thenation--2020-11-17--Kim Stanley Robinson Bears Witness to Our Climate Futures

In his latest book , The Ministry for the Future , Kim Stanley Robinson presents a vision of the coming decades that straddles dystopia and utopia , horror and hope—revealing a near-future Earth of increasingly severe climate effects and humanity ’ s radical responses to them .
Robinson constructs this ambitious bricolage novel from fictionalized eyewitness accounts , including those of climate refugees , interweaving them with essayistic ruminations on finance , power , and the environment .
It ’ s an appropriately sprawling form , anchored around reports by members of a UN organization called the Ministry for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safeguard future generations .
Mary Murphy , its head and the book ’ s central protagonist , carries the weight of the novel as an idealistic presence confronting a fast-approaching catastrophe .
With exacting detail , Robinson not only evokes conditions of extreme heat , socioeconomic turmoil , and other grim events but synthesizes a vast amount of scientific , economic , and social research to explore solutions that can enable rapid decarbonization .
At times , this is central to the book ’ s plot , as in the wildlife-filled habitats based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ half-earth ” thesis .
At others , remedies are presented in fleeting stand-alone chapters ; Spanish worker-owned cooperative Mondragon is showcased as an alternative model to capitalism .
Elsewhere , the novel ’ s warming skies are filled with solar aerosols and zeppelin-like airships , while “ invisible revolutions ” —legal , technological , and otherwise—exercise less conspicuous but no less profound effects on life .
The result is arguably Robinson ’ s most urgent novel yet : a road map to avoiding worst case scenarios and a clear-eyed call to action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was residing on an island just off the coast of Maine , what he calls a “ giant knob of granite ” with trails , peaks , and a thriving wildlife community , including muskrat , river otter , and mink .
It is , he says , a far cry from his California home in the central valley , a once teeming landscape that now resembles an “ industrial factory floor for making food.
” Over the course of our conversation , we discussed the effects of rising temperatures , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the importance of extending solidarity to nonhuman beings .
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity .
Lewis Gordon : Ministry for the Future begins with a deadly heat wave in India .
I started reading the book during a weekend of extreme heat in London .
The air was dense and oppressive .
I could smell melting plastic and rubber ; ultimately , the horror you were describing felt closer than ever .
How did it feel writing that passage ?
Kim Stanley Robinson : It was a terrible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fearful that something like this will occur pretty soon with increases in wet-bulb temperatures .
I think India in particular is in danger , and I wanted the country to be an important part of the novel .
After I finished the book , an article appeared in the scientific literature with findings that we were hitting these temperatures increasingly frequently , with a sense that this will continue .
LG : The dread is palpable , and America itself has been subjected to extreme heat this past summer .
What has your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in recent years ?
KSR : In California , we ’ ve had days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit , but it ’ s a dry heat .
Really , it ’ s the wet-bulb temperature , which I ’ ve only experienced for a few days , long ago in Florida .
But everybody gets air-conditioning , and if your air-conditioning is working , then you become an indoor creature .
The problem is solved through mechanical means .
LG : In a 2018 essay for Commune , you describe the idea of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ fashionable , ” “ even complacent .
Bearing in mind that the book is set only a few years in the future , do you consider the opening dystopian , or is it something else ?
KSR : I think it fits the definition of dystopia quite well .
But even in that essay , I hope I made it clear that dystopia and utopia are a dialectical pair which can ’ t be pulled apart .
In the context of Ministry for the Future , we ’ re teetering on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slap people with .
Nothing ’ s fixed forever ; it ’ s only in novels where you have these purified essences of historical situations .
In fact , it ’ s going to be a complete mix from now on .
I wanted the book to suggest that even if we get dystopian moments , and we ’ re on the cusp of utter catastrophe and a mass extinction event , we can still pull ourselves out of it by concerted political and social actions .
LG : The book ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disorienting .
You ’ ve described it as an attempt to get all the latest climate change developments into one story .
How did the form coalesce ?
KSR : Tim Holman has a big part to play in this .
He ’ s been the most marvelous editor , stimulating and encouraging me once I start running with ideas , some of which he ’ s even planted in my head .
Like my 2017 novel , New York 2140 , the idea of making it an apartment novel , so to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ setting it in New York when I wanted to discuss global finance .
For Ministry for the Future , he suggested the form of a docudrama .
I certainly wanted the international scope , I wanted to talk about everything , and I wanted to provide polemical explanations for why things are happening the way they are and how they might change .
So I took his idea , and it was confusing and troublesome until I realized that the eyewitness account is a genre of its own .
The eyewitnesses tell you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it removes itself from the usual rules of fiction .
What you get is an enormous amount of compression , and a kind of slashing move towards significance .
There are judgments rendered by the eyewitness of what things mean , and often it ’ s retrospective , even by decades .
When I realized I could make up eyewitness accounts , that was the key .
LG : There ’ s a big emphasis on work and laboring in your novels .
Ministry for the Future is about the sheer labor involved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in forensic detail the process of establishing a colony .
Both feel utopian .
In that same Commune essay , you wrote , “ Maybe we should just give up entirely on optimism or pessimism—we have to do this work no matter how we feel about it.
” Do you think work is an overlooked component of utopia ?
KSR : Maybe so .
There might be a folk understanding of utopia that relates it back to the Land of Cockaigne and other pre–Thomas More yearnings where you don ’ t have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life in order to stay fed .
In that context , utopia suggests that things would run so well that work would be voluntary , shared , or done by machines .
I think the right to work , the dignity to work , and the idea that it ’ s actually bad not to have work is a post-Marx or 20th century development .
The bourgeois novel is famous for not being able to write about work because it ’ s too boring .
The story of work is the repetition of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only when things go wrong do you have a plot .
The novel isn ’ t well suited to describe the repetition and the interests of work per se .
In Red Mars , the idea of building a town has drama to it because it ’ s on an inhospitable new planet ; the work can be described and be of interest as a plot .
In Ministry for the Future , the work is everybody shifting their lives to decarbonization , and the technocracy of the ministry itself as a form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working on the project , part of the machine .
LG : Do you think the coronavirus has changed our conception of work ?
KSR : One thing I see for sure : My son works in a grocery store and is therefore categorized as an essential worker .
He gets a bit of hazard pay because he ’ s exposed .
All of the people who are doing the jobs that keep us going , that are treated as cogs in a machine at minimum wage , our perspective on them has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t even get paid enough to live properly ; the discrepancy is so stark .
If people have to do their own work , or everybody has to get a living wage , the ultimate upshot of that is a form of post-capitalism .
Getting to that from where we are now will require some real organization and political guts .
It will be a wicked fight .
LG : On that note , protest and civil unrest occur repeatedly in Ministry for the Future .
I ’ m curious to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter protests this year .
KSR : I was surprised and impressed at the intensity , and also at how many suburban white people were joining these protests .
I think the sheer awfulness of the murder of George Floyd was a flashpoint .
The video brought home something everybody knew but had never had thrust into their eyeballs so horrifically before .
There had been discussion but never this sense of travesty .
And so , getting real change going forwards out of that moment .
I ’ ve been very interested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] demonstrations are parties ; they ’ re easy , and then they go away .
You feel you ’ ve expressed your sense of righteous indignation , you ’ ve done something that ’ s physical , you ’ ve been reassured , and then everything goes back to normal .
And the actual work of political change has to do with incredibly tedious and meticulous attending of school board meetings and town council meetings , staying engaged as a citizen , and doing something that feels like a waste of one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fun .
It goes on and on , and you don ’ t see the changes for years , if ever .
This kind of work is hard to stick with .
Donna Haraway calls this “ staying with the trouble “ —and staying with the trouble is hard .
Doing that at the University of California , Davis , over a decade ago fighting a land battle , I realized that there are things that are both boring and interesting at the same time .
It ’ s very important to recognize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s stupid , but it ’ s also more interesting than watching your screen at home , even though it ’ s like slow-motion bad reality TV .
LG : In an interview with the New Statesman last year , you said that “ trying to imagine how we redirect the immense inertia of our current system gets quite frightening.
” Ministry for the Future does precisely that , particularly with regard to the banking sector , which is reoriented toward environmental and social good through a carbon coin system .
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as this can occur ?
KSR : I would reject optimism or pessimism , but this is not my idea .
I ’ ve been reading it in the literature , and it struck me as a plausible mechanism .
If you strip it down , capital only really goes for profit , and saving the biosphere is not a profitable exercise , therefore , by straightforward syllogism , we ’ re doomed .
So how can you change that without some highly hypothetical overthrow of the entire system ?
The central banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with quantitative easing , but what if that was directed not to private banks to do their usual stupid thing of profit-making but to do useful work that the central banks designate by some simple rubric of carbon sequestration .
When I read it , I thought , maybe that ’ s a way forward : using an existing system but more intelligently , a long-term biosphere , survivalist-type method .
These are not very responsive institutions , except to one thing , which is to control the inflation and deflation rates .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the Future was the idea that in order to keep their money stable , they would have to save the world , and that still strikes me as funny , and not at all implausible .
Another thing that kept coming back to me when I was writing the book was how these ideas sound utopian crazy .
We have that hegemonic response in our heads—an imitation of common sense—that says , “ Well , that couldn ’ t happen.
” And then something radical happens in real history to show the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : You ’ ll likely have a better perspective on this than me , but it feels as if left-wing thought is beginning to incorporate animals , nature , nonhumans , into a political ideology or worldview where perhaps it was lacking .
The coronavirus , in particular , has highlighted the dangers of nonhuman exploitation and its relationship with the spread of zoonotic diseases .
What ’ s your perception of this development within leftist thinking ?
KSR : For a long time , it ’ s been a very vexed topic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there was a split on the left between environmentalists and human-centric leftists .
The one side seemed to regard nature as just the raw material for humans , and that was incredibly anthropocentric , and the other was often accused of being a bourgeois ideology of people comfortable enough to worry about the natural world and the whales .
So , on that divide I was always a green , but it seemed to me as a leftist , the two were the same .
People talk about the European greens having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who are green on the outside but red on the inside .
This is to create a distinction that is just a bad split of two forms of anti-capitalism .
And when you regard nature as our extended bodies , the first biosphere is the human being .
For either to thrive , both have to thrive .
Certainly for humans to thrive , the biosphere has to thrive .
Regarding the moral standing of animals , through historical time , and this is a leftist thing , we ’ ve extended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Then there ’ s a divide where—and this comes through animal rights starting in the 18th century—if rights go from men to women to children , there are no more slaves .
Slowly but surely the idea of personhood expands out .
One more step and you get things like Ecuador ’ s Constitution , where the forest has rights and the personhood of wild animals .
We ’ re in a mass extinction event ; it ’ s dreadful .
This needs to be integrated into any leftist program , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wild and domestic .

This article appears in the November 30/December 7, 2020 issue.
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In his latest book, The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson presents a vision of the coming decades that straddles dystopia and utopia, horror and hope—revealing a near-future Earth of increasingly severe climate effects and humanity’s radical responses to them. Robinson constructs this ambitious bricolage novel from fictionalized eyewitness accounts, including those of climate refugees, interweaving them with essayistic ruminations on finance, power, and the environment. It’s an appropriately sprawling form, anchored around reports by members of a UN organization called the Ministry for the Future, a technocratic body created to safeguard future generations. Mary Murphy, its head and the book’s central protagonist, carries the weight of the novel as an idealistic presence confronting a fast-approaching catastrophe.
With exacting detail, Robinson not only evokes conditions of extreme heat, socioeconomic turmoil, and other grim events but synthesizes a vast amount of scientific, economic, and social research to explore solutions that can enable rapid decarbonization. At times, this is central to the book’s plot, as in the wildlife-filled habitats based on biologist E.O. Wilson’s “half-earth” thesis. At others, remedies are presented in fleeting stand-alone chapters; Spanish worker-owned cooperative Mondragon is showcased as an alternative model to capitalism. Elsewhere, the novel’s warming skies are filled with solar aerosols and zeppelin-like airships, while “invisible revolutions”—legal, technological, and otherwise—exercise less conspicuous but no less profound effects on life. The result is arguably Robinson’s most urgent novel yet: a road map to avoiding worst case scenarios and a clear-eyed call to action.
I spoke to the author while he was residing on an island just off the coast of Maine, what he calls a “giant knob of granite” with trails, peaks, and a thriving wildlife community, including muskrat, river otter, and mink. It is, he says, a far cry from his California home in the central valley, a once teeming landscape that now resembles an “industrial factory floor for making food.” Over the course of our conversation, we discussed the effects of rising temperatures, the work involved in achieving meaningful change, and the importance of extending solidarity to nonhuman beings.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
—Lewis Gordon
Lewis Gordon: Ministry for the Future begins with a deadly heat wave in India. I started reading the book during a weekend of extreme heat in London. The air was dense and oppressive. I could smell melting plastic and rubber; ultimately, the horror you were describing felt closer than ever. How did it feel writing that passage?
Kim Stanley Robinson: It was a terrible, dreadful experience. I’m fearful that something like this will occur pretty soon with increases in wet-bulb temperatures. I think India in particular is in danger, and I wanted the country to be an important part of the novel. After I finished the book, an article appeared in the scientific literature with findings that we were hitting these temperatures increasingly frequently, with a sense that this will continue. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
LG: The dread is palpable, and America itself has been subjected to extreme heat this past summer. What has your experience been, either in 2020 or in recent years? Related Article Mati Diop’s ‘Atlantics’ Is a Startling Study of Power Namwali Serpell
KSR: In California, we’ve had days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, but it’s a dry heat. Really, it’s the wet-bulb temperature, which I’ve only experienced for a few days, long ago in Florida. But everybody gets air-conditioning, and if your air-conditioning is working, then you become an indoor creature. The problem is solved through mechanical means.
LG: In a 2018 essay for Commune, you describe the idea of dystopia as “perhaps lazy,” “fashionable,” “even complacent. Bearing in mind that the book is set only a few years in the future, do you consider the opening dystopian, or is it something else?
KSR: I think it fits the definition of dystopia quite well. But even in that essay, I hope I made it clear that dystopia and utopia are a dialectical pair which can’t be pulled apart. In the context of Ministry for the Future, we’re teetering on the brink of a dystopia I wanted to slap people with. Nothing’s fixed forever; it’s only in novels where you have these purified essences of historical situations. In fact, it’s going to be a complete mix from now on. I wanted the book to suggest that even if we get dystopian moments, and we’re on the cusp of utter catastrophe and a mass extinction event, we can still pull ourselves out of it by concerted political and social actions.
LG: The book’s structure, initially at least, is disorienting. You’ve described it as an attempt to get all the latest climate change developments into one story. How did the form coalesce?
KSR: Tim Holman has a big part to play in this. He’s been the most marvelous editor, stimulating and encouraging me once I start running with ideas, some of which he’s even planted in my head. Like my 2017 novel, New York 2140, the idea of making it an apartment novel, so to speak, was his, as was setting it in New York when I wanted to discuss global finance. For Ministry for the Future, he suggested the form of a docudrama. I certainly wanted the international scope, I wanted to talk about everything, and I wanted to provide polemical explanations for why things are happening the way they are and how they might change.
So I took his idea, and it was confusing and troublesome until I realized that the eyewitness account is a genre of its own. The eyewitnesses tell you things—they don’t show you things—and it removes itself from the usual rules of fiction. What you get is an enormous amount of compression, and a kind of slashing move towards significance. There are judgments rendered by the eyewitness of what things mean, and often it’s retrospective, even by decades. When I realized I could make up eyewitness accounts, that was the key.
LG: There’s a big emphasis on work and laboring in your novels. Ministry for the Future is about the sheer labor involved in decarbonization, while Red Mars describes in forensic detail the process of establishing a colony. Both feel utopian. In that same Commune essay, you wrote, “Maybe we should just give up entirely on optimism or pessimism—we have to do this work no matter how we feel about it.” Do you think work is an overlooked component of utopia?
KSR: Maybe so. There might be a folk understanding of utopia that relates it back to the Land of Cockaigne and other pre–Thomas More yearnings where you don’t have to work like a farm animal all your life in order to stay fed. In that context, utopia suggests that things would run so well that work would be voluntary, shared, or done by machines. I think the right to work, the dignity to work, and the idea that it’s actually bad not to have work is a post-Marx or 20th century development.
The bourgeois novel is famous for not being able to write about work because it’s too boring. The story of work is the repetition of things that ultimately go right, and only when things go wrong do you have a plot. The novel isn’t well suited to describe the repetition and the interests of work per se. In Red Mars, the idea of building a town has drama to it because it’s on an inhospitable new planet; the work can be described and be of interest as a plot. In Ministry for the Future, the work is everybody shifting their lives to decarbonization, and the technocracy of the ministry itself as a form of work. We’re all working on the project, part of the machine.
LG: Do you think the coronavirus has changed our conception of work?
KSR: One thing I see for sure: My son works in a grocery store and is therefore categorized as an essential worker. He gets a bit of hazard pay because he’s exposed. All of the people who are doing the jobs that keep us going, that are treated as cogs in a machine at minimum wage, our perspective on them has changed. The people doing essential work don’t even get paid enough to live properly; the discrepancy is so stark. If people have to do their own work, or everybody has to get a living wage, the ultimate upshot of that is a form of post-capitalism. Getting to that from where we are now will require some real organization and political guts. It will be a wicked fight.
LG: On that note, protest and civil unrest occur repeatedly in Ministry for the Future. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the Black Lives Matter protests this year.
KSR: I was surprised and impressed at the intensity, and also at how many suburban white people were joining these protests. I think the sheer awfulness of the murder of George Floyd was a flashpoint. The video brought home something everybody knew but had never had thrust into their eyeballs so horrifically before. There had been discussion but never this sense of travesty. And so, getting real change going forwards out of that moment. I’ve been very interested in the scientific literature that [shows] demonstrations are parties; they’re easy, and then they go away. You feel you’ve expressed your sense of righteous indignation, you’ve done something that’s physical, you’ve been reassured, and then everything goes back to normal.
And the actual work of political change has to do with incredibly tedious and meticulous attending of school board meetings and town council meetings, staying engaged as a citizen, and doing something that feels like a waste of one’s hours that is not very fun. It goes on and on, and you don’t see the changes for years, if ever. This kind of work is hard to stick with. Donna Haraway calls this “staying with the trouble“—and staying with the trouble is hard. Doing that at the University of California, Davis, over a decade ago fighting a land battle, I realized that there are things that are both boring and interesting at the same time. It’s very important to recognize that you’re bored, it’s stupid, but it’s also more interesting than watching your screen at home, even though it’s like slow-motion bad reality TV.
LG: In an interview with the New Statesman last year, you said that “trying to imagine how we redirect the immense inertia of our current system gets quite frightening.” Ministry for the Future does precisely that, particularly with regard to the banking sector, which is reoriented toward environmental and social good through a carbon coin system. How optimistic are you that a change such as this can occur?
KSR: I would reject optimism or pessimism, but this is not my idea. I’ve been reading it in the literature, and it struck me as a plausible mechanism. If you strip it down, capital only really goes for profit, and saving the biosphere is not a profitable exercise, therefore, by straightforward syllogism, we’re doomed. So how can you change that without some highly hypothetical overthrow of the entire system? The central banks have been creating money out of nothing with quantitative easing, but what if that was directed not to private banks to do their usual stupid thing of profit-making but to do useful work that the central banks designate by some simple rubric of carbon sequestration. When I read it, I thought, maybe that’s a way forward: using an existing system but more intelligently, a long-term biosphere, survivalist-type method.
These are not very responsive institutions, except to one thing, which is to control the inflation and deflation rates. What struck me as funny for Ministry for the Future was the idea that in order to keep their money stable, they would have to save the world, and that still strikes me as funny, and not at all implausible. Another thing that kept coming back to me when I was writing the book was how these ideas sound utopian crazy. We have that hegemonic response in our heads—an imitation of common sense—that says, “Well, that couldn’t happen.” And then something radical happens in real history to show the perceived solidity of the system.
LG: You’ll likely have a better perspective on this than me, but it feels as if left-wing thought is beginning to incorporate animals, nature, nonhumans, into a political ideology or worldview where perhaps it was lacking. The coronavirus, in particular, has highlighted the dangers of nonhuman exploitation and its relationship with the spread of zoonotic diseases. What’s your perception of this development within leftist thinking?
KSR: For a long time, it’s been a very vexed topic for me. I’d say that there was a split on the left between environmentalists and human-centric leftists. The one side seemed to regard nature as just the raw material for humans, and that was incredibly anthropocentric, and the other was often accused of being a bourgeois ideology of people comfortable enough to worry about the natural world and the whales. So, on that divide I was always a green, but it seemed to me as a leftist, the two were the same. People talk about the European greens having red roots or there’s watermelon people who are green on the outside but red on the inside. This is to create a distinction that is just a bad split of two forms of anti-capitalism. And when you regard nature as our extended bodies, the first biosphere is the human being. For either to thrive, both have to thrive. Certainly for humans to thrive, the biosphere has to thrive.
Regarding the moral standing of animals, through historical time, and this is a leftist thing, we’ve extended rights outward to more and more people. Then there’s a divide where—and this comes through animal rights starting in the 18th century—if rights go from men to women to children, there are no more slaves. Slowly but surely the idea of personhood expands out. One more step and you get things like Ecuador’s Constitution, where the forest has rights and the personhood of wild animals. We’re in a mass extinction event; it’s dreadful. This needs to be integrated into any leftist program, the idea that animals are citizens too, wild and domestic.


thenation--2020-11-17--American Democracy Was Never Supposed to Work

If the United States were a democracy , this election wouldn ’ t have been close .
The fate of the world wouldn ’ t depend on a handful of suburban precincts .
The winner would have been known immediately .
With a comfortable lead well into the millions , the president-elect and his party could have moved on to crafting and passing the program that gained them an undeniable mandate .
But we do not have a democracy , and not because Trump undermined it but because the framers of the Constitution did not create one .
They felt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power in the hands of economic populists in the states , and so they constructed a system meant to serve and protect the rich .
The Constitution was designed specifically to prevent , as James Madison put it in the Federalist Papers , “ an abolition of debts ” or “ an equal distribution of property ” from passing into law .
Nearly two and a half centuries on , the antidemocratic provisions of the Constitution are still working as the framers intended .
Even in an era of global capital , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government .
When early election results suggested a Joe Biden presidency with Republicans maintaining their grip on the Senate , the Associated Press reported that “ stocks rallied on Wall Street as investors embraced the upside of more gridlock in Washington.
” Divided government , these investors seem to think , will derail what Madison called “ wicked or improper projects ” : the abolition of student debt , higher taxes on the wealthy , the Green New Deal .
More than progressive economic measures , however , democracy itself is being thwarted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 1787 , opposition to rule by the people was one of the few things the delegates in Philadelphia could agree upon .
They spent the first few days of the convention reassuring one another of their antidemocratic credentials .
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was typical in deeming democracy “ the worst of all political evils.
” The Constitution they designed included provisions and mechanisms meant to water down the popular will and block a more equal distribution of wealth .
The president would be selected not by the people but by an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the state legislatures .
The Senate , with equal votes for every state , large and small , would ensure that citizens of large , populous states had far less influence over legislation and judicial appointments than those in smaller ones .
Alexander Hamilton wanted its members to serve lifetime terms , for “ nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.
” Though he opposed giving each state equal votes , James Madison thought the upper house should serve “ as a check on the democracy , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those who “ labor under all the hardships of life , and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings.
” The US Constitution Is Over 2 Centuries Old and Showing Its Age Far from resolving a decade of paralysis and crisis , the 2020 election has only confirmed doubts about the stability of American democracy , institutions , and the constitutional order .
The Democrats ’ apparent failure to recapture the Senate—assuming anything less than a miracle in Georgia this January—removes the possibility , for the foreseeable future , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offset its structural disadvantages , such as expanding the courts and admitting Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states .
Merely ousting Trump is not enough without addressing more fundamental weaknesses in our political system , especially an outdated Constitution that continues to serve a minority of wealthy and white citizens and to curb any movements that might threaten their wealth and power .
The antidemocratic Senate , for example , is the main obstacle to passing serious legislation on climate change .
Without a practical plan for revising the Constitution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by rigged rules .
This is a 1780s-like moment in which the existing Constitution seems incapable of responding to crises yet is too difficult to amend .
The choice Americans faced then , between national rupture or national renewal , is the one we face now .
We can still choose the latter , but it will require devising new institutions that empower the many instead of the few .
A constitutional convention may be required to fix some of the flaws of the original charter .
The Senate has to be abolished @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national affairs .
Term limits on the Supreme Court should be instituted so that each presidential term sees the same number of vacancies .
The House of Representatives has to be expanded , as it has not been since 1911 , when the country had less than one-third of its present population .
To be sure , even a constitutional convention may not be enough to reverse the country ’ s descent into dysfunction , perhaps even dissolution .
It could itself trigger a breakdown of the political order .
Yet that might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States is to survive for any kind of worthy purpose , such as leading a global effort to avert climate catastrophe .
More than a new president , we need a radical reimagining of what this country can and must become—nothing less than a full-scale attempt at national renewal .

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If the United States were a democracy, this election wouldn’t have been close. The fate of the world wouldn’t depend on a handful of suburban precincts. The winner would have been known immediately. With a comfortable lead well into the millions, the president-elect and his party could have moved on to crafting and passing the program that gained them an undeniable mandate.
But we do not have a democracy, and not because Trump undermined it but because the framers of the Constitution did not create one. They felt the Articles of Confederation left too much power in the hands of economic populists in the states, and so they constructed a system meant to serve and protect the rich. The Constitution was designed specifically to prevent, as James Madison put it in the Federalist Papers, “an abolition of debts” or “an equal distribution of property” from passing into law.
Nearly two and a half centuries on, the antidemocratic provisions of the Constitution are still working as the framers intended. Even in an era of global capital, the wealthy benefit from a sclerotic, dysfunctional government. When early election results suggested a Joe Biden presidency with Republicans maintaining their grip on the Senate, the Associated Press reported that “stocks rallied on Wall Street as investors embraced the upside of more gridlock in Washington.” Divided government, these investors seem to think, will derail what Madison called “wicked or improper projects”: the abolition of student debt, higher taxes on the wealthy, the Green New Deal.
More than progressive economic measures, however, democracy itself is being thwarted by the Constitution. In the summer of 1787, opposition to rule by the people was one of the few things the delegates in Philadelphia could agree upon. They spent the first few days of the convention reassuring one another of their antidemocratic credentials. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was typical in deeming democracy “the worst of all political evils.”
The Constitution they designed included provisions and mechanisms meant to water down the popular will and block a more equal distribution of wealth. The president would be selected not by the people but by an Electoral College whose members would be appointed by the state legislatures. The Senate, with equal votes for every state, large and small, would ensure that citizens of large, populous states had far less influence over legislation and judicial appointments than those in smaller ones. Alexander Hamilton wanted its members to serve lifetime terms, for “nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.” Though he opposed giving each state equal votes, James Madison thought the upper house should serve “as a check on the democracy,” a way to impede the influence of those who “labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings.” Related Article The US Constitution Is Over 2 Centuries Old and Showing Its Age Richard Kreitner
Far from resolving a decade of paralysis and crisis, the 2020 election has only confirmed doubts about the stability of American democracy, institutions, and the constitutional order. The Democrats’ apparent failure to recapture the Senate—assuming anything less than a miracle in Georgia this January—removes the possibility, for the foreseeable future, of steps the party might have taken to offset its structural disadvantages, such as expanding the courts and admitting Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states.
Merely ousting Trump is not enough without addressing more fundamental weaknesses in our political system, especially an outdated Constitution that continues to serve a minority of wealthy and white citizens and to curb any movements that might threaten their wealth and power. The antidemocratic Senate, for example, is the main obstacle to passing serious legislation on climate change. Without a practical plan for revising the Constitution, Democrats will be condemned to play by rigged rules.
This is a 1780s-like moment in which the existing Constitution seems incapable of responding to crises yet is too difficult to amend. The choice Americans faced then, between national rupture or national renewal, is the one we face now. We can still choose the latter, but it will require devising new institutions that empower the many instead of the few. A constitutional convention may be required to fix some of the flaws of the original charter. The Senate has to be abolished or otherwise deprived of its veto over national affairs. Term limits on the Supreme Court should be instituted so that each presidential term sees the same number of vacancies. The House of Representatives has to be expanded, as it has not been since 1911, when the country had less than one-third of its present population.
To be sure, even a constitutional convention may not be enough to reverse the country’s descent into dysfunction, perhaps even dissolution. It could itself trigger a breakdown of the political order. Yet that might be a risk worth taking if the United States is to survive for any kind of worthy purpose, such as leading a global effort to avert climate catastrophe. More than a new president, we need a radical reimagining of what this country can and must become—nothing less than a full-scale attempt at national renewal.


thenation--2020-11-17--In a Parallel Universe, Trump Accepts Loss

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thenation--2020-11-17--Trump and the GOP Intensify Their Assault on Democracy

The Signal this week is the extraordinary , chilling attack on democracy that the Trumpified Republican Party is now perpetuating .
Since the election was called , on November 7 , Trump has repeatedly asserted , despite all evidence being to the contrary , that he won the election ; that “ legal votes ” were cast for him and fraudulent ones for his opponent ; and that he has no intention of conceding to President-elect Joe Biden—even though Biden has 306 Electoral College votes to Trump ’ s 232 .
Trump ’ s attorneys have launched numerous lawsuits , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certification of votes in key states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan , but more realistically intended simply to muddy the waters in the run-up to the official certification of the vote count in each state .
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , Vice President Mike Pence , and trade adviser Peter Navarro have all said they are working on the assumption that there will be a second Trump term .
Attorney General Bill Barr has given the go-ahead to federal prosecutors to go off on fishing expeditions looking for election fraud .
Government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ budget for next year that assumes Trump is still president and that his political priorities will still be dictating government policy .
The General Services Administration has refused to set in motion the process needed to begin a presidential transition .
Biden has been frozen out of National Security briefings and Covid-19 planning sessions .
And White House staff have reportedly been told they will be fired if they so much as look at job advertisements that might be useful to them for a post-Trump era .
As if all this weren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ purged the Defense Department ’ s civilian leadership in the past week , has also begun purging intelligence agencies , and is reputed to be thinking of firing the CIA and FBI chiefs .
In each instance , the replacements for the purged men and women are extreme Trump loyalists , installed by John McEntee , the 30-year-old head of White House personnel ( and the same official reportedly threatening White House personnel for seeking post–Trump administration jobs ) .
McEntee ’ s key selection criterion seems to be nothing more or less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than to the Constitution ; as a byproduct of seeking people so morally malleable , one recent appointment has a long , unsavory track record of spouting conspiracy theories and racial and religious bigotries .
Given Trump ’ s very public efforts to invoke the Insurrection Act back in June and unleash the US military against domestic protesters , these personnel changes should set alarm bells ringing throughout government and among the general populace .
Good Riddance to Trump : A Political Obituary I Have Waited 5 Years to Write It doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putsches and institutional vandalism have extended to scientific agencies .
Last week the White House removed the chief scientist overseeing the National Climate Assessment , paving the way for installing a climate change skeptic in his place .
This past weekend , thousands of extremists—many of them wearing Proud Boys , Oath Keepers , Three Percenter , and other militia and street-fighting insignia—descended on Washington to decry the election results .
Trump fanned the flames by organizing a coy drive-by , allowing him to wave at his MAGA brigades from his car without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as night fell , street fights broke out between these gangs and their opponents .
Again , Trump seemed to revel in stoking civil discord , tweeting about “ ANTIFA SCUM ” and urging the D.C. police to wade into the fray and to show no mercy ( to the antifa activists , of course ) .
This is all foul stuff , intended to undermine every pillar of American democracy in a way that will be difficult to recover from .
And it is ensuring that tens of millions of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the illegitimate product of an intricate web of conspiracies and electoral malfeasance .
In bygone times , Democrats and Republicans would have come together to denounce such nonsense , to protect the well-being of the country .
In these debased political days , the GOP is incapable of maintaining even the pretense of adherence to democratic standards .
And so we continue the lurch toward Trumpian nihilism , with a power-crazed president refusing to concede electoral defeat , and an opportunistic , pliant , GOP Senate majority and House minority aiding and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continued existence of American democracy .
Trump likely won ’ t win , in the sense of staying in power after January 20 , but he is showing that he can further divide the country even in defeat , and that he has every desire to pit American against American in the coming weeks and months .
Meanwhile , the Covid-19 crisis hasn ’ t vanished , as Trump kept asserting it would during the final days of the campaign .
Instead , it has now morphed into a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day , a situation that threatens to swamp hospital systems in dozens of states and unleash a winter of death that will see many tens of thousands of Americans die of this ghastly disease .
The president ’ s response ?
Apart from cheerleading a vaccine that won ’ t be available to most Americans for several months , and threatening to withhold that vaccine from New Yorkers once it is , silence .
His advisers ’ response ?
Trump ’ s newfound favorite , Dr. Scott Atlas—who , it should be emphasized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan residents to “ rise up ” against Governor Gretchen Whitmer ’ s new public health orders .
This is insanity on a nation-busting scale .
America has survived plagues in the past .
It has survived civil war and political upheaval .
It has survived mediocre and corrupt leaders .
And it has survived federal-state tensions .
But today , in late 2020 , it is facing multiple and escalating crises simultaneously : It is being led by a narcissistic , power-hungry president with , at best , a tenuous grip on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a political party that has abandoned even the appearance of respect for the formal trappings of democracy ; has a White House that has either gone AWOL when it comes to tackling a lethal pandemic or decided that it serves its political interests to let the disease run rampant ; and is witnessing a coordinated effort to sabotage the results of a national election and purge the government of officials with the stature to stand up to this treachery .
Of course , some of this is just the usual Trumpian Noise , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ damaged man .
But at this point , Noise and Signal overlap so thoroughly they ’ re almost a perfect fit .
There are nine weeks to go until the inauguration .
Trump has made it clear he will fill these nine weeks with chaos , rage , violence , and vengeance .
He is doing everything he can to undermine public confidence in the election , and everything he can to bend the agencies of government to his will as he offers one nebulous reason after the next for why he should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times “ perilous ” is as banal as calling Einstein a scientist .
The viability of American democracy , the ability of the system to navigate peaceful transfers of power after elections , the positive image of America in the eyes of the world , are all under threat right now .
As the assault on democracy intensifies , the question for today , for tomorrow , and for every day between now and January 20 is , as the old union fight song goes , Which side are you on ?
Which @ @ @ @ @

The Signal this week is the extraordinary, chilling attack on democracy that the Trumpified Republican Party is now perpetuating.
Since the election was called, on November 7, Trump has repeatedly asserted, despite all evidence being to the contrary, that he won the election; that “legal votes” were cast for him and fraudulent ones for his opponent; and that he has no intention of conceding to President-elect Joe Biden—even though Biden has 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. Trump’s attorneys have launched numerous lawsuits, ostensibly intended to nullify the counting and certification of votes in key states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, but more realistically intended simply to muddy the waters in the run-up to the official certification of the vote count in each state. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, and trade adviser Peter Navarro have all said they are working on the assumption that there will be a second Trump term. Attorney General Bill Barr has given the go-ahead to federal prosecutors to go off on fishing expeditions looking for election fraud. Government agencies are being told to prepare a budget for next year that assumes Trump is still president and that his political priorities will still be dictating government policy. The General Services Administration has refused to set in motion the process needed to begin a presidential transition. Biden has been frozen out of National Security briefings and Covid-19 planning sessions. And White House staff have reportedly been told they will be fired if they so much as look at job advertisements that might be useful to them for a post-Trump era.
As if all this weren’t bad enough, Trump has thoroughly purged the Defense Department’s civilian leadership in the past week, has also begun purging intelligence agencies, and is reputed to be thinking of firing the CIA and FBI chiefs. In each instance, the replacements for the purged men and women are extreme Trump loyalists, installed by John McEntee, the 30-year-old head of White House personnel (and the same official reportedly threatening White House personnel for seeking post–Trump administration jobs).
McEntee’s key selection criterion seems to be nothing more or less than absolute, unquestioning loyalty to Trump-the-person rather than to the Constitution; as a byproduct of seeking people so morally malleable, one recent appointment has a long, unsavory track record of spouting conspiracy theories and racial and religious bigotries. Given Trump’s very public efforts to invoke the Insurrection Act back in June and unleash the US military against domestic protesters, these personnel changes should set alarm bells ringing throughout government and among the general populace. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann More From Sasha Abramsky Good Riddance to Trump: A Political Obituary I Have Waited 5 Years to Write Sasha Abramsky Is Trump Planning a Coup d’État? Sasha Abramsky
It doesn’t stop there. The post-election putsches and institutional vandalism have extended to scientific agencies. Last week the White House removed the chief scientist overseeing the National Climate Assessment, paving the way for installing a climate change skeptic in his place.
This past weekend, thousands of extremists—many of them wearing Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenter, and other militia and street-fighting insignia—descended on Washington to decry the election results. Trump fanned the flames by organizing a coy drive-by, allowing him to wave at his MAGA brigades from his car without actually mingling with them. Hours later, as night fell, street fights broke out between these gangs and their opponents. Again, Trump seemed to revel in stoking civil discord, tweeting about “ANTIFA SCUM” and urging the D.C. police to wade into the fray and to show no mercy (to the antifa activists, of course).
This is all foul stuff, intended to undermine every pillar of American democracy in a way that will be difficult to recover from. And it is ensuring that tens of millions of Trump voters will assume that the Biden presidency is the illegitimate product of an intricate web of conspiracies and electoral malfeasance. Current Issue View our current issue
In bygone times, Democrats and Republicans would have come together to denounce such nonsense, to protect the well-being of the country. In these debased political days, the GOP is incapable of maintaining even the pretense of adherence to democratic standards. And so we continue the lurch toward Trumpian nihilism, with a power-crazed president refusing to concede electoral defeat, and an opportunistic, pliant, GOP Senate majority and House minority aiding and abetting him in his assault on the continued existence of American democracy. Trump likely won’t win, in the sense of staying in power after January 20, but he is showing that he can further divide the country even in defeat, and that he has every desire to pit American against American in the coming weeks and months.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 crisis hasn’t vanished, as Trump kept asserting it would during the final days of the campaign. Instead, it has now morphed into a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe, with more than 150,000 new infections per day, a situation that threatens to swamp hospital systems in dozens of states and unleash a winter of death that will see many tens of thousands of Americans die of this ghastly disease. The president’s response? Apart from cheerleading a vaccine that won’t be available to most Americans for several months, and threatening to withhold that vaccine from New Yorkers once it is, silence. His advisers’ response? Trump’s newfound favorite, Dr. Scott Atlas—who, it should be emphasized, is not an infectious disease specialist—urges Michigan residents to “rise up” against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s new public health orders.
This is insanity on a nation-busting scale. America has survived plagues in the past. It has survived civil war and political upheaval. It has survived mediocre and corrupt leaders. And it has survived federal-state tensions. But today, in late 2020, it is facing multiple and escalating crises simultaneously: It is being led by a narcissistic, power-hungry president with, at best, a tenuous grip on reality; is being held hostage by a political party that has abandoned even the appearance of respect for the formal trappings of democracy; has a White House that has either gone AWOL when it comes to tackling a lethal pandemic or decided that it serves its political interests to let the disease run rampant; and is witnessing a coordinated effort to sabotage the results of a national election and purge the government of officials with the stature to stand up to this treachery.
Of course, some of this is just the usual Trumpian Noise, the usual undignified rantings of a deeply damaged man. But at this point, Noise and Signal overlap so thoroughly they’re almost a perfect fit.
There are nine weeks to go until the inauguration. Trump has made it clear he will fill these nine weeks with chaos, rage, violence, and vengeance. He is doing everything he can to undermine public confidence in the election, and everything he can to bend the agencies of government to his will as he offers one nebulous reason after the next for why he should remain in power.
To call these times “perilous” is as banal as calling Einstein a scientist. The viability of American democracy, the ability of the system to navigate peaceful transfers of power after elections, the positive image of America in the eyes of the world, are all under threat right now. As the assault on democracy intensifies, the question for today, for tomorrow, and for every day between now and January 20 is, as the old union fight song goes, Which side are you on? Which side are you on?


thenation--2020-11-17--How Georgia Went Blue

How Georgia Went Blue

The last time a Democratic presidential nominee won Georgia was in 1992 , when only 10 websites existed , Ross Perot was splitting the vote , and Donald Trump was cameoing in Home Alone 2 .
This year , President-elect Joe Biden won the state , Carolyn Bourdeaux flipped Georgia ’ s Seventh Congressional District , and two Democratic Senate candidates have forced critical runoffs .
There was no one author of Democrats ’ success ; it was a victory by the many .
And Georgia isn ’ t the only state where that was true .
In reporting on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the media has naturally sought a protagonist—and found the perfect one in Stacey Abrams .
Early on , Abrams recognized that demographic changes in Georgia meant Democrats could have a chance there if they organized .
So she formed a blueprint for a gubernatorial race , presented her argument to donors across the country and executed that plan , winning more voters than any Democratic candidate in Georgia ’ s history .
After Abrams narrowly lost—and perhaps was cheated out of her victory—some speculated she might even run for president herself .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem in front of her by working to overcome the voter suppression efforts that had cost her the governorship .
She formed an organization called to end illegal voter purges , unjust poll closures , the long lines that seemed to crop up largely in neighborhoods of color , and other underhanded tactics .
After several years of hard work and registering more than 500,000 new voters , Georgia turned blue .
Read the full text of Katrina ’ s column here .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
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The last time a Democratic presidential nominee won Georgia was in 1992, when only 10 websites existed, Ross Perot was splitting the vote, and Donald Trump was cameoing in Home Alone 2. This year, President-elect Joe Biden won the state, Carolyn Bourdeaux flipped Georgia’s Seventh Congressional District, and two Democratic Senate candidates have forced critical runoffs. There was no one author of Democrats’ success; it was a victory by the many. And Georgia isn’t the only state where that was true.
In reporting on how Georgia went from red to blue, the media has naturally sought a protagonist—and found the perfect one in Stacey Abrams. Early on, Abrams recognized that demographic changes in Georgia meant Democrats could have a chance there if they organized. So she formed a blueprint for a gubernatorial race, presented her argument to donors across the country and executed that plan, winning more voters than any Democratic candidate in Georgia’s history.
After Abrams narrowly lost—and perhaps was cheated out of her victory—some speculated she might even run for president herself. Instead, she decided to solve the problem in front of her by working to overcome the voter suppression efforts that had cost her the governorship. She formed an organization called to end illegal voter purges, unjust poll closures, the long lines that seemed to crop up largely in neighborhoods of color, and other underhanded tactics. After several years of hard work and registering more than 500,000 new voters, Georgia turned blue.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.


thenation--2020-11-18--‘If You Want to Make the Gods Laugh, Tell Them Your Plans’

tlanta—This is a story , two actually , about expectations and the chance that even the most reasoned plan is at risk of surprise .
One involves elections , the other love , during Covid-19 .
Before working as a nonpartisan election protector in Georgia this November , I took a training that stressed the importance of making a visual inspection of people ’ s faces and physical demeanor as they exited the polls .
Did they look distressed ?
If so , maybe something had happened inside to obstruct their vote : Check it out and report any irregularity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ floated between Dacula and Suwanee , in Gwinnett County , things turned out to be less straightforward .
Be mindful , I ’ m doing this split-second visual inspection while social distancing , trying to read people ’ s eyes , looking for stress above their face mask as they walk at a steady pace to get to work or home , or simply go about their day .
Where people wore masks , visual observation was virtually impossible .
In one large polling place in Suwanee , traffic was nonstop .
People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on their masks , entered the community center , and hurried out when they were done .
For a minute , my fellow protectors and I thought about stopping people who weren ’ t wearing an “ I voted ” sticker to ask if they ’ d had difficulty .
If they were anything like me , though , they would have rejected the sticker , a clear problem with this strategy .
Where people didn ’ t wear masks , like the mostly white voters at an elementary school out in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t spot signs of distress .
Did that mean no one was distressed ?
I didn ’ t find any major irregularities , and as of November 9 , Biden lead Trump in Gwinnett County 241,827 votes to 166,413 .
As I write , Georgia is doing a recount ; the news is focused on that and the latest spike in coronavirus infections and deaths .
But people always have a lot more going on in their lives .
A Walk in the Woods During a Season of Uncertainty ‘ Why Tell Me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ More in this series Late last year , around the same time that we in the United States started hearing news about Covid-19 , I rekindled a relationship with a love interest .
I had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms during December and felt sick the entire month of January .
In February , the relationship evolved as we articulated to each other that at our age we are in the autumn of our lives , with winter rapidly approaching .
We thought it would be a good idea to pool our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spent so much time together on weekends .
We thought we matched .
Until then , I had lived as a true bachelor in D.C. , with satin pillowcases for the ladies and a fully stocked bar , with no children or pets in the house .
My lady lived in Baltimore , with her young daughter .
The plan !
I would move to Baltimore and start living and working in “ Charm City.
” So around the second week of February I rented out my house , packed my belongings , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bar , and moved .
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out .
For anyone who doesn ’ t catch the reference , that ’ s the line in I , Claudius where Claudius , the Roman emperor , lets his court know that he has decided to marry for a third time .
My lady and I discovered we had fundamental differences early on .
I mean , try living with someone who does not believe in the thing that has forced everyone in the country into isolation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She avoids the news like the plague and relies on Instagram and Facebook .
I vote , and planned to work with an election protection civil rights organization .
She does not vote , mainly because of her citizenship status ; however , I get the feeling that if she could vote , she would not .
I love her free spirit , “ Grand Central Station , ” social butterfly attitude .
That is what so attracted me to her , right ?
But now , it ’ s a pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personality is a liability .
Her favorite phrase is that the pandemic is a “ Plandemic.
” I am sure she got the phrase from her Instagram feeds .
I took the pandemic seriously from the start , and gave her daily updates .
The city and the entire country were heading for shutdown , I said ; we should stock up on supplies and wait this out .
At first , I commuted to my law office in D.C. , which was occupied by me and my associate .
We had separate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we wore face shields as well as masks .
When we stopped allowing clients to visit , I was , for the most part , alone all day ; then I would return home to Baltimore .
Contrariwise , my lady felt she was not going to be “ mind controlled , ” as she would often say .
“ We are all operating out of fear.
” On occasion , when I would return home , she would be entertaining guests—no one wearing a mask , no social distancing .
Lesson : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hits .
What a way to discover differences !
I am in Atlanta now , waiting to start work as a public defender in Macon , Ga. , expecting , as any criminal lawyer must , that nothing is a sure bet .
What can be said is that no matter the best-laid arrangements , if you want to make the gods laugh , just tell them your plans .
Scenes From a Pandemic is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind , a living memorial to radical journalist Andrew Kopkind , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief political writer and analyst .
This series of dispatches from Kopkind ’ s far-flung network of participants , advisers , guests , and friends is edited by Nation contributor and Kopkind program director JoAnn Wypijewski , and appears weekly on thenation.com and kopkind.org .

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A tlanta—This is a story, two actually, about expectations and the chance that even the most reasoned plan is at risk of surprise. One involves elections, the other love, during Covid-19.
Before working as a nonpartisan election protector in Georgia this November, I took a training that stressed the importance of making a visual inspection of people’s faces and physical demeanor as they exited the polls. Did they look distressed? If so, maybe something had happened inside to obstruct their vote: Check it out and report any irregularity. On Election Day, as I floated between Dacula and Suwanee, in Gwinnett County, things turned out to be less straightforward. Be mindful, I’m doing this split-second visual inspection while social distancing, trying to read people’s eyes, looking for stress above their face mask as they walk at a steady pace to get to work or home, or simply go about their day.
Where people wore masks, visual observation was virtually impossible. In one large polling place in Suwanee, traffic was nonstop. People got out of their vehicles, put on their masks, entered the community center, and hurried out when they were done. For a minute, my fellow protectors and I thought about stopping people who weren’t wearing an “I voted” sticker to ask if they’d had difficulty. If they were anything like me, though, they would have rejected the sticker, a clear problem with this strategy. Where people didn’t wear masks, like the mostly white voters at an elementary school out in the sticks in Dacula, I didn’t spot signs of distress. Did that mean no one was distressed?
I didn’t find any major irregularities, and as of November 9, Biden lead Trump in Gwinnett County 241,827 votes to 166,413. As I write, Georgia is doing a recount; the news is focused on that and the latest spike in coronavirus infections and deaths. But people always have a lot more going on in their lives. Scenes From a Pandemic Untethered, or The Year of Living Virtually Patricia J. Williams The Art of the Meal Mary Lewis Maybe We Shouldn’t Go Back to Normal Bri M.
Late last year, around the same time that we in the United States started hearing news about Covid-19, I rekindled a relationship with a love interest. I had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms during December and felt sick the entire month of January. In February, the relationship evolved as we articulated to each other that at our age we are in the autumn of our lives, with winter rapidly approaching. We thought it would be a good idea to pool our resources and cohabitate, especially because we spent so much time together on weekends. We thought we matched.
Until then, I had lived as a true bachelor in D.C., with satin pillowcases for the ladies and a fully stocked bar, with no children or pets in the house. My lady lived in Baltimore, with her young daughter. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
The plan! I would move to Baltimore and start living and working in “Charm City.” So around the second week of February I rented out my house, packed my belongings, including the satin pillowcases and fully stocked bar, and moved. Current Issue View our current issue
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out. For anyone who doesn’t catch the reference, that’s the line in I, Claudius where Claudius, the Roman emperor, lets his court know that he has decided to marry for a third time. My lady and I discovered we had fundamental differences early on. I mean, try living with someone who does not believe in the thing that has forced everyone in the country into isolation. I am a news junkie. She avoids the news like the plague and relies on Instagram and Facebook. I vote, and planned to work with an election protection civil rights organization. She does not vote, mainly because of her citizenship status; however, I get the feeling that if she could vote, she would not.
I love her free spirit, “Grand Central Station,” social butterfly attitude. That is what so attracted me to her, right? But now, it’s a pandemic, and people have died, and her personality is a liability. Her favorite phrase is that the pandemic is a “Plandemic.” I am sure she got the phrase from her Instagram feeds.
I took the pandemic seriously from the start, and gave her daily updates. The city and the entire country were heading for shutdown, I said; we should stock up on supplies and wait this out. At first, I commuted to my law office in D.C., which was occupied by me and my associate. We had separate offices, and when meeting clients, we wore face shields as well as masks. When we stopped allowing clients to visit, I was, for the most part, alone all day; then I would return home to Baltimore.
Contrariwise, my lady felt she was not going to be “mind controlled,” as she would often say. “We are all operating out of fear.” On occasion, when I would return home, she would be entertaining guests—no one wearing a mask, no social distancing. Lesson: You never know someone until an emergency hits. What a way to discover differences!
I am in Atlanta now, waiting to start work as a public defender in Macon, Ga., expecting, as any criminal lawyer must, that nothing is a sure bet. What can be said is that no matter the best-laid arrangements, if you want to make the gods laugh, just tell them your plans.
Scenes From a Pandemic is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind, a living memorial to radical journalist Andrew Kopkind, who from 1982–94 was the magazine’s chief political writer and analyst. This series of dispatches from Kopkind’s far-flung network of participants, advisers, guests, and friends is edited by Nation contributor and Kopkind program director JoAnn Wypijewski, and appears weekly on thenation.com and kopkind.org.