I am in London, having finished a two day Civil-Military Relations Network workshop, our very first, on Command. Run by Phil Lagassé, it considered from many angles and all over history what it means to command a military and who has the authority and such. The moment resonated quite a bit for many reasons:
- that Phil couldn't get any Americans who specialize in this kind of stuff because they wanted to be home during the big annivesary
- that No Kings conflicts with the reality of the US being more monararchic than most constitutional monarchies (Phil's argument)
- my first time being in the place the US rebelled from in quite sometime, with the first visit to London was 39 years ago around this time.
- the utter incompetence of the Great American Fair creating much schadenfreude from a greater distance.
Dan Drezner has a great post about how things are awful now, but have been at every 50 year marker in US history. It is most instructive, especially given how much of a betrayal of the civil war was 1877. I do remember 1976--the celebration, not so much the post-Watergate/Vietnam moment. It was a big summer for me, as I went to summer camp for the first time two weeks after the bicentennial. It was a strange summer for the US--an election year where one candidate was an unelected President who pardoned Nixon, who, in turn, committed what might be considered a typical day of Trump work.
Drezner's piece has a note of optimism--that the US made some big leaps in progress in between 50 year markers. I can't help but be more pessimistic in this moment. As a friend put it, how can the US recover when the Republicans do not believe in democracy? I worry that the GOP will do damage either in 2026 or in 2028 to subvert elections. Given that they tried in 2020, that Trump pardoned those who sought to help him, that the court has given Trump immunity, why wouldn't they try to prevent the Dems from taking power.
I also worry that the Dems, if they get back into power, might not do what it takes--packing the court, admitting DC as a state, taxing the crap out of billionaires, breaking up the big tech companies, prosecuting the criminals of Trump 2.0. The bright spot right now is that the Dem primaries are producing fighters who will push hard. I do hope that the rest of the Dems get the message. I do believe that the 2028 primary election will involve dems outbidding each other to undo Trump's destruction, but I am not sure that enough fighters will be elected to support the changes that must be made.
I did hear from some folks who say that the Dems can't fight fire with fire, but giving into the GOP and being bipartisan helped get us here. There will be no reforms without unpacking the court, and the Dems need to improve representation so that, yes, the GOP can't get back into power without expanding its appeal to beyond white folks and those betraying their groups (ethnic groups, religious groups, etc). Who radicalized me? Mitch McConnell.
Anyhow, on the anniversary of 250 years of the US Declaration of Independence, I am most worried.
On the other hand, I was busy traveling so I missed posting about my 24th Canada Day in Canada. Canada has been very, very good to me. It rescued me from West Texas, where I would probably have been fired by now given attitudes there about academic freedom. I have had much success here--fun books, heaps of grant-funded travel, several big grants to fund a series of terrific networks, two cool jobs, amazing access to folks in and near government, great colleagues, twenty years of awesome ultimate, much improvement on the slopes, and more.
Canadian politics is not as broken as American politics, but, yes, we can see it from here. Federalism is broken as the feds get blamed when the provincial leaders do their best to break pretty much everything. The current government is pretty right wing for a center-left party--central bankers are not hippies, as it turns out. But we have dodged having a Trump wannabe serve as Prime Minister--our own bad faith actor.
ultimately, I place my hope on the fact that the US has always managed to recover from its lowest lows. The majority of Americans support the right things (except for trans rights, as the demonizing of a fragile minority has gotten so much support from folks who shouldn't --NYT!), and the elections since Nov 2024 have been a rejection of Trump. But I am not sure the institutions and the votes will matter... I hope so, but I am just not sure.
Sorry for this American birthday post being so depressing.....
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