Part One: Lee Atwater: The Political Dirty Tricks Artist Who Gave us President(s) George Bush

Behind the Bastards

Robert sits down with Garrison Davis to discuss the life and times of Lee Atwater, the arch inventor of Republican dirty tricks politics.

(3 Part Series, releasing all this week)

Sources:

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/lee-atwater

https://archive.is/STJGq

https://www.newberryobserver.com/news/10323/notable-newberry-alumnus

https://andrewjazprosehill.substack.com/p/the-death-bed-confession-of-a-boogie

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-papers-of-lee-atwater-who-invented-the-scurrilous-tactics-that-trump-normalized?_sp=a8ee96fb-f790-4047-ae41-50c5940d1092.1729971751539

https://www.csmonitor.com/1989/0626/elee.html

https://archive.is/yZ0Hf#selection-553.0-553.173

https://time.com/archive/6702136/saying-no-to-lee-atwater/

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brady-bad.html

https://nul.org/news/ghost-lee-atwater-haunts-2022-midterm-elections

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/94931206

https://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2021/08/13/the-spirit-of-lee-atwater-lingers-among-us-how-critical-race-theory-became-the-gops-new-southern-strategy/

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/05/13/willie-horton-revisited

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/etc/synopsis.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/04/19/weighing-lee-atwaters-regrets/c78da503-8dc9-4c58-a8d6-d5524ffdfa8e/

https://archive.is/7CjqQ

https://brooklynrail.org/2012/02/express/letter-from-the-trail-atwaters-ghost/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More description

Robert sits down with Garrison Davis to discuss the life and times of Lee Atwater, the arch inventor of Republican dirty tricks politics.

(3 Part Series, releasing all this week)

Sources:

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/lee-atwater

https://archive.is/STJGq

https://www.newberryobserver.com/news/10323/notable-newberry-alumnus

https://andrewjazprosehill.substack.com/p/the-death-bed-confession-of-a-boogie

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-papers-of-lee-atwater-who-invented-the-scurrilous-tactics-that-trump-normalized?_sp=a8ee96fb-f790-4047-ae41-50c5940d1092.1729971751539

https://www.csmonitor.com/1989/0626/elee.html

https://archive.is/yZ0Hf#selection-553.0-553.173

https://time.com/archive/6702136/saying-no-to-lee-atwater/

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brady-bad.html

https://nul.org/news/ghost-lee-atwater-haunts-2022-midterm-elections

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/94931206

https://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2021/08/13/the-spirit-of-lee-atwater-lingers-among-us-how-critical-race-theory-became-the-gops-new-southern-strategy/

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/05/13/willie-horton-revisited

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/etc/synopsis.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/04/19/weighing-lee-atwaters-regrets/c78da503-8dc9-4c58-a8d6-d5524ffdfa8e/

https://archive.is/7CjqQ

https://brooklynrail.org/2012/02/express/letter-from-the-trail-atwaters-ghost/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2025-08-26 56 min Transcript

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