Finally, some hope! Great history lesson from Gabe today regarding the tumultuous times surrounding creation of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Good thing we didn’t have Fox News or social media back then to help tear the country apart. Instead, there was an explosion of democracy-supporting newspapers and protests. And then what happened w…
Finally, some hope! Great history lesson from Gabe today regarding the tumultuous times surrounding creation of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Good thing we didn’t have Fox News or social media back then to help tear the country apart. Instead, there was an explosion of democracy-supporting newspapers and protests. And then what happened when the voters had their turn? The democracy and dissent quashers were annihilated in the polls in “one of only three times in U.S. history that a party has flipped control of the House, Senate, and White House in a single cycle.”
Don’t count out the forces for democracy. I think Gabe is wrong about support for Trump’s immigration policy. He did not consider poll questions regarding specific immigration measures Trump has tried. In fact, Americans disapprove of almost every action Trump has taken on immigration, including deporting people whose only crime is being here illegally, removing migrants who have been living and working here for at least ten years, removing people without due process and disobeying court orders. The only action of Trump’s that has major support is deporting undocumented migrants who have committed violent crimes. But even that has been eroding as multiple investigations show that only a small fraction of the deportees had records of violent crimes.
If more courts, law firms, universities and individuals hold strong in the face of this onslaught, we can hang on until the next elections and then exercise our own great power to vote.
If you find this history interesting you might want to read more about the election of 1800. It was a doozy. And it actually was not an explosion of democracy-supporting newspapers and protests. 😉 Instead it was an explosion of extremely partisan newspapers and mudslinging and personal attacks and lies (Adams was called a hermaphrodite and Jefferson was disparaged as an atheist & lots of sexual innuendo) which led to Adams & Jefferson not talking to each other for decades. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling is a really good read.
I take a lot of comfort and find a lot of hope in learning about the messy parts of history. Especially the understanding that we’ve gone through similar times of tumult and survived (and there was truly no golden age where things worked fairly or without conflict). Realizing that the founding fathers could be incredibly partisan (in many ugly ways) and had differing ideas of what the constitution meant reminds me that we’ve been struggling with these issues from the very beginning of the country.
Lately I’ve been doing dives into understanding the Gilded Age as there seem to be a heck of a lot of parallels to what we are going through. So often we learn the basics of history without fully grasping what it felt like to live through it when you don’t know how it will end. And now we are learning in real time what it feels like to live through a transformational time in our history. Whew.
Yay for hope! What you’re saying makes a lot of sense, Kate. Although in my comment I was just worrying that Trump’s fumble with the economy might make him strategize even more immigration drama to shore up his base support. You’re right that people hate his immigration policies when you describe them, but that’s a familiar phenomenon, like 2nd amendment advocates being broadly supportive of gun control policies when you break them down beyond just calling it “gun control” — it’s perhaps going to be difficult to persuade voters that what they are getting from the president on immigration is worth changing their support for him over it, unless it gets to a point where they cannot confuse what they see happening for what they voted for.
But like you were saying, that’s where the forces of democracy come in! People having conversations and dismantling the narratives that the government propaganda is trying to build. I am also hopeful that we can all see through it if we continue to demonstrate in big and small ways.
I hadn't read your comment. He can try to double down on immigration excesses, I suppose, but I would guess that most, if not all, non-MAGA voters, voted in favor of the campaign promise to deport violent criminals, not for what is happening now. The evidence for that is showing up in the polls. And the way this administration is executing its immigration policy has been a complete disaster, earning rebukes from courts at the lowest and highest levels, inviting scores of lawsuits and putting forward in the media the faces of Phd students, hair dressers and family men, not violent criminals. In spite of everything - Biden's late handoff to Harris, inflation blame and the photo-op-ready assassination attempt - the 2024 election was actually very close, with, as we all know, more people voting for someone other than Trump than for him. Considering the very thin majorities in both houses of Congress as well, not to mention the wholesale dismantling of government services and the horrible self-inflicted economic damage, I'd say we voters are in prime position to do some "damage" of our own in the upcoming statewide elections and next year's midterms.
Finally, some hope! Great history lesson from Gabe today regarding the tumultuous times surrounding creation of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Good thing we didn’t have Fox News or social media back then to help tear the country apart. Instead, there was an explosion of democracy-supporting newspapers and protests. And then what happened when the voters had their turn? The democracy and dissent quashers were annihilated in the polls in “one of only three times in U.S. history that a party has flipped control of the House, Senate, and White House in a single cycle.”
Don’t count out the forces for democracy. I think Gabe is wrong about support for Trump’s immigration policy. He did not consider poll questions regarding specific immigration measures Trump has tried. In fact, Americans disapprove of almost every action Trump has taken on immigration, including deporting people whose only crime is being here illegally, removing migrants who have been living and working here for at least ten years, removing people without due process and disobeying court orders. The only action of Trump’s that has major support is deporting undocumented migrants who have committed violent crimes. But even that has been eroding as multiple investigations show that only a small fraction of the deportees had records of violent crimes.
If more courts, law firms, universities and individuals hold strong in the face of this onslaught, we can hang on until the next elections and then exercise our own great power to vote.
If you find this history interesting you might want to read more about the election of 1800. It was a doozy. And it actually was not an explosion of democracy-supporting newspapers and protests. 😉 Instead it was an explosion of extremely partisan newspapers and mudslinging and personal attacks and lies (Adams was called a hermaphrodite and Jefferson was disparaged as an atheist & lots of sexual innuendo) which led to Adams & Jefferson not talking to each other for decades. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling is a really good read.
I take a lot of comfort and find a lot of hope in learning about the messy parts of history. Especially the understanding that we’ve gone through similar times of tumult and survived (and there was truly no golden age where things worked fairly or without conflict). Realizing that the founding fathers could be incredibly partisan (in many ugly ways) and had differing ideas of what the constitution meant reminds me that we’ve been struggling with these issues from the very beginning of the country.
Lately I’ve been doing dives into understanding the Gilded Age as there seem to be a heck of a lot of parallels to what we are going through. So often we learn the basics of history without fully grasping what it felt like to live through it when you don’t know how it will end. And now we are learning in real time what it feels like to live through a transformational time in our history. Whew.
Thank you for the book recommendation – I’m going to check it out!
Yay for hope! What you’re saying makes a lot of sense, Kate. Although in my comment I was just worrying that Trump’s fumble with the economy might make him strategize even more immigration drama to shore up his base support. You’re right that people hate his immigration policies when you describe them, but that’s a familiar phenomenon, like 2nd amendment advocates being broadly supportive of gun control policies when you break them down beyond just calling it “gun control” — it’s perhaps going to be difficult to persuade voters that what they are getting from the president on immigration is worth changing their support for him over it, unless it gets to a point where they cannot confuse what they see happening for what they voted for.
But like you were saying, that’s where the forces of democracy come in! People having conversations and dismantling the narratives that the government propaganda is trying to build. I am also hopeful that we can all see through it if we continue to demonstrate in big and small ways.
I hadn't read your comment. He can try to double down on immigration excesses, I suppose, but I would guess that most, if not all, non-MAGA voters, voted in favor of the campaign promise to deport violent criminals, not for what is happening now. The evidence for that is showing up in the polls. And the way this administration is executing its immigration policy has been a complete disaster, earning rebukes from courts at the lowest and highest levels, inviting scores of lawsuits and putting forward in the media the faces of Phd students, hair dressers and family men, not violent criminals. In spite of everything - Biden's late handoff to Harris, inflation blame and the photo-op-ready assassination attempt - the 2024 election was actually very close, with, as we all know, more people voting for someone other than Trump than for him. Considering the very thin majorities in both houses of Congress as well, not to mention the wholesale dismantling of government services and the horrible self-inflicted economic damage, I'd say we voters are in prime position to do some "damage" of our own in the upcoming statewide elections and next year's midterms.