President Donald Trump is a dictator. Charlie Kirk was murdered by a stalwart far right. The Supreme Court is happy to announce an authoritarian takeover.
If you hear from Heather Cox Richardson, you might nod in agreement. Not to mention the truth, which did not become an obstacle to the growth of the Richardson substack, Letters from an American.
With more than 2.7 million subscribers, many of whom are paying, Cox's remains one of the most successful creators on the platform. Cox's newsletter offers three subscription options: free, $5 per month and $50 per year.
Heather Cox Richardson has 2,600,000 subscribers pic.twitter.com/BBHUXCMyGk
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 17, 2025
“A $5 monthly subscription to participate in her comments section could bring in more than a million dollars a year.” – The New York Times (NYT). rated in December 2020.
Coke is professor history at Boston College. Her letter is calm and authoritative. She brings “the historian's confident context in the everyday politics of the day,” in the words of a glowing New York Times report.
She's our Walter Cronkite, the voice of the candid wisdom overcoming bipartisan squabbles.
That façade shatters when you read even one of her newsletters.
Richardson is a Democrat. Simple and clear.
Richardson wagged she pointed to the media for “interfering with the game” and blaming the left for the murder of Charlie Kirk. She cites a Wall Street Journal report that “[a]Ammunition engraved with transgender and anti-fascist ideology was found inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the shooting of Kirk.” (RELATED: Prosecutors Reveal Chilling Text Messages Between Kirk's Alleged Killer and His Transgender Lover)
Note that the passage cited by Richardson does not attribute Kirk's murder to “the left.” It doesn't even state that the 22-year-old Tyler Robinsonthe man accused of killing Kirk was a leftist. It simply states facts that Richardson finds unpleasant.
Just found out today who Heather Cox Richardson was. No joke. I heard her name, but I have a filter for users with ostentatious middle names, so I never bothered to find out more. I feel like I now have a whole second life of comic material available to me.
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) October 15, 2025
Richardson clings to various facts: “R.Obinson's parents are registered Republicans; he was not affiliated with a political party and was an inactive voter. Robinson's mother has published a number of photographs in recent years. he and his brothers pose with guns. Robinson recently spoke with a family member about why they didn't like Kirk's point of view.”
Then, in the same measured tone, she launches into wild speculation.
“Robinson seemed to admire the “Groypers” led by Nick Fuentes, who complain that more popular organizations such as Kirk's Turning Point USA are not “white enough” and have publicly harassed Kirk in the past.”
She accuses Trump of “losing interest in Kirk,” a reference to Trump's comments that Jimmy Kimmel mocked on his Sept. 16 show.
Richardson's main post concerns the Uvalde massacre. It was published May 31, 2022
In it, she rages at the “modern Republican Party,” which has “repeatedly managed to roll back the common-sense gun regulations that the vast majority of us want, even when their stubbornness means our children are dying in school.” She describes the “Republican manipulation of our political system” and reflects on the feelings of Americans “concerned that the Republicans have gamed the system.”
Historians present historical evidence in the form of a story. Richardson tells a simple and, unfortunately, compelling story. Democracy is good. Republicans are evil. Democrats are sometimes miserable, but they have good intentions and that is our only hope.
“This is the story of a rising dictator” Richardson wrote in a Facebook post on September 15, 2019, “taking control of previously independent branches of government and using the powers of his office to amass power.” (RELATED: Anarchist Group Calls for BLM-Style 'Riot' at Anti-Trump 'No Kings' Rallies)
Nathan J. Robinson is a writer for the left-wing magazine Current Events. conceded he shares “Richardson's conclusion that the modern Republican Party is the enemy of democracy.” He does not object to the suggestion in Richardson's letter that “The Republican Party is bigots, thugs and would-be dictators.”
But, as Nathan Robinson writes: “I think Richardson is not critical enough of the Democratic Party, which in its history appears almost entirely innocent and entirely dedicated to the well-being of the American people.”
One of the unintentionally comic things about Heather Cox Richardson is her habit of casually referencing her authority as a historian in everything she says. https://t.co/iwk1N8pWfH pic.twitter.com/lX8YZKLt8O
— Josiah Neeley 🇺🇸 (@jneeley78) September 20, 2025
He quotes Richardson’s characterization of former President Joe Biden: “When Americans elected Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020, he made clear that he was committed to protecting American democracy from rising authoritarianism. … Biden's domestic agenda expanded liberalism to address the civil rights demands that Carter identified, just as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ each expanded liberalism to address the challenges of westward expansion, industrialization, globalization, and anti-colonialism…Biden knew that defending democracy at home meant strengthening it internationally level.”
Richardson bases his DNC-style thesis on DNC-style history of the United States.
Right-wing Claremont Review of Books offers “abridged version” of Richardson's account of the 20th century: “John F. Kennedy was assassinated in “Nut Country” (i.e. right-wing Dallas; not to mention Oswald was a communist), Nixon hatched his racist “Southern Strategy” and polarized our politics for political gain, Reagan launched his presidential campaign three miles from where three civil rights activists were killed to demonstrate their bona fide views on white supremacy, the end of the Fairness Doctrine for broadcast networks allowed the dangerous rise of Rush Limbaugh and post-Cold War Republicans made our elections “less free and fair” and began to cozy up to the Russians.” (RELATED: CIA Caught Lying About Lee Harvey Oswald's Affiliations)
Richardson finds a receptive audience in women. Mostly older women.
“I talk to women who don't necessarily pay attention to politics, older people who haven't been involved in politics,” Richardson told the NYT. “I’m an older woman and I talk to other women about empowerment.”
Read: People who still have Harris-Waltz signs on their lawns.
Empowerment should be understood as a good in itself. Richardson uses his power to conjure historical fantasies for an audience willing to deceive.
Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @Natsandovaldc
