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Stephen West

@stephenwest.bsky.social

7.9K followers 880 following 3.9K posts

Historian of Civil War & Reconstruction. Bicyclist, baker, 3d favorite human of Banjo the dog. Views=mine, repost ≠endorsement

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · Apr 16

"Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?"

W. E. B. Du Bois, "The Propaganda of History" 🗃️

Snip from Du Bois, "The propaganda of History" The closing chapter of black reconstruction in America

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 14h

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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SI: Museum of African American History (Bot) @simuseumafro.bsky.social · 17h

Flyer promoting the Citizenship Education Project https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2010.60.1.56.1

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 22h

This is a problem with so much legacy media raising journalists with underdeveloped personal morality, trained to seek “iDEoloGIcaL diVErsitY” and not right and wrong. Because this argument is stupid and puny, and any columnist who can’t call it out immediately is not a serious person.

Watch: 1/2

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

Wilson: Now, one of the things I want to do is say: I’m really glad that slavery’s gone, and good riddance. And I want to say that the Southern slave owner, who read the books of Ephesians and Colossians and 1 Timothy and treated his slaves decently, remembering that he had a master in heaven who he studiously tried to obey — what Paul said slave owners were supposed to do — I would say he was not an orc, and he is part of the reason why slavery ended. In other words, I would say he’s a good guy.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

Douthat: So that’s the first purpose of your political project, for America to stop making God angry.

Wilson: Yes. And most people think that when they are confronted with that project, they think that we want to get our tentacles into everything and start controlling everything. I actually think we need limited government. The government should be significantly smaller than it is, and we need to curtail a lot of the busybodyness that we have. That’s why I would call myself a theocratic libertarian. There is a true libertarian element in this, and yet, the transcendent grounding for what we’re talking about means that we acknowledge the authority of God.

We have racked up quite a body count of awful crimes, and I believe the only way out is for us to repent and turn to Christ. This would be things like no more Pride parades, no more drag queen story hours, no more abortion on demand, no more legalized same-sex unions — all of that, done. That’s the repentance part.

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Auditioning for the Smokey and the bandit remake

Photo of Jackie Gleason from Smokey and the Bandit, as Buford T Justice with a thin mustache l, sunglasses and brimmed hat

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

It was quite the discovery!

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 1d

Murray Rothbard famously said that his conservatism would “repeal the 20th century”, but these guys seem to be gunning for the 19th.

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

yeah

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

But you shouldn't be too surprised when they say stuff like this:

"You were better off being a Black person in Charleston, S.C., in 1850, when they had an operating slave market than being conceived as a Black baby in New York City or Baltimore today."

I don’t want to take any guidance at all from the secular society around us. And the reason I don’t is they killed 60 million babies. I don’t want to hear any more lectures from these people about slavery. You were better off being a Black person in Charleston, S.C., in 1850, when they had an operating slave market than being conceived as a Black baby in New York City or Baltimore today.

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, Doug Wilson, whom Ross Douthat thought worth an extended interview - see the 2d post

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Spending your time talking to someone who wants to relitigate slavery is definitely a choice you can make

Opinion | He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.

www.nytimes.com

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

The framers certainly designed the Senate to be counter-majoritarian.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that they did *not* require super majorities in the Senate to pass most legislation.

That's a parliamentary add-on that is making an already undemocratic institution thoroughly sclerotic.

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

"The super majority requirement is something that makes the Senate the Senate.... The filibuster protects. It's been a voice for the minority. It gives the minority a say in what happens in this country. The Founders created the Senate uniquely that way for that specific reason."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

These are decades-long movements that culminated in real constitutional change.

But they lost a lot, and for a long time, before they won.

Yes, the people have changed the Constitution before. They can do it again. But there's no telling how long it will take - or that success awaits at the end.

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Jordan Barab @jbarab.bsky.social · 2d

OSHA & MSHA finally get new leaders. Will that be a good thing for workers' safety and health? Probably not. But how bad will things get? Hard to tell. These are Trump times. jordanbarab.com/confinedspac...

OSHA & MSHA Get Leaders: A Good Thing? - Confined Space

The Senate has confirmed the new leaders of OSHA and MSHA. Will they follow the pattern of past Republican leaders or seek to kill their agencies?

jordanbarab.com

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

For a terrific exploration of one historical example, I highly recommend @katemasur.bsky.social's Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

Until Justice Be Done

Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History<br />Finalist for the 2022 Lincoln Prize<br />Winner of the American Historical Association's Littleton-Griswold Prize • Winner of the John Nau Book Pri...

wwnorton.com

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

This is all correct.

But of course the hard part is how to make it work - how to translate activism into constitutional change, and how activists craft their strategies with an eye to courts, parties, and elected officials.

Skeptics will say that changing the Constitution is unrealistic. History proves otherwise. From abolitionists to suffragists, from labor organizers to civil-rights activists, generations of Americans have transformed the Constitution through vision, struggle and persistence — without waiting for the Supreme Court’s permission. They did not begin with majority support either in the court or across the nation, yet through conviction and politics they reshaped public opinion and, ultimately, the law itself.

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John Carter Brown Library @jcblibrary.bsky.social · 1d

TONIGHT at the JCB!

The John Carter Brown Library is pleased to announce that it will host Dr. Colleen J. Shogan, 11th Archivist of the United States.

This hybrid (in-person/Zoom) event will take place at 5 p.m. on Friday, October 10, 2025.

Part of 2026 and Beyond at the JCB.

All are welcome!

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

"The combination of Mr. Trump’s authoritarian moves and the Supreme Court’s authorization of them has produced, for many, a deepening despair. But here is the essential fact: The Constitution’s meaning is not the Supreme Court’s alone to define. It belongs to 'we the people.' "

Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

www.nytimes.com

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 2d

pOPuliSm

Screenshot of New York times post

It shows a photo of Treasury secretary Scott Bessent in the oval Office, with a headline that reads"Big investors await a windfall from Trump's Argentina bailout"

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Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 2d

Archival Name of the Day is Lord Wellington Gentleman (that’s his first, middle, and surname), carpenter, of Boston.

Source: Boston Police Court Docket, 1835. 🗃️

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 3d

I had forgotten this bit about Noem, which indeed makes it awesomer

Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 3d

Trump (1) reveals he doesn't know what habeas corpus is and (2) punts to Noem, who famously revealed her own ignorance at a Senate hearing when she defined habeas corpus as "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."
www.npr.org/2025/05/20/n...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Q: Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending habeas corpus?

TRUMP: Suspending who?

Q: Habeas corpus

TRUMP: I don't know. I'd rather leave that to Kristi.

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 3d

Abe strokes chin furiously

Photograph of Donald Trump and others sitting around a large U-shaped table. On the wall behind Trump is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, chin in hand

The caption on the screen reads, "Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending habeas corpus to not only deal with the insurrectionists across the nation"

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