauge is here to help us put this all in perspective. She's
a professor of history and American studies at Yale University. It's
good to have you with us. So what's your assessment of this moment?
Having a twice impeached former president who tried to overturn an
election he lost running again for the White House, combined with
the rise of copycat candidates who endorse his antidemocratic tactics?
Well, we definitely haven't seen this one before in American history,
I can say that much official
Early as a historian, although the mere fact of running again is
not actually so strange in American history Before the 19 seventies,
we had lots of candidates who would lose run again as their party's
nomination.
Ah, try again and often lose again. We haven't seen that so much
since we went to a popular primary system in the 19 seventies. So
there are some precedents for what we've been seeing, but not too
many for the very particular person who is Donald Trump. Is there
anything in American history that can speak to this moment in GOP
politics?
Well, I think we're really seeing something like a war for the soul
of the GOP. At the moment, we have some pretty distinct factions
who are going to be presenting pretty distinct candidates. I think
in the GOP primary Trump, of course, being one of them. One of the
big outstanding questions is how many others there will be if the
rest of the Republican Party and particularly the Republican establishment,
which does not like Trump and does not want to see Trump win again.
Are going to come together around any particular candidate. It reminds
me a little bit of what happened in 1964 when there was a really
powerful faction behind Barry Goldwater as the conservative candidate.
Other lots of establishment Republicans who did not want him as the
candidate and there was a real floor fight, because that's how you
picked your presidential candidates in 1964 over what the future
of the party itself was going to be.
On the Democratic side. There is this, as we said, a generational
shift happening in house Democratic leadership. It strikes me that
institutional traditions can be a real impediment to a younger generation,
especially in a place like Congress were power is built on seniority
that takes years to accrue right At the moment. We have a whole generation
really, in some ways to generations of
Republican but Democratic, especially politicians that have been
waiting for their moment in the Sun. Pelosi stepping aside for the
Democrats is really going to make that kind of generational shift
possible. And as you say, there are lots of aspects of the way as
we structure our politics that tend to favor people who are older
people who stay in office longer, quite famously, The White South
when it was in the Democratic Party really consolidated its whole
Hold on the Senate in particular because it had so many members who
just went back year after year and term after term and ended up with
a lot of concentrated power. So this is a big moment for lots of
Democrats who have been waiting to play some some really major leadership
role.
President Biden as we have this conversation, he turns 80 today,
and there are some who are questioning how old is too old for him
to be running for re election. But Democrats don't exactly have a
generational star waiting in the wings to rocket to power. That does
seem to be the case. And it would be incredibly unusual not again
entirely unprecedented but extremely unusual for Biden, in fact,
to step aside after one term, we have a couple of examples.
As Harry Truman could have technically run again. Lyndon Johnson,
of course, stepped aside, but each of them had had more than one
term in the presidency because their predecessors had died in office.
So we don't have so many examples of people who are voluntary one
termers, and I'd be pretty surprised if Biden does that in the end.
Dr Beverly Gauge is a professor of history and American studies at
Yale University. So great to speak with you. Thanks for being with