A Persective
My younger brother is the one I usually turn to in times of political turmoil. He’s a law professor in New York, who worked for both the Clinton and Obama administrations and is by nature a calm, cheerful and optimistic person. This morning, he emailed me about his turmoil, and the shock he felt that a politics of division and chaos could find such fertile ground among his fellow citizens.
I went through the worst of my anxiety on Tuesday; having lived through Brexit, then Trump, then Johnson’s election, I had time to prepare — and to reflect.
I agreed with my brother that it was totally dispiriting to think about what this election revealed about America’s true nature. As someone said on Twitter — he is a mirror, not an aberration. Last year, I taught a survey course on American literature, and afterwards, read Jill Lepore’s amazing book, These Truths. I’ve been reading and thinking about America all my life, but it is only in these last four years — and only from my perspective as an American outside America — that I think I’ve finally understood the bargain we’ve made with ourselves to create our country. This is what I wrote to my brother.
Nothing New Here
From the beginning, the American project has demanded that we turn our backs on realities staring us in the face…
