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- Losing My Perspicacity July 5, 2024
Losing My Perspicacity July 5, 2024
The good news out of Britain and the trés mal news out of France; The US will not let the Chinese swimming doping scandal go; One American takes the hit for Olympic swimmers; Yet another devastating story out of the NWSL.
Julie DiCaro
July 04, 2024
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I’m writing this newsletter on the evening of the Fourth of July, where my neighbors have been shooting off some variation of what we called “M-80s” or “cherry bombs” when I was a kid for the last two hours. I remember being fascinated by these as a kid, but as an adult, the allure of firecrackers that do nothing but make noise and send the neighborhood dogs over the edge is completely lost on me. My dogs are enjoying it even less. My little Jack Russell mix has been going through it all night.
The further I get into adulthood, the harder it is to love the Fourth of July the way I did as a child, when I still believed all the myths about how exceptional America is, how our “freedom” is special and more powerful than anyone else's, that we’re a country based on equality under the law. I don’t believe those things anymore, but I suppose it’s that way for everyone who critically examines their country’s impact on the rest of the world. That’s why I appreciated Margaret Sullivan’s piece in The Guardian on why she has hope for the future of the US.
I asked one of my favorite thinkers, the author and scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert in how democracies can wither under authoritarian rule, for some help. I talked to others, too, especially those who are protecting the vote, fostering good journalism and working for justice.
Here’s what Ben-Ghiat told me: “Part of the reason for so much aggression from the GOP and the courts to take away our rights, including the right to free and fair elections, is because America is becoming more progressive, and Republicans cannot win without lies, threats and election interference, including assistance in that area from foreign powers.”
She sees the US participating in “the global renaissance of mass nonviolent protest against authoritarianism” and notes that, in 2017, we saw the biggest protest in the nation’s history – the Women’s March against Trump, which was then surpassed in 2020 by the Black Lives Matter protests, which involved more than 20 million people in multigenerational and multiracial demonstrations.
“These mass protest movements had electoral consequences in the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections,” she added, as many women, non-white and LGBTQ+ people were elected to office.
Ben-Ghiat is convinced that we are ripe for another round – and the stakes are higher than ever.
The only way out is through, I guess.
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