How it started... How it’s going... How will it end?
The American project has faced one of its hardest tests yet. Will it survive?
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🗞 THE NEWSSTAND
(Hint: go Incognito to fight dem paywalls).
It has been almost a month since the country voted in one of the most contentious elections in American history. With the current president refusing to acknowledge the outcome of the election and the Georgia Senate runoff hanging in the air until January, the political environment is as divisive as ever.
The runoff election has encouraged Republicans to play politics with the American electorate by allowing for the president’s outlandish calls of voter fraud and baseless legal claims in hopes of winning the necessary two seats for a Senate majority.
It appears the Republicans are playing with fire though as conspirators within the MAGA and QAnon community demand the party pay homage to their leader, even advocating for a boycott of the Georgia election, despite how critical the election is not only for their party but for their leader’s legacy.
This risky strategy has already begun to erode public trust in our democratic process, and members of Trump’s own party have acknowledged its recklessness calling it the most disgraceful departure from the White House in history.
Then the most surprising dispute of Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud came today from none other than his political ally Attorney General William Barr.
The unhinged storyline that media pundits like Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlon have aligned themselves with may prove to be a dangerous trap as establishment members of the GOP begin to distance themselves from the deranged president.
Though there will likely be a place for them somewhere in OANN or Newsmax as the anti-intellectuals and MAGA folks look for a place to call home these next few years after Fox News let them down in announcing President-Elect Joe Biden. A place that it welcomes dangerous comments like Trump’s attorney’s this week in calling for the execution of former Department of Homeland Security official, Chris Krebs.
And yet as the story goes, Washington continues to battle one another for power, while American businesses and citizens experience severe financial hardships caused by record cases of coronavirus.
🌍Around the Globe
In Poland, protestors march against the increasingly restrictive state regulations on reproductive rights in recent weeks, met by police violence.
Protests also erupted in France after videos of police brutally beating music producer Michel Zecler for failing to wear a face mask when entering his Paris music studio. In reaction, President Macron's government has proposed a legislative bill that would outlaw public sharing of police footage further provoking a public outcry.
You heard it one way now have it the other way. Sign up for The Flipside for a bipartisan view of daily events as they unfold.
🎧 WEEKLY MIXTAPE
For Southern rapper and legendary Three 6 Mafia member Juicy J, the hustle continues on his latest album featuring tracks like “1995” reminding you just how influential the rap group was on the genre today.
Salt Lake City native Jack Rutter, better known by his stage name Ritt Momney, performs feel-good indie on his newest single “Put Your Records On.”
In 2011 electronic producer Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington formed their experimental duo DARKSIDE leaving crowds in a state of psychedelic trance with moments of full-blown electronic dance. This album recording of their live performance in 2014 says it all.
For the older millennials and Gen Xers in the audience, dig out your oversized flannel shirts and ripped jeans with the return of 90s alt-rock group Smashing Pumpkins on their new studio album CYR featuring melodic ballads like “Colour of Your Love.”
Nigerian producer and Afro-pop singer DaVido brings the heat on his A Better Time featuring #ENDSARS protest track “FEM” and dance tracks like “So Crazy” featuring Lil Baby.
This EDM track from “futuristic DJ” Don Diablo carries all of the sounds of a spin studio workout beat to get you fueled for that next at-home workout.
🥃 THE CABINET
El Presidente
A classic cocktail from the Prohibition-era, El Presidente, was first written about in the famous "The Savoy Cocktail Book" in 1930. The drink was invented by American bartender Eddie Woelke who left the U.S. for Cuba during Prohibition in the 1920s. Grab your ingredients and get ready to play bartender at home these next few months.
Ingredients
1 ½ oz light rum
¾ oz orange curaçao
¾ oz dry vermouth
Dash of grenadine
Directions
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, pour all of the ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy!
🎙FIRESIDE CHAT
How it started...
The history of American politics is one shaped by a two-party system consumed by classism, regionalism, and paranoia—at its best, showcasing unity between unlikely minority groups; at its worst, racism and civil war.
In his farewell address in 1796, our nation’s first president wrote to his family and friends before retiring to his home at Mount Vernon. He warned of the perils of political parties and the destruction they could one day have on the state of our union.
“Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party...” —George Washington
Yet his own cabinet did not heed his advice as Alexander Hamilton and John Adam went on to form the Federalists, our nation’s first political party. The richest and most powerful men in the country came together to push for the ratification of a Constitution that protected their own interest in the government and economy.
It was not long before the anti-Federalists known as the Democratic-Republicans came together to form the unlikely coalition of poor Southern farmers and wealthy plantation owners led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
And like that, our combative two-party system was established.
With the two parties in direct opposition, they held in balance a government divided between Northern and Southern interests. Soon the Federalists were replaced by the Whigs and the Democratic-Republicans simply became the Democrats—holding together a diverse and expanding nation for the next 50 years,
Then the moral dilemma of slavery brought down the Whigs and defected many Northern Democrats, leaving the power struggle out of balance.
When ex-Whigs and northern Democrats came together to form the Republican Party, they elected their first president Abraham Lincoln with only 39% of the popular vote. The uncompromising differences between a regionally divided nation over the value of human rights led it to a civil war.
The third trait of American politics is the most unique of them all. It is what historian Richard Hofstadter referred to as our “paranoid style” of politics that causes “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.”
Take the election of 1876 for example. That year the Democratic candidate won the popular vote, yet with the electoral vote too close to call in four states, Republicans claimed ‘fraud’ and warned of a ‘second Civil War.” Sound familiar?
In the end, the election was decided by Congress with the Compromise of 1877 and President Rutherford B. Hayes pledged in his acceptance speech to return regional power to the South, code for the end of Reconstruction, and the continuation of systemic racism.
These dominant traits throughout our history occasionally boil to the surface with populist or progressive candidates who capture the desperate demands of their electorate. Though it is the paranoid, conspiratorial style that is most common of the populist on the right, who view social struggle as one between absolute good and evil.
How it’s going…
Fast-forward to our “post-racial” society when the first African American president is nominated for a major political party. Shortly after came the conspiracies about his birthplace and religion and he was labeled a “liberal elitist.”
Over the course of the Obama presidency citizens began self-sorting into blue and red communities, divided between “urban elites” who adored the president and “rural anti-intellectuals” who despised his technocratic approach of calling on experts to make decisions on the economy, healthcare, and society.
Social media, once the place for college memories and sharing baby photos, became echo chambers for right and left to attend virtual rallies and spew vitriol against one another.
With the left-wing president on his way out, classism and regionalism resurfacing, and paranoia at a century high, the country was ripe for a populist candidate. And in early 2016 Donald J. Trump became a serious contender for a nationalist Republican Party met by his progressive counterpart Bernie Sanders on the left. Had it not been for the “establishment” wing of the Democratic Party all but ensuring the nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton, we likely would have seen the first self-proclaimed socialist on a major party ticket.
Trump was the “choice, not an echo” candidate that conservative writer Phyllis Schlafly was looking for when she praised Barry Goldwater as the Republican candidate in 1964. The country was finally ready to go all-in on preventing the wealthy group of kingmakers from colluding to choose our president.
Both Sanders and Trump spoke to people on the outside of the influential class, preaching that the elitist government had forsaken them and to have any hope voters should put their trust in a candidate who was going to stand up to the establishment.
In the end, it was the nationalist-populist call to “Make America Great Again” that won over a country divided by social class and region, promising to the most paranoid electorate to “drain the swamp” and rid Washington of the corrupt elites for good.
Four years into his presidency the populist turned wannabe autocrat continued to expand his influence amongst his base by promising the forgotten American Dream in exchange for unwavering loyalty.
The societal privileges for his followers were at times explicitly racial in its combativeness against Wokeness or immigration. While the softer privileges and less understood by the media featured a safe space for those who felt the America they once knew had become unidentifiable. He became their spokesperson who would oppose the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights, technology, and globalization in a society led by Ted Talks and Hollywood stars.
Then, something nobody could have ever predicted happened, well that is, besides the expert, scientists, and technologist, of course. The country found itself in the middle of a global pandemic and with populism and anti-intellectualism, or better put Trumpism prevailing, those who stood against its supreme leader were not to be trusted. Trump paid homage on social media to conspiracy groups while rallying his followers to revolt against global health experts like the World Health Organization. Racial divisions and calls for social justice further divided the parties throughout the summer. All of this in the middle of an election year.
As history might have predicted, with a rampant virus and record-high unemployment, the pendulum of power swung back the other way. But the paranoia and division propagated by its spokesman have been less quick to dissolve.
How will it end?
If George Washington's darkest fears are to come true as they did in 1864, then we look ahead to the next four years with much anxiety.
Will Trumpism and anti-intellectualism have long-term effects on society, continuing to discredit science and push the pandemic to irreparable damage? Will politicians continue to leverage paranoia and conspiracy to capture voters' minds eroding public trust in our democracy and reducing our position in the world?
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein
Look on to the next four years with cautious optimism.
In an unexpected outcome even to the Sage of Mount Vernon himself, the two major parties standing as columns diametrically opposed, are likely to continue holding up the American project as they have for the last 200 years.
Historian Clinton Rossiter wrote that in the struggle for power, parties will inevitably shift—major parties will absorb minority factions and reshape themselves.
Trumpism, while alarming, will inevitably be absorbed into the establishment of the Republican Party in time for a critical midterm election, while the MAGA loyalists will find solace by tuning into Trump TV or OANN.
In fact, the American two-party system so long as it continues standing will act as a check against a second civil war, creating unity for a paranoid country divided by class and region under the banners “R” or “D.”
And the inconvenient truth of American partisanship is that it excites us in sports-like conflict every four years recruiting us to polling sites (or post boxes).
But over the next four years, we have a choice. We may continue to test the fortitude of our democracy by casting vitriol and seeking solitude in our echo chambers. Or, we can opt for unity under a banner to “Build Back Better” choosing competency over showmanship.
The choice is ours.
"Patriotism means to stand with the country, It does not mean to stand with the President." -Teddy Roosevelt
We're in this together
#HabituateInSpace #StayAtHome #CountryOverParty