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Daniel Ruggles

@ruggles.bsky.social

I study how conservatives use activists to push the Republican Party to the right. PhD in Politics from Brandeis. I write on social movements, APD, students, American political thought, and religion. Fīat iūstitia ruat cælum

71 Followers  |  122 Following  |  43 Posts  |  Joined: 06.12.2023  |  1.8202

Latest posts by ruggles.bsky.social on Bluesky

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37 people arrested and American kids separated from parents after ICE raid at Chicago apartments | CNN Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken.

The pretext that parents traffic their own children is absurd. Removing kids from their homes makes them more vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/03/u...

06.10.2025 00:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump administration suddenly cuts millions in Mass. public safety funding A number of states unwilling to allocate resources for immigration enforcement lost funding meant for fighting terrorism and preparing for emergencies.

Law and order!

www.boston.com/news/local-n...

02.10.2025 15:37 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Req. unis to ban the “belittlement of conservative ideas” (quote-ish) sounds good for campus speech in its most favorable reading – but what is a conservative idea?

As someone who studies the conservative movement…I can’t even bound that. I know protecting ID is the point, but still…

02.10.2025 10:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I appreciate hearing a top 20 greatest hits of Sunday School memory verses.

22.09.2025 01:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Was a very frustrating CPAC too as cons tried to distinguish themselves from the GOP to the public (with mixed success).

My fav part about first CPAC is Schlafly leading a defense policy panel because she wanted to.

20.09.2025 11:49 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Charlie Kirk talked with young people at universities for a reason – he wanted American education to return to traditional values Charlie Kirk’s education beliefs have deep roots that predate the MAGA movement and trace back to the 1960s.

New piece in The Conversation on Kirk and why his vision for education in America is so important for our understanding of the conservative movement.

theconversation.com/charlie-kirk...

15.09.2025 16:04 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

My writing soundtrack this week is a mix of Kendrick and Miss Rachel.

When in doubt, the 11 mo. old wins.

02.09.2025 23:12 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I just heard about his work a few weeks ago. Nearing the top of my to-read list.

02.09.2025 23:09 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

What we're supposed to be trained for as social scientists is to recognize patterns and systems beyond what's obvious and institutional.

I think it'd be crude and incorrect to label a conspiracy. Instead, think about how ordinary people build power over time.

22.08.2025 21:37 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Part of my story (that I don't try to make much of) is that I was homeschooled on the right with many of my peers going to those big firms we think of as making up the r-wing pipeline.

Not everyone makes it through the pipeline, but some do.

If this is a system, we can study it systematically.

22.08.2025 21:37 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

This is exactly right.

And, not only is this working now, but it has for decades.

My research pulls from correspondence between William F. Buckley, Ronald Reagan, and 20-something activists looking to make an impact. They did – and these acts of personal and strategic leadership are formative.

22.08.2025 21:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Waiting for the corporate freedom crowd to spin this

22.08.2025 20:48 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Smart, I would describe these as is as funky and a little flat. The spice is 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 tho. Looking forward to the results.

15.08.2025 11:36 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I made these a few months ago and I’m tempted to try again with some sort of sub…maybe a meld with NYT’s pb and miso cookies?

15.08.2025 11:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why AI Shouldn't Replace Historians Anytime Soon A recent study found that AI has put a target on historians' backs. We put several chatbots to the test.

As it turns out, facts are challenging for LLMs (and people, to be clear)

gizmodo.com/why-ai-shoul...

12.08.2025 17:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Opinion | Trump’s Trade Representative: Why We Remade the Global Order

I’m sympathetic to attempts to try new things but I’m skeptical of historical cases applied or examined without context. Saying investments now outpace the Marshall Plan…duh, but as % of GDP?

Historical evidence is good and necessary. Contextualization even more so.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

10.08.2025 17:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Not Vermont but we stop in Hanover for lunch on the way up. Middlebury and Waterbury have some quaint towns. Low population density means good spots are spread out. The main stretch of Burlington is tchotchkes but there’s good beer & food around. Would drive up 93 and back Middlebury and Woodstock.

06.08.2025 16:57 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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TIL that Pat Sajak is chairman of Hillsdale’s board? I’d like to solve that puzzle.

08.07.2025 21:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

Pro.......life?

30.05.2025 19:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Pro travel tip: To find great coffee, look up the local barista competitions in that city (doesn’t matter when they happened) and find out which shops participated. Boom.

If I’m paying $5 for drip coffee anyway, might as well enjoy it 🤷🏻‍♂️

24.05.2025 11:20 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
"A Cheap Trafficking in Human Misery": The Reverse Freedom Rides of 1962 on JSTOR Clive Webb, "A Cheap Trafficking in Human Misery": The Reverse Freedom Rides of 1962, Journal of American Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2, Civil Rights and Reactions (Aug., 2004), pp. 249-271

www.jstor.org/stable/27557...

12.05.2025 22:58 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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TIL that Citizens' Councils funded "Reverse Freedom Rides" in 1962 by paying Black families to emigrate out of the Deep South.

12.05.2025 22:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

There’s a stack of boxes at the LOC (if they aren’t removed…) on how Buckley explored building a YAF in SA. Hoping to get to that someday if the manuscript division isn’t converted into a Tatte.

10.05.2025 15:22 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Wu: "If you come for one of us, you will get all of us. We are a city that knows our strength is each other: And we will defend the people we love with all that we’ve got. When the weight of the world presses down, Boston stands up."

19.03.2025 23:48 — 👍 973    🔁 179    💬 6    📌 54

The gutting of Dept of Ed’s civil rights office isn’t primarily about DEI or cost-cutting – it’s obliterating the capacity of government to hold schools and perpetrating responsible for gender-based violence. It’s about protecting a different person.

13.03.2025 10:52 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

"better-than-expected" does not signal good news.

12.03.2025 13:35 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Would be interesting to see how many of those freq attends report carrying in-church too. Concealed carry was a big part of male Christian ID for many in my suburban CA church. Can only imagine it went up in the past 5 yrs.

09.03.2025 12:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Flight 93 Election - Claremont Review of Books

Friendly reminder that 47 is an even clearer commitment to the logics of Anton's framework than 45. Flight 93 is worth the re-read for anyone trying to explain the logics of the WH today.

claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/the-...

06.03.2025 16:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Congrats!

06.03.2025 15:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Live on www.presidency.ucsb.edu.

Support access to American political history!

19.02.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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