Writing the Next Chapter: Voting for Our Future
History doesn't write itself. Go vote!
Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, is right around the corner and it is absolutely critical that everyone votes. I voted on the first day of early voting here in New York and was so excited to see the amount of people waiting to cast their ballots. If you don’t have a plan to vote already, please make a plan to vote now! Below are some helpful voting resources:
If you need help figuring out where or how to vote, click HERE.
If you want to learn or confirm what’s going to be on the ballot in your state, county, and town, click HERE or HERE.
If you want to set a reminder to make sure you don’t forget to vote, click HERE.
If you want book recommendations that help explain the election and our current political state, keep reading. You’ve come to the right place.
I feel strongly about who I voted for in this election. I’m ready for a leader who cares about equality and dignity for of all, reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, and wants to build people up rather than tear people down.
In 2016, I voted in my first presidential election. My mom and I walked to the polls together on election day and cast our ballots together for the woman we thought would be the first female president. We may have cried a little in recognition of the moment. That night, we might have cried a little again.
When I cast my ballot for Kamala Harris on Saturday, I was thinking of Hillary Clinton’s concession speech from eight years ago. I was thinking about how much this country has gone through in the past decade and how much farther we have to go.
Now, I – I know – I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.
And – and to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.
Please vote. The day has come, a bit delayed, but it’s here now. Vote for our future.
Below are some books that I’ve turned to in trying to understand our current moment. They’re insightful and explore different facets of this country; where it’s been, where it is, and where it’s going. Each explain why it’s so important to vote.
Pure Politics
Weapons of Mass Delusion - Robert Draper
Journalist Robert Draper’s book, Weapons of Mass Delusion begins with lies told by Congressman Paul Gosar about voting fraud following the 2020 election. Tensions boil into January 6, and although Draper dedicates some time to the events of that day, he is more interested in the political actors fueling the movement and the fallout from the insurrection. Rotating through the cast of characters that make up the Republican right flank - Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn - as well as those with remaining principles in the party - Peter Meijer, Liz Cheney - Draper attempts to paint a picture of political disarray within a party overrun by its loudest and most extreme voices.
Wildland - Evan Osnos
Wildland tells the story of America’s political unravelling over the past 20 years. Osnos, a staff writer for the New Yorker, uses the interweaving narratives of three cities that he has lived in to highlight these shifts in American culture and politics. The first city, Osnos’ hometown Greenwich, Connecticut, is used to show the widening wealth gap in the country that has grown in large part because of financial deregulation and the resulting winner-take-all attitude of Wall Street financiers. The second city, Charleston, West Virginia, highlights the other end of the income-earning spectrum through discussion of a coal industry quickly becoming obsolete within a state riddled by industry lobbyists fearful of change. Finally, Osnos writes about Chicago and the stark racial segregation within its neighborhoods that often correlates with violence and opportunity.
The Big Break - Ben Terris
Most books on politics and Washington focus on big and famous characters like the president, the chief of staff, or some other high ranking official. The Big Break examines the people who aren’t necessarily working in government, but are heavily involved on its periphery. This includes Robert Styrk, a man who created a consulting business during the Trump presidency specializing in “private diplomacy,” meaning lobbying for foreign governments such as Bahrain, Belarus, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It includes Sean McElwee, the founder of Data for Progress, which specializes in producing high-quality polls that can be used by Democratic candidates and causes, but who was also placing bets on the outcome of races he was looking to shape. It includes Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, and CPAC Ian, a spin-doctor for the famous Republican convention. This is a fascinating and well-researched book on a potentially under-considered subject.
The Cruelty is the Point - Adam Serwer
The Cruelty is the Point is a compilation of essays published by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic throughout the Trump presidency. While each essay is published in reaction to certain milestones of the administration and thus are facially different in terms of subject matter, Serwer’s argument throughout is that Trump and his actions are outgrowths of American history and the country’s lack of reconciliation with slavery and Reconstruction. Serwer’s collection feels poignant and relevant; a reminder that Trump is an outgrowth of the already existing tensions of our imperfect nation.
Social and Criminal Justice
Wastelands - Corban Addison
In rural eastern North Carolina, the hog farming industry is king. One of the biggest producers of pork within the United States and across the world, the farms provide regional jobs while lining the pockets of pork barons. A consequence of these farms, however, is a horrible stench that permeates throughout the region, coating the surfaces of everything it touches, including the homes and livelihoods of the mostly poor Black families that live near the facilities. Although more modern pollution reduction techniques exist, heavy lobbying and deregulation efforts have made it so that they are not required, effectively reducing the quality of life for local residents. Wastelands is about the legal fight to hold the hog industry to account led by the residents and their heroic legal team.
Let The Lord Sort Them - Maurice Chammah
Let the Lord Sort Them paints a comprehensive picture of the death penalty in the United States. Chammah is less focused on determining the justification for the death penalty in moral terms, instead spending his time making the case for why the death penalty should be abolished on legal grounds. Chammah makes a convincing argument that there is no fair legal standard that can apply to who gets sentenced to death and who does not. As a result, the odds of being killed by the state are akin to getting struck by lightening and depend on the varying factors of where one lives, what the population’s opinion towards the penalty is in that location, and the race or gender of the defendant in question. This is a book that will make you think and think again.
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
In Poverty, by America, sociologist Matthew Desmond explores how and why immense, debilitating poverty exists within the United States, one of the richest countries in the world. Desmond uses an abstract approach to tell this story, pointing to larger social trends, the impact of individual choices, and the role of government programs that contribute to this major problem. Desmond points his finger at the ordinary middle and upper class consumer for being complicit in systems that perpetuate poverty. This complicity exists in exclusionary zoning, tax breaks for the rich, and our reliance on convenience in non-unionized platforms like Amazon or food delivery drivers. This book is engaging, well-researched, and deftly argued. Desmond’s goal, it seems, is to not just convince those who might not agree with him, but to also raise awareness about our collective role in under-appreciated issues.
Blood Gun Money - Ioan Grillo
Ioan Grillo is a British journalist for The New York Times based in Mexico City covering the violence of organized crime, cartels, and gangs. A crucial part of his coverage, outlined in this book, asks where and how these organizations get their guns. The answer is simple. Because of lax gun restrictions, a crippled ATF, and poor enforcement, nearly all of the guns come from the United States. With constant talk about a crisis on the southern border, Grillo makes compelling arguments about how gun laws in the United States contribute to and exacerbate the issues that people are trying to flee. Although the United States also has a serious issue with gun violence, the homicide rates or random ambushes are not nearly as high as those in Honduras or Tijuana. Grillo posits that this is the case only because of the strength of our institutions, and if we continue to degrade them then we too will become susceptible to a breakdown in standards of safety.
How the Word is Passed - Clint Smith
In How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith uses eight different locations to explore how slavery and its legacy are publicly acknowledged, taught, and reckoned with within American society. The places that Smith visits are roughly representative of the different ways in which public history considers slavery, the Civil War, and its enduring impact. Smith uses intimate and lyrical language to link each of these narratives to his central thesis: recognition of America’s sins is rooted in a system of education and memory that struggle to confront hard truths. Although historical context is weaved throughout the chapters to provide background to the locations Smith visits, Smith’s original contribution to this field of study comes from his examination of the creation of public history itself.
Conspiracy Theories and Right-Wing Extremism
We Are Proud Boys - Andy Campbell
In We Are Proud Boys, investigative reporter Andy Campbell tracks the rise of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group founded by Gavin McInnes. Although McInnes claims that the Proud Boys are just an all-male drinking club, the evidence shows otherwise. The Proud Boys are most known for participating in the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and the January 6 insurrection, but they have also been instigating street-level violence as “protectors” of GOP politicians and on behalf of “Western chauvinism” more generally. Indeed, brutality is an integral part of the structure of the organization; members are initiated through a group brawl and reach the fourth rung once they have been arrested for some act of violence. Despite the prosecution of high-level members following January 6, the Proud Boys remain active across the country. I read one review that claimed that Campbell’s work was not objective, and while it is true that Campbell does not shy away from hyperbolic rhetoric and unabashedly denounces the group’s actions, his reporting is still truthful and compelling. There is no “both-sides” to writing about dangerous right-wing extremism, and Campbell does not try to claim otherwise.
White Hot Hate - Dick Lehr
In 2016, the FBI approached Dan Day to ask him to do something dangerous - join a right-wing militia that his friend was in and become an informant. Dan, a gun-toting conservative, understood that the ideas the Three Percenters were espousing were dangerous and so, based on a pervasive feeling of patriotism, went undercover. Soon after joining, Dan is introduced to an even more extreme faction of people in the Kansas State Militia who see the growing population of Somali refugees and immigrants in Kansas as a plot by ISIS to destroy America. Their response, they decide, should be to blow up an apartment complex primarily housing Somali refugees. What follows is the harrowing true story of Dan’s involvement with this group and his work with the FBI to foil the plot. It is a fast-paced and fascinating book, as well as a terrifying look at white nationalism and the ever-present threat that hateful ideas pose.
Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy that Reshaped America - Will Sommer
The spread of QAnon, a loosely defined conspiracy that claims at its best that there is a deep state cabal running the government and at its worst that members of this deep state are lizard-people who are torturing children and harvesting their blood to drink, was facilitated by pernicious social media algorithms that unwittingly radicalized users. The “movement” spread throughout the Trump presidency but became particularly popular during COVID lockdowns, when desperate and gullible people latched on to fringe theories to explain the breakdown of their own lives. While Sommer begins the book with an explanation of QAnon’s origins and some of its more radicalized members, (many of whom participated in January 6), he also talks about the positioning of conspiracy theories in the United States and Q’s place in this legacy, the negative impact QAnon has had on family dynamics, and the influence that its supporters are starting to wield within mainstream Republican politics.
Foreign Policy
Strongmen - Ruth Ben-Ghiat
In Strongmen, Ruth Ben-Ghiat compares Donald Trump to dictators throughout the 20th century in order to make the argument that Trump should be considered one himself. Starting with Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco and moving through time to Pinochet, Qaddafi, Berlusconi, Orban, and more, Ben-Ghiat writes about the authoritarian qualities that each leader shares and the varied circumstances in which dictators can thrive.
After the Fall - Ben Rhodes
For eight years, Rhodes worked closely with Obama to shape foreign policy and national security decision making as a senior national security advisor. Some of Rhodes’ notable achievements included the crafting of the Iran Nuclear Deal and his role as a lead negotiator to open relations with Cuba. Not only was Rhodes out of a job after Trump was elected, but his two signature accomplishments were reversed, leaving him questioning America’s shifting direction. After the Fall is his response. Here, Rhodes reckons with the spread of authoritarianism around the world and the role of the United States in this rise. The book is divided into four sections: the first focuses on the erosion of democratic norms in Viktor Orban’s Hungary; the second is about authoritarianism in Russia under Vladimir Putin; the third is centered around the Chinese government’s attempts to maintain power through the destruction of individual freedom; and the final section follows Rhodes’ personal development as well as America’s democratic struggles.
Love this, Jodi!