Ryan Zickgraf Journalist Profile

Articles

Ghosts of Populism Past

Feb 18, 2025 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

At first glance, the “No Kings on Presidents’ Day” protest in Harrisburg, Pa., might have been mistaken for a surprisingly progressive Trump rally. MAGA caps and pussy hats alike were missing from the heads of the 500 or so Pennsylvanians who gathered on the state capitol steps on Monday. I spotted nearly as many Stars and Stripes and Gadsden flags—coiled rattlesnakes over the phrase DON’T TREAD ON ME—as I did emblems of Pride and Palestine.
Ghosts of Populism Past

Feb 18, 2025 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

At first glance, the “No Kings on Presidents’ Day” protest in Harrisburg, Pa., might have been mistaken for a surprisingly progressive Trump rally. MAGA caps and pussy hats alike were missing from the heads of the 500 or so Pennsylvanians who gathered on the state capitol steps on Monday. I spotted nearly as many Stars and Stripes and Gadsden flags—coiled rattlesnakes over the phrase DON’T TREAD ON ME—as I did emblems of Pride and Palestine.
The End of the End of Men

Jan 16, 2025 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

The patriarchy died in its sleep sometime during Obama’s first term. Or so goes the argument of The End of Men, a 2012 polemic that’s being revisited in the wake of the election. As Donald Trump aggressively courted young men on his way to victory, the mainstream media desperately searched for the right kind of talking heads to help explain the widening gender divide haunting our politics.
Dems’ Glitzy Celebrity Strategy Was an Embarrassing Failure

Nov 15, 2024 | jacobin.com | Ryan Zickgraf

In the premiere episode of The Franchise, HBO’s warts-and-all satire of the movie business, an assistant director named Dag has a brief existential crisis about the wisdom of spending her life (and someone else’s fortune) on hacky comic-book adaptations. “What if this isn’t a dream factory?” Dag wonders aloud to a colleague.
Why Labor Will Miss Biden

Nov 4, 2024 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

In July, some observers were baffled that Bernie Sanders and The Squad—the democratic-socialist contingent in Congress—were among the last Democrats to abandon ship as President Biden’s re-election bid unraveled following his disastrous debate performance. Why expend political capital as a dead-ender for an unpopular centrist? The explanation is simple: For all of Biden’s flaws, his domestic agenda was the most economically populist since the neoliberal turn in the 1970s.
The Gospel According to Elon Musk

Oct 28, 2024 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

It felt a bit like a joke: The wealthiest man in the world walks into a church to pay people to vote for his porn-star-loving friend—all in the name of God. But no one laughed at the spectacle of Elon Musk’s recent Get Out the Vote rally at the Life Center Church in Harrisburg, Pa. After all, Musk wasn’t trying to get into heaven on his four-date speaking tour; he was simply trying to get Donald Trump back into power using his wealth and a PAC called America. What would Jesus do?
The Battleground State That Isn’t

Oct 23, 2024 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

The handful of people who turned up at an arts center in downtown Harrisburg, Pa., last month for a Democratic Party karaoke fundraiser stumbled onto a haunting scene—a cold, empty concert hall with the backdrop of a movie-theater-sized screen crackling with visual static. It was reminiscent of the iconic TV-comes-alive scene from the 1982 Steven Spielberg horror classic Poltergeist but missing an ethereal blonde girl to announce, “They’re not here.”Where was everyone?
Working-Class Men Are Not Okay

Oct 5, 2024 | jacobin.com | Ryan Zickgraf

Sometimes I think about the fifty-year-old man living in my mom’s garage. Todd is an affable giant, his red beard and long hair giving him the air of a medieval Viking. But his life is far from a fairy tale. Since his divorce years ago, he’s floated between housing situations and minimum-wage jobs.
Justice Warriors Is Funny, But in a Way That Hurts

Sep 11, 2024 | jacobin.com | Ryan Zickgraf

Donald Trump may not have entirely killed satire, but he’s helped sunder it into two countervailing forces, neither of which are very funny. The liberals used to be the class clowns. But while the counterculture of the 1960s spawned Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, and the stand-up-comedy-industrial complex, its political heirs are now the pious, self-serious ones.
Kamala’s Hollow Debate Win

Sep 11, 2024 | compactmag.com | Ryan Zickgraf |Ryan Smith

If this is a “vibes” election, then Kamala Harris seemed to win on Tuesday night. That’s especially true if you’re a glass-half-full Democrat who ultimately cares most about defeating Donald Trump. The Republican nominee had a rough night, and Harris had a good one.