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The Road to Now

#315 America's Most Violent Election w/ Dana Bash

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8629 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On the surface, the election of 1872 might seem insignificant in US history; Ulysses Grant easily won reelection to the White House and his Republican Party maintained their dominance in both houses of Congress. In the south, however, the violence that followed the election at the state and local level was an ominous sign that the era of Reconstruction might soon be over. And, according to Dana Bash and her co-author David Fischer, nowhere saw more violence than Louisiana.

In this episode, Dana joins Ben & Bob to discuss her new book America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History, and how the violence that followed the 1872 election in Louisiana – including the slaughter of 150 unarmed black Americans in the small town of Colfax – laid the foundation for the restoration of white supremacy in the south.

Dana Bash is chief political correspondent at CNN, where she also anchors Inside Politics and co-anchors State of the Union alongside Jake Tapper.

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Ben Sawyer and this is The Road to Now.

0:08.0

Today our guest is Dan Abash. You might know her as Chief Political Correspondent at CNN,

0:14.0

where she also anchors inside politics and co-anchors State of the Union alongside Jake Tapper.

0:19.0

You might also know her as one of the co-moderators

0:21.6

for the Trump Biden debate this year, but we know her best at the roads now. For this new book

0:27.1

that she co-author with David Fisher, it's called America's Deadliest Election, the cautionary tale

0:31.9

of the most violent election in American history. It tells the story of the 1872 election in Louisiana and the violent

0:39.3

aftermath and really makes the case that this lays the foundation for the restoration of white

0:44.6

supremacy in the South. It captures the bigger picture of American politics, what's going on

0:49.4

at the federal level. The insane corruption at almost every level of politics, it is certainly not a feel-good

0:57.1

story. It is one of these moments where you're staring into the darkness, but you understand

1:01.6

our history better when you understand these stories. I have to say, I feel better knowing that

1:07.7

someone like Dana who has this really large status, she's well respected,

1:12.4

and it makes me feel better to know that someone like her knows this history, has taken the time

1:17.3

to dig in, because as we've talked about on this show before, it's really hard to understand

1:21.7

this country if you're unwilling to stare into the darkness. So I hope you guys enjoy this.

1:26.7

Before we go on, first of all, shout out to our

1:29.4

patrons. You guys make the show run. If you want to join us there, it's patreon.com slash the roads now.

1:35.7

I also want to give a couple of real quick shoutouts here. A couple of weeks ago, I had asked folks

1:40.4

to go rate us and review us on Apple Podcasts. And you guys stepped up. And I want to say shout out to Bubba Rocks, Commodore Bangle, Leap Year Baby, and Bill Gerstein. These are their names on Apple Podcasts. Really nice comments. I actually, as soon as I saw them, my screenshot of them, send them to Bob. He gave me the hard emoji. These things actually matter to us. So thank you to all you guys who have taken the time to write these reviews. And if you haven't and you've got the time, we'd really appreciate it. You can also give us stars on Spotify as well. So thanks to everyone who has supported the show. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Dana Bash. Dan Abash, welcome to The Road to Now.

2:18.8

It's so great to be here.

2:20.0

Nice to see you guys.

...

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