Kevin Phillips, a renowned political analyst and prolific author, has died at the age of 82.
Phillips was highly respected in the field of American politics, and his works on the Republican Party and U.S. electoral history are some of the most comprehensive of their kind. He published numerous books that explored the nature of U.S. politics and culture.
Born in 1930 in Maryland, Phillips was raised mostly in Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University, he went on to work as a strategist for Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. After Nixon’s ascension to the White House, Phillips wrote “The Emerging Republican Majority.” The book examined how Nixon’s reelection efforts were closely linked to shifts in the Republican Party, and it would become a seminal work in the field of political analysis.
After Nixon’s retirement from politics, Phillips remained heavily involved in public life. He was an active commentator on the political climate and the developing GOP. In 2006, he published “American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century,” which explored the relationship between money and religion in the modern era.
Phillips was an early critic of the Bush administration’s fiscal policies and the 2003 Iraq War. He also disputed the prevailing idea that the economy was buoyed by tax cuts, arguing that in the long run, they exacerbated inequality.
Phillips’ works had a lasting impact on the field, and his contributions to political discourse will continue to be felt in the years to come. His works on American politics will live on as a record of his in-depth insights on the changing nature of the political establishment. A prolific and influential author, Phillips will be remembered as one of the great thinkers of his generation.
