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I recommend that all readers of Moristotle & Co. read the Sunday Review in the New York Times for November 1 [October 30 on the internet:“What have we lost?”]. Fifteen of the Times columnists explain “what the past four years have cost America and what’s at stake in this election.” It’s a sobering analysis and will ring true regardless of today’s election results:
- Persuasion. Trump has exploited and betrayed my friends.
By Nicholas Kristof - Innocence. I can’t look at America the same way.
By Frank Bruni - Imagination. Four years of cultural impoverishment.
By Michelle Goldberg - Pax Americana. Trump’s long international legacy.
By Paul Krugman - Faith. Smashing the ‘decency floor.’
By David Brooks - Generosity. Trump has normalized selfishness.
By Jennifer Senior - Naïveté. How could we have been so blind?
By Charles M. Blow - Our Word. No democracy takes Trump’s America seriously.
By Roger Cohen - Conservatism. Republicans trashed their reputation.
By Bret Stephens - A Female President. Trump is the patriarchy’s worst representative.
By Gail Collins - Our Illusions. There is nothing unprecedented about Trump.
By Jamelle Bouie - Allies. The whole world has gotten darker.
By Thomas L. Friedman - Pride. It’s exhausting to be this outraged all the time.
By Maureen Dowd - A Reckoning. Have we learned nothing?
By Ross Douthat - Apathy. This is the end of American complacency.
By Farhad Manjoo
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| The Old Farmer’s Almanac |
| Copyright © 2020 by William Silveira |
From The NY Times, a letter to its editor:
ReplyDeleteRe “What We’ve Lost” (Sunday Review, Nov. 1):
The commentary of the 15 columnists, while incredibly depressing, is a revelatory and powerful resource for the development of guidelines for the nation’s recovery from the past four years. It should be required reading for everyone in government, business, academia, politics and social movements. We must face what we have done and what has happened to us before we can make it better.
Kathleen Atkinson
Nahant, Mass.
And another:
ReplyDeleteRe “Our Illusions,” by Jamelle Bouie (Sunday Review, Nov. 1):
After reading this laser beam of an article, I’m reminded of how many times I wince when I hear politicians pushing back against President Trump by saying, “This is not who we are.” Currently, yes it is.
Do yourself a favor, America, and own what is happening right now. See it for what it is and look the ugliness in the eye. You can’t change the past but you can change the future if you own the present. Otherwise forget it.
Gary Jones
Vancouver, British Columbia
And another on Jamelle Bouie’s piece:
ReplyDeleteWhile Jamelle Bouie is absolutely right to point out the many ways President Trump’s depravities are rooted in our national failings, he misses one major Trump flaw that is not typical in our history: blatant shamelessness.
In the face of flaws like cruelty, racism, corruption and lies, we had pre-Trump become more aware of our historical wrongs, and had refrained from boasting about them. Now, political correctness to the winds, Mr. Trump, his Republican enablers and their Republican base seem to revel in gloating over the very sins we would wish to eradicate. That sense of shamelessness is new.
So while we should keep these sins in the front of our awareness moving forward, and not fall back into a blissful-but-ignorant slumber, we need to regain a sense of shame.
James Berkman
Boston
More – they’re SO GOOD!:
ReplyDeleteThe point that Donald Trump is the acute stage of a disease that had already sickened the country has been made in eloquent form by a number of writers on The Times’s Opinion pages. And of course getting rid of him will get rid of some of the putrefying effects of his presence in the White House.
But every pandemic has its vector, and I believe that the strongest vector for coarseness of language, dishonesty, conspiracy theories — the list of symptoms is long — is the unedited internet. Words that would never be used in ordinary society have become ordinary, conspiracy theories and rumor that wouldn’t have been uttered openly are now blasted far and wide shamelessly.
Censorship is not really a cure, but a vaccination of sorts is, perhaps, what should be called for. Perhaps more time spent in school on critical thinking and rhetoric may be a start. Perhaps a little more parental guidance would help. I have to leave it to experts to try to find either a preventive or a cure, but to do that, you have to focus on all the vectors.
David Buchsbaum
Wellesley, Mass.
David Brooks professes to be shocked that President Trump has repeatedly pushed past what he considers a floor of decency and gotten away with it. Really? This is nothing new. I recall lies used to attack Max Cleland’s and John Kerry’s patriotism. Racist tropes and memes used to attack the Obama family. Lies about phony death panels. A president using talk of “welfare queens” and “young bucks” to gin up anger and resentment among his base.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans have been stomping on this floor of decency for decades.
Peter Whitehouse
Mount Pleasant, S.C.