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TODAY’S EVENT BEGINS IN FOUR HOURS.
I look forward to seeing many Bette members today for 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, 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 lyrics about the grim misfortunes of ‘modern man’ who built a cruel empire and then died 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.
She offers us this rousing patriotic reminder:
As it so happens, I’ve been reviewing John Locke’s Second Treatise (1689), a work of political thought that informed the American founders, along with documents they published up to the Declaration of Independence, including the Virginia Bill of Rights and other state constitutions. They’re perfect for understanding the founders’ mission and what they hoped America would be well into the future.
It all started with a radical idea at the time: according to natural law (not conventional or man-made laws), we are all equal and free the moment we are born, and according to the same universal law, we have a duty not to harm other human beings, their bodies, health, life, property, or happiness. This was explicitly expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which told the world what the United States was and stood for.
This idea we and other liberal democracies take for granted today rocked the world (mostly Great Britain) because it challenged the thinking that kings had a divine right to rule over others—that someone has more of a right by birth or virtue than you or I to rule over us without our consent. That’s the real shot that rang around the world. It all seems to have been forgotten as I see these foundational principles completely trampled and discarded by corruption, subversion, intellectual laziness, and short-sightedness. Aristotle called men who do this “beasts” because they work against the common good of the polis, the political community, and without its consent, just like Putin, Xi, and their political and business allies in our modern political world, immoral “beasts” who violate every known natural human right. It’s simply wrong. My hope is the electors remember what is right.
This is why this election and all others are so precious: we exercise our natural right of consent within our polis, our communities, and in doing so, we separate humankind from the beasts and hold our political representatives to account. This is why I’ll be glued to the news feeds to watch all the electoral contests across the United States tomorrow night.—Monique Camarra for Bette Dangerous
And retired IRS criminal investigator Martin Sheil sent us this poem, which he has titled Living Life in the Subjunctive: If Only
If only folks stopped acting like squirrels and ceased their hoarding and started sharing again like the old days . . .
If only if Progressives won control of Congress in the midterm elections in November.
If only if Congress then resets the political order and impeaches the President for all of his corruption?!?
If only if said impeachment would bring an end to endless war in the Middle East and tariffs and sanctions and we could be friends again with old friend Canada?!?
If only if America could return to some sense of normalcy in the Autumn and focus on baseball pennant races and playoffs and college football games on Saturdays and who is going to win an Oscar?!?
If only folks were more like birds sharing a bird bath—cooling themselves and not taking umbrage when one splashes the other.
If only folks could spend their weekends fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario—you know—the way they used to?!?
If only folks did not have to worry about how they were going to pay their medical bills and childcare costs?!?
If only folks did not have to worry about being replaced at work by some Chinese robot?!?
If only folks mingled around a fire pit on autumn nights instead of TikTok?!?
And my strongest sentiment—if only the Chicago Cubs could have worked out their bullpen issues in order to go on to participate in the World Series and win the major league baseball world championship…
Then and only then—life could be lived in the present tense and folks could worry about all that other stuff later.—Martin Sheil for Bette Dangerous
Sorry about the Cubs, Marty.
But we can do better as a country.
On a dark night two years ago, a friend who did not want me to be alone on election night, passed along these words 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 today 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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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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