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So, technically it is still dusk as I pen this edition, and my vices are mostly Scotch, dad jokes, and sci-fi or politics content; so "after dark" is not nearly as cool as it may sound. But, This def counts as 5/5 for the week.
(NOTE: It officially turned to “after dark” as I finished writing.)
Saving Democracy
I have (mostly) avoided pontificating in these editions; and, if I lose some of you due to this one, you have my apologies.
If you follow me on Twitter, you've seen my cautionary Tweets regarding American Democracy (FWIW, I am absolutely not a (D)emocrat, but I care deeply about our Democracy). We are two election cycles away from the birth of American anocracy, a term few people know, and an event that will be mostly benign for American elites (#protip: if you're reading this, there's a high likelihood you're in that elite category).
We're very close to being in a nation of draconian, punishing, faux-conservative minority rule. We will not just "flip" to autocracy or even raw dictatorship. We'll have a decade or two of the facade of what we thought of as Democracy, but it will be a shadow of its former self.
I'd like you to know how we got here.
I'm not going to inundate you with sketch web site links; or weird podcasts.
It took me a few years to finally grok how we got to this terrible, sad place. The book that made it clear to me was )"Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted" by Jeremy W. Peters, an American journalist, author and reporter for The New York Times who has covered three presidential elections for the newspaper, most recently the 2020 presidential election. He is also an MSNBC contributor and has also appeared on Washington Week in Review on PBS.
I'm not providing a link to the book or audiobook b/c I'm not in this for referral income.
While I have not filled the coffers of everyone who chose to chronicle Democracy's demise after T***p left office, I've read/listened to more than I probably should have, but my mind was literally broken by 45's term and I've spent many an hour trying to get back to some sense of "good".
Jeremy's book helped move most of the pieces into place, and this most definitely counts as one of my cool "finds".
If you cannot find Jeremy's [audio]book in your library, and cannot afford it, I'm offering 5 free copies to the first five folks to drop me a DM on Twitter (@hrbrmstr) or email (bob@rud.is).
I should warn you all that I am not confident we can avoid our fate. But, a small part of me holds out hope we can.
FIN
If you've made it this far before unfollowing me and unsubbing, #ty! I'll give you another chance by asking you to check out "The Fifth Risk" by Michael Lewis. The same offer holds: 5 free copies to the first five folsk to drop me a DM on Twitter or an email.
2022-05-07.02
Octavian was careful to preserve the forms of the Roman republic while gathering all the substance of power into his own hands. That's the road we have been on longer than we've been willing to admit.