Up periscope

Sometimes I move into a silent “monastic mode” when I feel overwhelmed by the speed of our current administration’s activism. I wear a “string of solidarity” that was tied around my wrist in Selma by one of the Buddhist monks on their Walk for Peace. He was totally silent. I said just three words: “We are one.” Last week, the monks were reunited with one of their group who lost part of a leg in an automobile accident in Houston. They embraced in total silence.

I tend to retreat into history. When I was ten, I devoured the 1960 World Book Encyclopedia my parents bought for me. I read about the “Axis Powers” of World War 2. Unlike ChatGPT, I couldn’t “ask” the static World Book about the origin of the name “Axis.” Recently, I learned it came from a November 1, 1936 speech in Milan by Italy’s Benito Mussolini. He called the recent Berlin-Rome protocol “an axis around which all European States animated by the will for collaboration and for peace may collaborate.”

A new axis seems afoot, as regimes and oligarchies compete and/or cooperate, including China, Russia, and (now) the United States, in which leaders act in their self-interest within their spheres of influence. It feels like the US administration has changed teams, moving from the Allies to this new Axis, having “entered the portal,” like a promising college football player seeking the highest bidder.

As I raised the “periscope” from my retreat into silence, I found an insightful artifact: a lengthy, detailed September 17, 1935 report by the US Ambassador to Italy. Breckinridge Long relayed to Secretary of State Cordell Hull his conversation with Benito Mussolini, who responded to Long’s suggestion that Mussolini offer a compromise at an ongoing Geneva conference:

It is too late to talk of compromise. It is too late to withdraw any of my plans for operation in East Africa. I will proceed. I will not interfere with anyone. I do not expect anyone will interfere with me. But I will not permit interference. I have one million men under arms in Italy. I have a competent navy. I have an air force with a certain superiority. I will not permit interference from any source.

From “How Hitler found his blueprint for a German empire by looking to the American West,” by David Carroll Cochran, Waging Nonviolence, October 7, 2020.

America as Empire

In light of ongoing US action in Venezuela, and thinking about the US as Empire, an article in The Collector, “The 6 Empires That Shaped the Bible Story” made me ponder which of the six is the US most like. The article included some beautiful artwork, such as The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Francesco Hayez, 1867, from Wikimedia Commons:

From July 4, 1776 through December 6, 1941, America as Empire would have been absurd to most Americans. The nation had a long tradition of isolationism and aversion to overseas military action. Less than four years after Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US was the world’s greatest power. Harry Truman said, “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

Empire came gradually. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase expanded the US beyond the Eastern Seaboard. The War of 1812 solidified US independence. James Monroe declared the Western Hemisphere off limits to European colonization. Of the first 44 presidents, Theodore Roosevelt would have most enjoyed leading an Empire, a task inherited by his cousin Franklin, who died exhausted at age 63.

The US entered World War I late, but Woodrow Wilson worked to establish a “league of nations” to avert another war. But, US isolationism prevented the US Senate from ratifying the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations. The United Nations was formed immediately after WW2, creating an imperfect, though crucial, stability and a tradition of international law.

In 1970, while topping a hill on US Highway 82 near the Alabama/Mississippi border, I saw the top line of a billboard, which declared “Get Us Out.” I expected the message to read “of Vietnam,” but the rest of the billboard read, “Of the United Nations!” Then and now, a big question is: Who, or what, is sovereign?

From “The John Birch Society,” Wikipedia

Formation

Retirement is freedom to live into one’s deepest calling. For me, it’s spiritual formation, a term that sounds religious. Since much of the world’s public religion today is toxic, personal formation may be better. For the simplicity in this and the next few posts, I’ll call it, simply, Formation.

In 1968, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite was a major opinion-swayer. Lyndon Johnson understood the significance of Cronkite’s opinion that it was time to negotiate an end to America’s war in Vietnam. In my opinion, Fox News has become America’s most important opinion-swayer.

As an act of intentional formation, we no longer have TV cable. I subscribe to CNBC+ for $15 a month to access their financial news, so I don’t aspire to be a Desert Spiritualist. After our two-month camping trip, I’ve re-established a daily pattern of media intake that will continue to evolve. Here are links to today’s example of my first reads:

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, from the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, which I access via Substack. She is also available on YouTube and Facebook.

Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, a federal prosecutor for 25 years, is must reading in this age when (for now, at least), the judiciary is our only functioning “check and balance,” and it is wobbly. Vance helps me know (with wonderful Jewish precision and levity) the crucial legal issues of the week.

Those three are everyday “must reads” for me. Also, I check Robert Hubbell, whose Today’s Edition Newsletter tends to be encyclopedic. I use Hubbell to practice speed-reading. Today’s post. “Toto, I dont think we’re in 2024 anymore….” was a good review of Tuesday’s election results.

From “What the Frogs Know,” by Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse (cited above)

Project 2026

Early today, Heather Cox Richardson put the Trump budget bill in its historical context. Robert Hubbell said the “big ugly bill” poses potential political disaster for the Republican Party in 2026, even as the Democratc Party is being rejuvenated by younger, visionary leaders. Hubbell said in the Republican Party, “disagreement with Dear Leader on a single vote in the Senate spells the end of a respected Senator’s career. You tell me which party is in disarray.”

In contrast to the budget bill currently being considered by Congress, here’s another idea. Our son Rob asked ChatGPT, “How would you structure American society to be more equitable?”

ChatGPT responded: That’s a deep, important question — and there’s no single magic fix. But if I were designing a more equitable American society, I’d focus on systemic changes that don’t just treat symptoms but reshape opportunity structures. Here’s a high-level framework I’d suggest:

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1. Economic Foundations: A Floor No One Falls Below

• Universal basic needs — Guarantee access to healthcare, housing, food, and education so no one’s basic survival depends on luck or birth circumstances.
• Progressive taxation & wealth taxes — Reduce extreme inequality without punishing productive innovation, redirecting resources to social programs and infrastructure.

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2. Education: Level the Playing Field Early

• Equitable school funding — Break the tie between local property taxes and school budgets so poor areas aren’t perpetually under-resourced.
• Universal pre-K & affordable childcare — Give every child a strong start, regardless of parental income.
• Free or low-cost higher education / vocational training — So opportunity doesn’t hinge on family wealth.

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3. Health & Well-Being: Universal Coverage & Mental Health Parity

• Single-payer or robust public option healthcare — Decouple health insurance from employment so people aren’t trapped in bad jobs for benefits.
• Parity for mental health — Treat mental health care as essential, not optional.
• Preventive care incentives — Focus the system on keeping people healthy, not just treating illness.

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4. Labor & Wages: Reward Work Fairly

• Living wages indexed to local cost of living — So full-time workers don’t live in poverty.
• Stronger worker protections & collective bargaining rights — Reduce exploitation and give workers a real voice.
• Portable benefits — Health insurance, retirement, and other benefits should follow people between jobs or gig work.

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5. Criminal Justice: Fairness & Rehabilitation

• End cash bail & excessive fines — So poverty doesn’t equal jail time.
• Address systemic racism — Independent oversight, bias training, and demilitarizing police forces.
• Invest in rehabilitation & reentry — Reduce recidivism by helping former inmates build stable lives.

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6. Housing & Community Investment: Desegregate Opportunity

• Expand affordable housing — Through zoning reform and public investment.
• Target disinvested communities — Invest in infrastructure, transit, broadband, and small businesses in areas left behind by economic shifts.

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7. Democracy & Representation: Make Government Reflect the People

• Automatic voter registration & fair districting — Reduce gerrymandering and barriers to voting.
• Ranked-choice voting or proportional systems — Encourage more voices and reduce polarization.
• Campaign finance reform — Limit outsized influence of big donors.

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8. Address Intergenerational Inequality

• Child allowances or family supports — Directly reduce child poverty.
• Support for first-generation college students — Break cycles of disadvantage.

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Key Principle: Equity vs. Equality

• Equality gives everyone the same resources.
• Equity gives people what they need to overcome structural barriers — and that often means targeted investment.

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Of course, these aren’t easy fixes; they’d require political will, cultural shifts, and rethinking America’s deep assumptions about individualism and meritocracy. But they aim to ensure everyone has genuine opportunity — not just those who start out with advantages.

Where’s home?

During the height of the current tariff fiasco, CNBC’s bond commentator, Rick Santelli, and “Fast Money” host Melissa Lee had a brief, but pointed exchange about the tariffs’ impact. Lee’s grandfather immigrated from China to the US. Santelli is the grandson of four Italian immigrants. Santelli, known for “dynamic reporting,” took a swipe at “globalists,” saying he is a “patriot.”

I see the US patriots who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 as both patriots and globalists, but today’s focus is simply to ask, “Where’s home?” My parents were both born in Kentucky and raised in Tennessee. Three of my grandparents were from Kentucky, one was from Tennessee. The ancestral homes of my grandparents ranged from northeastern Kentucky to northwestern North Carolina.

Though I grew up in “sweet home Alabama,” about every six weeks I went “home” with my parents to east Tennessee. The Cumberland mountains are “home” for me, too. My last clergy appointment was in Jackson, Tennessee (2005-2010). My parents followed us there and both died there–for them a homecoming of sorts. Where’s home for you? Tim Snyder helps me think about where’s home:

From “Last Year’s Move to Toronto,” by Timothy Snyder, Thinking About…, June 2, 2025, a 22-minute video. Snyder, an Ohio native, has spent years living, working and traveling in Europe. After a long career at Yale, Snyder now holds the Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, a position supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies. Snyder has published ten books, including: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010); On Tyranny Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary (2020); On Freedom (2024).

Biggest mistake

I often schedule posts for publication at 12:05 am. Last night (12:05 this morning) I finished Timothy Ryback’s Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power, my six-day immersion into the six months prior to Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor by Germany’s President, Paul von Hindenburg.

Eleven chapters cover the last three months ending January, 1933. The title of the 22nd and final chapter is “January 30, 1933.” I read this book over the last six days of January, during the first ten days of the new administration in Washington, DC, which felt like another authoritarian takeover.

In January, 1933, the Nazi Party was broke and appeared defeated. Newspaper magnate Alfred Hugenberg, chair of the rival German National People’s Party, controlled a block of Reichstag delegates that would either make or break Hitler’s quest to be Germany’s Chancellor. Ryback wrote:

Hitler’s archrival sent him a 3-page letter and an olive branch. Hugenberg wrote of his “deep concern” about the long-term future of the conservative nationalist movement as a whole. He worried that the centrists were planning to siphon votes from the radical right into a coalition with the Social Democrats, tipping the political scales dangerously to the left, possibly into the hands of the Communists. (p. 215)

Hitler needed Hugenberg’s delegates. Hugenberg wanted to be Minister of Economics. They cut a deal. Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler Chancellor and Hugenberg to the cabinet. The next day, January 31, 1933, Hugenberg told a friend, “I just made the biggest mistake of my life.” (p. 301)

From “The document that might have stopped Hitler,” by T.O.I. staff, The Times of Israel, March 14, 2014.

Massive minority mandates

In 2024, Donald Trump received 49.8% of votes cast. Kamala Harris received 48.3%. It was 77,284,118 to 74,999,166 of 156,302,318. Last week, Mr. Trump’s speech (by teleconference) at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, began with these words:

…      This has been a truly historic week in the United States.  Three days ago, I took the oath of office, and we began the golden age of America.  The recent presidential election was won by millions of votes …. It was a massive mandate from the American people like hasn’t been seen in many years. ...

Mr. Trump considers his win by 2,284,952 votes, or 1.46%, to be a “massive mandate,” won “by millions of votes.” In politics, as in football, a win by one or two points can have “massive” significance.

Timothy Ryback’s recent article in The Atlantic describes the German election of 1933, which gave the National Socialist (Nazi) Party 37% of 600 German Reichstag (now Bundestag) seats, part of a right wing coalition that controlled 51% of the seats. Adolf Hitler was a compromise choice for Chancellor, but he told an American reporter he believed his 75% of 51% was enough to grant him absolute authority.

Hitler opened his first cabinet meeting “boasting that millions of Germans had welcomed his chancellorship with ‘jubilation,’ then outlined his plans for expunging key government officials and filling their positions with loyalists.” From “How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days,” by Timothy Ryback, The Atlantic, January 8, 2025. The next few posts will focus on Ryback’s March 2024 book, Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power.

Letters from an American

An essential news source for me is Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College. She is best known for her Letters, which are available at the Substack platform. Her Letters provide an essential context that helps me see current events in their broader historical context. It’s one person’s opinion (with extensive footnotes), but if I had to choose one person to provide a reliable context of current events, it would be Healther Cox Richardson. I’m sure she is my most quoted source.

Her Letters are written to a graduate student of history 200 years from now. Ponder that for a minute. She is intentionally writing a “first draft” of the history of our era.

Simply put, her historical anecdotes help me “connect the dots.” For example, she has helped me understand the immediate context of the MAGA movement as turning away from the FDR’s New Deal initiatives that lifted the US out of the Great Depression.

HCR has helped me see the longer context of the MAGA movement as moving the US back to the pre-Lincoln, pre-Civil War era, and the post-Reconstruction era of institutionalized white supremacy.

From HCR’s 7-minute explanation of the diverse anti-slavery coalition of the 1850s in “The Connecticut Forum,” with journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and moderator Jonathan Capehart, October 24, 2024, via YouTube.

The Bulwark

The Bulwark is a news and opinion website that is conservative in the best sense of that word. In 2018, Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes launched The Bulwark as a conservative, thoughtful and self-critical alternative to a Trump-dominated authoritarianism that claims to be “conservative.”

In their January 15 newsletter, themed “We Had a Good 50-Year Run, Folks,” Bill Kristol wrote that the second Trump term marks the end of an era that began with the resignation of Richard Nixon. His brief article provides a helpful context for understanding where we’ve been and where we’re headed.

Kristol wrote that “…the past half century, when compared with other 50-year stretches in American or world history, stands up well. Obviously progress is never linear or one-sided. Every achievement has its drawbacks, and every success leaves some problems unaddressed and creates others. Still, there was less war, more freedom, and greater prosperity. That’s not a bad record.”

The Bulwark is the successor to The Weekly Standard, which was founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes and John Podhoretz. See, “The Weekly Standard To Close; Anti-Trump Conservative Magazine Was Cable News Pipeline,” by Greg Evans, Deadline, December 17, 2018.

A Day of Remembrance

For me, this isn’t a Day of Mourning. November 25, 1963 was a Day of Mourning. Etched in my memory is John F. Kennedy’s riderless horse with boots facing backward. I remember older people describing their shock when Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at 63. April 14, 1945 was a Day of Mourning.

Jimmy Carter was elected Governor of Georgia at 47 in 1971 and President at 52 in 1976. It’s sobering that I remember when Carter was young. I began seminary in Atlanta midway through his term as Governor. He was elected President five months after I graduated.

I cannot mourn his death because he made the most of his long life. Bob Costas delivered eulogies for Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) and Stan Musial (1920-2013). In a 5-minute video, Costas reflects on Mantle’s regret for missed opportunities and Mantle’s respect for Musial for making the most of his.

Carter’s family and friends said he was determined to accomplish in retirement what he was unable to do because he was denied a second term. Carter’s “second term” was better than his first, and longer. It was 12 times longer–48 years. He saw opportunities in defeat and made the most of them.

A Day of Remembrance