Mother Jones - November/December 2024

In this issue

Mother Jones reporter Kiera Butler reveals how Christian nationalists plan to take over government at all levels, and investigates the online preachers who want to repeal the 19th Amendment, restore public flogging, and make America white again. In his eye-opening insider account, "Losing Faith," the Reverend Rob Schenck explains how he ran a secretive influence operation to get the Supreme Court to adopt an evangelical agenda. Unfortunately, he says, it worked. Reporter Isabela Dias spotlights a bureaucrat who could make Trump’s authoritarian dreams come true. Plus, Ari Berman, Mother Jones' national voting rights correspondent, shows how ballot measures could be democracy’s last line of defense. And reporter Pema Levy explores how the 5th Circuit is driving America to the right.

Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.

One of the most oft-quoted sentences ever penned by a philosopher is George Santayana’s observation that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 2024, this aphorism is practically a campaign slogan. Donald Trump, seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after being voted out of the job, has waged war on remembrance. In fact, he’s depending on tens of millions of voters forgetting the recent past. This election is an experiment in how powerful a memory hole can be.

6 mins

Kill the Messenger - The anti-disinformation field is retreating under attack.

A few months ago, a man crawling along a rooftop in Pennsylvania tried to murder Donald Trump at a campaign rally. Hours later, press releases started to circulate, from analysts, think tanks, politicians, and pundits, all offering to cut through the swell of confusion and misinformation.

6 mins

In the Name of the Mother - How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender

Shyamala Gopalan Harris did not believe in coddling. Pay her daughters, Kamala and Maya, an allowance for doing chores? “If you do the dishes, you should get two dollars,” scoffed the woman who this past summer, almost two decades after we spoke, would launch a million coconut memes. “You ate from the damn dishes!” Reward the future vice president of the United States—and possible future president—for good grades? Ridiculous. “What does that tell you?” her mother chided. “It says, ‘You know, I really thought you were stupid. Oh, you surprised Mommy!’ No.”

7 mins

GOD'S COUNTRY

These Christian nationalists have a plan to take over Americafrom small towns to the highest court in the land.

10+ mins

Losing Faith

As an evangelical leader, I enticed lawmakers and federal judges to adopt a conservative Christian agenda. Donald Trump’s rise proved how wrong I was.

10+ mins

THE ARCHITECT

TRUMP WANTS TO BE KING. RUSS VOUGHT HAS A PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

10+ mins

Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.

Imagine obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage.

10+ mins

BAD HABITS

A spate of recent horror movies recycle tired tropes about nuns-and reveal society's ongoing discomfort with independent women.

9 mins

Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making

When President Joe Biden took office, Democrats held a slim majority in the House of Representatives and a single-vote edge in the Senate. Despite the monumental odds, he has presided over the most productive presidential term for climate action in American history. Under Biden’s direction, the federal government took up the arduous task of incorporating climate considerations into scores of administrative operations and procedures. The epa cracked down on superpollutants and issued stricter emissions regulations for passenger vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending bill Congress has ever passed, brings the nation closer to its goal of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2030.

5 mins

WHEN IN DROUGHT

This obscure yet adaptable grain could be a healthy staple for a warming planet.

3 mins

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Mother Jones is a nonprofit news outlet that delivers bold and original award-winning reporting on the urgent issues of our day, from politics and climate change to education and the food we eat. We investigate stories that are in the public and the nation's interest. From revelatory scoops to deep-dive investigations, Mother Jones journalism is storytelling that informs and inspires 9 million monthly readers.

We are headquartered in San Francisco and have bureaus in Washington, DC, and New York City. Mother Jones has been nominated for more than 30 National Magazine Awards and has won seven times, including for General Excellence in 2001, 2008, and 2010. In addition, Mother Jones has been recognized repeatedly with top industry honors, including two National Press Club Awards, three Online News Association Awards, and the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award two years in a row. Mother Jones has also been named a finalist for eight Data Journalism Awards.