Hello, and Happy New Year! This first correspondence of 2022, like most everything else that has been published this week, will focus on the anniversary of January 6. Like most people, I remember exactly what I was doing on the day that a group of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol. It was a Wednesday evening here in London, and I had decided to fire up my projector so that I could tune into the U.S. coverage of the Electoral College certification while doing some chores. So far, so boring.
Before long, the coverage turned to what was happening outside the Capitol Building, where tens of thousands of Trump supporters had gathered in protest. Everything seemed relatively calm—until it wasn’t. I spent most of that evening darting between the U.S. news streaming in my bedroom and the U.K. news playing in my living room, comparing and contrasting how reporters on both sides of the Atlantic were making sense of the unprecedented scenes being displayed. Was it a protest? A mob? A coup?
Within 24 hours, we finally had a word for it: insurrection.
There is no shortage of poignant and thoughtful reflections on the anniversary and the state of American democracy today. Some of my favorites (yes, they’re all from The Atlantic—not really sure what you expected) are below:
The Coup at 30,000 Feet by Christian Paz
The Strangest Ongoing Mystery of January 6 by Elaine Godfrey
Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun by Barton Gellman
What I’ve written
Much of the reflection surrounding the anniversary of January 6 has focused on the Capitol insurrection as a singularly American event—one that challenged the country’s perception of its politics, the strength of its institutions, and the story that the United States tells about itself.
But as I wrote for my first piece of 2022, January 6 didn’t happen just to America:
One year on, world leaders facing reelection are looking to Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” tactics as a playbook for how they too can sow doubt in the democratic process and, if necessary, subvert an election. U.S. diplomats, who were once tasked with promoting the virtues of American democracy, have lost credibility as liberal democracy’s defenders. Keep reading here
What I’ve read
This chilling long read about how climate change has shaped California's “trans-apocalyptic” future (The New York Times)
Relinquishing the idea of normal will require strength, levelheadedness, optimism and bravery, the grit to keep clinging to some thin vine of hope as we swing out of the wreckage toward some solid ground that we cannot yet see. “We’re no longer dealing with a fire regime in the woods that responds to the kinds of mild prevention and mild responses, the sensible responses we have thought about, and that thought alone is a crisis,” Steffen said. “It means the lives we had we no longer have.”
This thoughtful essay on the spiritual crisis threatening the future of the (dis)United Kingdom (The Atlantic)
When you speak to people in Westminster—the heart of the British state—the extent of their pessimism about the future of the country is striking. One friend of mine, who wished to remain anonymous because his public profile makes it difficult for him to speculate openly about the future of the country, told me a story about his grandfather, who had fought for Austria-Hungary before escaping to Britain after its collapse. When he died, he was buried in the United Kingdom, but in a coffin draped in the flag of the old empire, the state that had protected him, as a Jew, and which he had fought for and remained loyal to ever since. His grandson, who has fought under the flag of the United Kingdom, told me his own fear was that he might suffer the same fate—buried by his grandchildren in the flag of a nation he had fought for and served, but which had long since passed into history.
This insightful piece on one good thing that happened in 2021 (The Beinart Notebook)
[Palestinian commentators] presence shifted the terms of debate about Israel-Palestine in roughly the same way that the increased presence of Black commentators like Nicole Hannah-Jones has shifted America’s domestic debate about race. In ways that echo the 1619 Project, Palestinian critics went beyond current events to ask subversive questions about Israel’s moral foundations. They saw in its behavior in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where the expulsion of Palestinians sparked last spring’s war, a manifestation of the deep structure of a state that has been banishing Palestinians since it was born.
What I’m thinking about
These great life lessons from Janan Ganesh and Helen Rosner, both of whom are celebrating their 40th birthdays this month. My personal favorite: “Get off social media. Don’t ‘take a break’ or explain your reasons: you are not a soul singer cutting short a Vegas residency. Just leave.”
Sound advice.
Until next time,
Yasmeen