Colin Woodard is the author of six books, including Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, American Nations: The History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, and American Character: The Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good.
The G.O.P’s Yankee Problem
A remarkable thing happened last Tuesday. The Republican Party was virtually extinguished from the land of its birth. I’m speaking of Yankeedom, a great swath of the country from Maine to Minnesota that was effectively colonized by New England Puritans and their descendants. This cultural region – one of eleven that make up our continent… Read more »
Romney, Dixie, and the Future of the Electoral College
As election day quickly – nay, mercifully – approaches, commentators have been contemplating the possibility that Barack Obama might win the election while losing the popular vote, and fact that this would be due to the president’s marked shortage of supporters in “the South”. Ironically, if this should happen it might well give the Electoral… Read more »
Who is the Future U.S. Senator from Maine?
Last February, my home state of Maine was thrust into the national political spotlight by US Senator Olympia Snowe’s sudden and surprising announcement that she was abandoning her reelection bid. Democrats saw an opportunity to flip a seat long held by moderate Republicans, while the state’s Tea Party crowd salivated at the chance to put… Read more »
Marc Thiessen stretches to claim “Maine is not lost” to GOP Senate hopeful
Washington Post opinion writer Marc Thiessen raised plenty of eyebrows here in Maine recently with his claim that “Maine is not lost” to the Republican U.S. Senate caucus. GOP nominee Charlie Summers, Maine’s Secretary of State, is showing signs of life, Thiessen claimed, gaining rapidly in the polls thanks to a negative advertising blitz by… Read more »
Sen. Collins Marries Friend, Mentor
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) got married for the first time this weekend in her hometown of Caribou, Maine to political consultant Thomas A Daffron III in a small private ceremony. It’s her first marriage, his second. As my recent profile of the groom reveals, Collins, 59, and Daffron, 73, have known each other for a… Read more »
