Hello and happy Friday! Also, congratulations. If you’re reading this, it means that you’ve managed to survive this whirlwind of a news week with your faculties intact. If that isn’t a reason to venture out for a celebratory pint, I don’t know what is.
Since Britain (and a number of other countries) are back in lockdown, such celebrations will unfortunately have to wait. I’ll be treating myself to a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in the meantime. Roll on, December 2!
In podcast news:
I joined The Bunker podcast early Wednesday morning to discuss the U.S. presidential election! Tune in for my very sleep-deprived take on the immediate aftermath of the vote.
I also had the pleasure of joining the Institute for Government’s Inside Briefing podcast, in which we chatted about the U.S. election and Britain’s second lockdown.
Finally, I was interviewed by Next Generation Politics’ The Roundtable podcast about how the U.S. election is being perceived overseas.
What I’ve written
No matter who wins the U.S. presidency, one outcome is certain: Populism is here to stay.
I wrote about how this presidential race reaffirms that Donald Trump’s iconoclastic, antiestablishment style of politics remains an attractive, durable force for a large swathe of the American public. The question then for Biden and the anti-populists who supported him is this: What does the decisive defeat of right-wing populism in America look like? And how can they ensure that the Americans who supported Trump aren’t swayed by another populist voice in four years time? I share some thoughts here
As far as voting blocs go, overseas Americans are an easy group to forget. This diverse collection of émigrés, members of the military, and children of American parents are not only physically absent, but relatively few in number: There are about 5.5 million of them scattered across the globe, approximately 3 million of which are eligible to vote (though a small fraction of them normally do).
This year, that seems to be changing: Though we won’t know the final numbers for a while, I wrote about how overseas voting organizations and U.S. states have recorded a surge in overseas ballot requests this year compared to 2016. In close contests, Americans abroad might even tip the balance. Keep reading here
What I’ve read
This excellent profile of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (feat. this especially prescient passage):
“There is a temptation to view Trump as an aberration, she says, rather than a wake-up call to failures of American government at large. Under a President Biden, ‘if his life doesn’t feel different,’ she points to a cab driver whizzing by our table, ‘if their life doesn’t feel different,’ she gestures to people walking by the beauty shop and Bengali Halal Grocery, ‘if these people’s lives don’t actually feel different’—now she is giving a stump speech over her omelet—’we’re done. You know how many Trumps there are in waiting?’”
This superb piece from the New York Times on the disappearance of Mesut Özil, the Arsenal midfielder and one of the Premier League’s highest-paid players:
“Eager to avoid the kind of public dispute that had imperiled the N.B.A.’s billion-dollar business relationship with China, the Premier League did its best to stay above the fray. But the league and its clubs seem to pick and choose their interventions. … Özil’s mistake, then, appears to be less that he had made a political statement and more that he had picked the wrong issue.”
This smart piece by my colleague Christian Paz, who flagged our misconceptions about the Latino vote well before Election Day:
“Liberals may accuse these Latinos of voting against their own interests, given Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and restrictions on immigration—all issues that affect millions of Latino lives. But many pro-Trump Latinos told me they simply define their interests differently than their more progressive cousins do. … Democrats shouldn’t be surprised if Trump matches or improves on his 2016 showing among Latinos, or if their votes help him hold battleground states. Republican Latinos have always existed, and the Trump campaign has dedicated significant resources to winning over more of the Hispanic community this election cycle.”
What I’m thinking about
The last time the U.S. had a one-term president, it was when George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. His concession speech is something to behold:
Until next time,
Yasmeen
P.S. In a bit of a role reversal, I was interviewed for eMagazine’s “Behind the Page” series! We talked journalism, the importance of looking beyond our own doorsteps, and the best part of my job: Learning from folks who are a lot smarter than me. You can give it a read here.