Hello

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Is this thing on?

Thanks to those of you who signed up yesterday. I’m very gratified by the early response. This is not a topical post, per se. But I did want to talk a little bit about why I am doing this, beyond the brief description that (I think) appears on the homepage.

One of my intentions is to think out loud a bit. So, yes, I’ll be writing about issues of the day, particularly in the realm of politics. But I’m also aiming to be a little more self-reflective about *why* I’m addressing a particular topic, including how the issues I’m writing about might intersect with things happening in my life.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we are living in a perilous moment. Before I continue in that vein, one of the things I hope to do in this space is to provide some historical grounding for the more immediate concerns on the table. The great historian Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland, among other books, is constantly reminding his readers that all of the tropes about how bad things are now have been a recurring theme of our popular discourse dating to the 1960s. So, yes, there’s been lots of worry for a long time from many quarters about how fractious and perilous our politics are.

But. But! In some critical ways, this time is different. For one thing, we’ve never had, certainly in our lifetimes, certainly not since World War II, really not since the 19th century, a major political party for which it is now a litmus test of your viability as a candidate for office that you insist, contrary to all the known facts, the previous election was stolen. That development reflects a larger nihilism that has seized hold of the Republican Party in ways that threaten further our already fragile institutions and the well-being of many, many Americans. While income inequality sits at near record levels and life expectancy is actually in *decline* for significant swaths of our population (even before and without Covid), the GOP has made it their mission to make life worse for already vulnerable Americans, while convincing many that bogeymen are the real cause of their problems. I’ll be writing about some of the fronts on which the GOP is waging that war. And I’ll also be writing about how and when Democratic leaders, mainstream liberal commentators and progressive activists are effectively fighting back, or playing into GOP hands, or pushing their own damaging agendas.

One thing I won’t try to do is tell everyone, in every post, exactly how I see the world broadly. Most of you who are reading this already have a pretty good idea of where I’m coming from. But beyond that, I’m hoping this newsletter will be an opportunity for me to develop, for myself and for you, a somewhat coherent framework for making sense of the world and that will be a process that will unfold over time, from post to post. Along the way, I’m planning to share a sense of my own evolving thinking, when and why I see the world differently now then I used to. Again, I’m doing this both to develop my own thinking and, I hope, give you an opportunity to think for yourself about how and why you’ve arrived at your understanding of what you see around you. The main channel through which I’ll be doing that, again, is politics.

But I will stray beyond politics as well. Mainly, that will mean sports. For the sports-averse among you, don’t go running for the hills just yet. When I write about sports, I try to show how the brouhaha of the moment is actually a really useful way to understand deeper realities in American life. Most immediately, this means race. But sports can be a really interesting (and for many) more accessible way to explore wealth concentration, its influence on public policy, evolving ideas about gender and more. When I do write a post that is primarily sports-focused, at least for now, I’ll make a note of that (a trigger warning, if you will), at the top, so folks know what they’re in for (or what to avoid).

I teach Global Studies for a living so, yes, I’ll also certainly be writing about developments in the world beyond the US.

And if, as this thing gets under way, you have ideas, topics, issues you’d like to hear me weigh in on, while I can’t make any promises, I’ll do my best, and would love to hear from you.

Thanks again for making it this far. And away we go!