PPFA’s Ten Most Read Posts of 2017

Happy end of the week, PPFA readers, and happy end of the year as well. Many publications like to use this time for a retrospective or top ten lists. PPFA will merge the two: here’s a top ten list retrospective!

Thank you so much for reading this past year. After this rare Friday post, I’ll continue my Monday streak when New Year’s Day inaugurates 2018. The year to come marks the 50th anniversary of one of American history’s most tumultuous years. (You can do the math now, or you can wait for Monday’s post to do it for you.) I will preview the many 50th anniversaries to come over the next 12 months. After that, PPFA will set its sights on the highly consequential and potentially dramatic midterm elections. I hope to see you here throughout 2018 as PPFA breaks it down every step of the way. Or at least most of the steps. Okay, half the steps.

Perhaps most anticipated is the monthly Top 30 Western figures countdown. January breaches the top 20. A particularly momentous point will be breaking into the top 15, as the list’s original incarnation at Construction Literary Magazine only made it halfway before I stopped. My longtime readers, therefore, already know numbers 30 through 16, but this summer will reach uncharted territory for everyone. (Patient readers will be relieved to know that I’ve already written rough drafts for numbers 15 through 9. I have a year to write the rest.)

But before we get to 2018, let’s take a final look back at 2017 with Presidential Politics for America’s ten most viewed posts of the year.

10. How Presidents Sell War: Part 1: Coming on the heels of President Trump launching missiles into Syria, I kicked off a six-part series on the evolution of presidential war politics. No other parts in the series finished in the top 10, so I can only assume no one wanted to relive the crimson twentieth century. Either that or the series was boring. Let’s go with the former.

9. PPFA Quick Hit: The Syria Strike: Boy, does that missile strike feel like ancient history or what? Nope, it was April, just eight months ago.

8. It’s All About That Base: Easily my favorite column heading of the year, this piece took a look at what motivated most of President Trump’s decisions.

7. Trump, Caesar, and Shakespeare Walk into a …: On the heels of a rather ridiculous overreaction to a New York City production of Julius Caesar in which the Senate stabbed the Trump impersonator who played the titular character, I offered context by looking into Shakespeare’s play and Caesar’s political career.

6. “Dunkirk”: A PPFA Primer: Days before the opening of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic triumph, I previewed what to expect by summarizing the Dunkirk evacuation.

5. The Neil Gorsuch Dilemma: Part analysis and part venting, I broke down the Democrats’ dilemma when Gorsuch faced confirmation after Republicans refused to grant equally qualified Merrick Garland a hearing the previous year.

4. PPFA in a Post-Election World: My first column after four months of introspection, wound-licking, and catching up on sleep.

3. Trump’s Rebellion: Wherein I compared Trump’s victory to Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676.

2. POTUS Operandi: Wherein I looked at Trump’s strategy of relentlessly lying.

1. Five Interesting Things about the Declaration of Independence You Might Not Have Known But Now Will: Wherein I learned and quickly forgot that my headlines should be as descriptive as possible.

See you in 2018!