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I will always be grateful to a friend, who did not want me to spend the 2024 election night alone, despite my determination to isolate. By evening Pacific time, we could see how things were going, and I am glad I said yes to his company. I sat down at his table, and helped myself to a coloring book and pencils, and started mindlessly drawing. He and his wife fed me, and offered me stories of Resistance, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see on their muted television screen the moment the Trump Crime Family took the stage. I had promised myself I would leave America if he was voted in a second time. And at 2 am I wrote this column for Byline Times:
An elegy for my country. It reads like bittersweet poetry.
Two years of global degradation later, and we stand on the precipice of another election.
I want to return the favor a friend once showed me, and make sure that you know you don’t have to spend the day alone.
Bette members are invited to join our Blessing of the Midterms Happy Hour, where we will be joined by a group of global thinkers from the U.S. and Europe, to rally our spirits, sober and clear eyed.
As I told our panelists for tomorrow, I’m a natural born optimist but I’m under no illusions and stand with David Livingstone Smith’s assertion in my latest Hot Type column “that there is a widespread, quasi-delusional belief that Democratic wins will go a long way towards curing our political malaise. This vastly underestimates the severity of the MAGA problem. Democratic success will be a huge narcissistic injury to Trump, and will make him even more dangerous.”
And then in my head, I hear Bad Religion’s lyric about the grim misfortunes of ‘modern man’ who built a cruel empire and then dying from his own arrogance, and I feel a flicker of that thing called hope.
Against all hope, I hope.
A beautiful gift of a phrase I received from Marci Shore, who sent it to me in the original Latin: contra spem spero.
That Latin phrase is also the title of a Ukrainian poem from 1890, written by the poet Lesya Ukrainka, which ends with these words (translated):
Yes, I'll smile, indeed, through tears and weeping
Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,
Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,
I shall live! You thoughts of grief, away!
I feel hope in that Ceauşescu way, in that way where things end badly for the oppressors.
I think Donald Trump should be doing everything in his power to ensure the International Criminal Court continues to function, rather than trying to destroy it, which he is doing.
His best possible outcome is the civility of law.
Just ask the Romans.
Geopolitical analyst Monique Camarra is among our guests tomorrow, and she just happens to be reading the foundations of the Declaration of Independence, which she says is inspiring her in this moment.
On that dark night two years ago, my friend who did not want me to be alone on election night, also gave me a gift, passing it along from a blacklisted writer: “You still have to have a happy life.”
I have carried that with me everywhere.
Hope to see many of you and grateful as always for the support.
To register for our Happy Hour, keep scrolling to the bottom of the post. xo
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Her Hot Type column appears in Byline Supplement. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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