Nice to Be Back: Thoughts on this Moment in the U.S. Historical Context and the Texas Political Hellscape (what could be more fun?)
On the eve of Election Day, November 8, 2022, I am neither hopeful nor despairing. We get the democracy we deserve; if turnout is not robust, what do we say? What we can we say? If election results denial is the ploy in Republican led districts, what does this signal for the nation? Are people aware that that dangerous precedent has been set and that it is very much a sign of how precarious the fate of democracy is in the United States of America, now so ironically, ruefully named? No one who has studied the history of the U.S., let alone the world, of the past hundred years or so, should be surprised that we find ourselves at the current juncture as a nation, let alone a world. Democracy may not be the easiest form of choosing leaders (and in a democracy, they should be representatives, not merely “leaders” which can be turned into “rulers” a little too easily), but until something better comes along, it is or should be the fairest method. Nevertheless, the democracies of Greece and ...