Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode first aired in March 2021.
In his latest book, Tuesday Night Massacre: Four Senate Elections and the Radicalization of the Republican Party, Marc J. Johnson reexamines the defeat of four political incumbents in 1980. The turnover of these seats not only allowed Republicans to gain control of the Senate for the first time since 1954 but set the stage for the divisive partisanship that has become a constant feature of American politics.
Marc C. Johnson served as a top aide to Idaho’s longest-serving governor, Cecil D. Andrus. His writing on politics and history has been published in the New York Times and elsewhere, and he manages a blog and podcast called Many Things Considered. He last joined us in 2019 to talk about his previous book, Political Hell-Raiser: The Life & Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana.