Back Story Newsletter
Good Morning,
American Democracy
Anything I write here would be insufficient to describe the breadth and depth of troubles in U.S. democracy, and today millions of Americans will vote in the midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress at stake.
The entire US House of Representatives, about a third of the Senate and key state governorships are up for grabs.
The amount of violence being threatened by those who claim elections are rigged, driven by looney deniers and conspiracy theorists is off the charts.
During the last month the daily volume of misinformation across thousands of different online sources—including social media platforms, and online forums driving notions the election is rigged or will be stolen has increased by an astounding 268 percent.
Who is driving the crazy town truck? Well the lunacy leads us all the way back to ex President Trump, who holds rallies and leads his followers to believe power was stolen from him, and threatens a return to the White House.
If you are having trouble sorting through why people support dark personalities and the angry fringe, from Russia to Italy, to America, the Atlantic has a brilliant article today on resentment. I will post the link below.
But here’s a quote - “Never underestimate the kind of anger that such insecurity can produce: Trump and those like him managed to get a ticket in the swankiest carriage on the train, only to find themselves sitting alone. And if that’s how it’s going to be … well, the only answer is to derail the entire thing, from locomotive to caboose, and make everyone suffer”.
It’s a not so funny take on how resentment is a monstrous political force, and is at work in the USA.
At his rally Monday night Trump described Joe Biden as cognitively impaired and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an “animal” for impeaching him twice “for nothing”.
Trump resents everyone who never respected him in the Oval office, calling the left radical and crazy, and promising an announcement on Oct. 15, which will likely be his decision to run again.
President Biden said last night “you can’t only love your country when you win” and stated “Today we face an inflection point. We know in our bones that our democracy’s at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it,”
I try to comfort myself watching all this with the idea that maybe we are over stating the influence of hate, and that voters will go to the polls focused on the things that matter - the price of gas, and inflation of all kinds, immigration, or gun law reform, crime or women’s rights, and on and on down the shopping list of what really matters.
But the fact 300 Republicans who are on the ballot are 2016 election deniers, means very soon these people will be in Congress making laws and governing. The Dems will likely lose the House, and there’s a big question whether they can hold the Senate.
And within a few days a very different America will emerge not from the political chaos, but deeper in chaos than before and that’s hard to fathom.
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/11/elon-trump-resentment/672030/
Other News…
-Climate chaos? A new hurricane is barrelling towards the east coast of Florida this week. This as leaders from 120 countries are meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to discuss next steps in curbing climate change. "We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the summit. Poorer countries are asking for compensation from richer nations blamed for climate change.
-In Ukraine a major battle for control of Kherson is about to kick off. It could be weeks or days away. Ukrainian forces have bombarded bridges across the Dnipro with missiles, to try and cut Russia's supply lines to the city from the east and south. Ukrainian forces have also been advancing gradually on the city from the north west and the north east. Russia has evacuated tens of thousands of residents and has placed soldiers in residential buildings readying for the fight.
-The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has held confidential discussions with his Russian counterpart, Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, and senior Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, over the past several months. The men had discussed ways to guard against the risk of nuclear escalation in the war in Ukraine, but had not engaged in any negotiations around ways to end the conflict.
Try to have a good day everyone!
Dana Lewis