Landslide

Jul 03 2024 12 ep. 551

Landslide Podcast artwork

In the mid-1970s, the Republican Party looked on the verge of self-destruction. Until 1976. A political earthquake: A cutthroat, razor-close, deeply personal battle for the Republican nomination, and the party's identity. It resurrected the GOP, remade it as a conservative party, and pulled the country sharply to the right. Landslide is the story of the closest presidential primary race in American history, what followed, and how it reshaped the political parties — opening the partisan rifts that divide us today. Hosted by award-winning public radio journalist Ben Bradford.

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The Exoneration of Richard Nixon

Jul 03 2024 21 mins

If the new Supreme Court decision, Trump v. U.S., had applied back in 1974, could President Richard Nixon have been prosecuted for Watergate? Or, would this decision shield Nixon from criminal charges? In this special bonus episode of Landslide, host Ben Bradford explores the scope of the new ruling by looking back at the case against Nixon, the charges he looked likely to face wit

When Money Became Speech

May 02 2024 17 mins

After Watergate, both parties cracked down on political spending with a new, strict campaign finance law. But instead of money in politics shrinking, it exploded. In this bonus episode, historian Marc C. Johnson joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to talk about what happened, the legal saga that threw open the doors to spending by outside groups, and how it radically changed not just

New Right TV

Apr 25 2024 24 mins

Before Fox News, the grassroots conservative activists known as "the New Right" spent decades attempting — and failing — to launch their own television news channel. In this bonus episode, Purdue historian Kathryn Cramer Brownell chronicles the New Right's TV efforts, why they failed, and how it all ultimately culminated in a stunning success — the creation of today's media e

Making Abortion Partisan

Apr 18 2024 21 mins

Even in the years after Roe vs. Wade, the issue of abortion did not divide the political parties — or most Americans. But as Reagan, the New Right, and the Christian Right took control in the Republican Party, they saw its potential to galvanize voters. In this bonus episode, legal historian Mary Ziegler joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to trace how abortion transformed from a m

Landslide

Apr 04 2024 51 mins

Four years later. Jimmy Carter is now an embattled president, unpopular and facing a tough primary challenge. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan storms to the Republican nomination, while wooing a powerful new bloc of voters into his conservative coalition — the Christian Right. Still, amid worries that Reagan is too extreme and too old, the 1980 general election remains tight until the ve

Outsider

Mar 28 2024 37 mins

Bruised after the primaries, the unpopular Ford looks headed for a blowout defeat in the 1976 general election. But his campaign adopts a clever strategy, and Carter struggles in the spotlight as the frontrunner. Gaffes, attack ads, Playboy magazine, and a new institution — a series of presidential debates — build to a razor-close election. It marks a turning point for the type

Ordinary Man

Mar 21 2024 41 mins

An unexpected contender ambushes the Democratic field. The one-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter has planned a campaign of military precision for the Democratic nomination. With a wide grin, cold blood, and a dose of luck, he rises from unknown to the 1976 nomination. But he leaves questions in his wake, even as he establishes a new paradigm for Democratic presidential candidates:

Shootout

Mar 14 2024 39 mins

With the primaries over, the nomination hangs in the hands of a few remaining "unbound" delegates. Ford and Reagan scramble to win them over, as the battle to lead the Republican Party — and to decide its direction — comes down to a national convention known as the Shoot-Out in Kansas City. There, a series of gambits, promises, and betrayals culminates with a nominee, a conserv

The New Right

Mar 07 2024 41 mins

The 1976 Republican primary looks finished. After a string of losses to Ford, Reagan's aides prepare to concede. But a network of right-wing groups has quietly organized, drumming up anger over integration, women's rights, gun laws, and textbooks. It is known as the New Right, and it will help spring an improbable comeback that will change the battle lines of American politics.Lear

Lightweight

Feb 29 2024 42 mins

The idea that Ronald Reagan can win is laughable. "Suicidal," writes the New York Times. Too extreme, too gaffe-prone, too unserious a candidate, the faded former actor has no chance to unseat the sitting president in the primaries — and if he does it will signal the end of the Republican Party. But Reagan seizes a message that entwines optimism and culture war, the power of whic