The Rise and Fall of the Republican Party's Systematic Voter Intimidation Program

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Operation Eagle Eye was set up to restore public confidence in the voting process. The man who created and ran it, Ronald Reagan, went on to run the whole country. William Wrenquist's role in creating the modern Republican Party's voter intimidation program was not a secret. It was subject of a panel of witnesses at his confirmation hearing.

Republicans claim the election was stolen. They use those claims to justify suppressing people’s right to vote. All of it happening amid a national reckoning on race. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson tell the story of a time uncannily similar to our own – in the early 1960s. And how it’s both a parallel to our present moment and the origin of conflicts playing out today.

Featuring Guests:

Rick Perlstein, historian, author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

Sherrilyn Ifill, Vernon Jordan Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University and former President and Director-Counsel of LDF.

Jim Brosnahan, lawyer and author of Justice At Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases