508 Comments

Your kicker ending chokes me up and, at the same time, fills me with hope — hope that the musician has identified what indeed is bubbling up among the people. And it follows an inspirational sentence about Teddy Roosevelt. I believe anyone running for president should pledge to do what he dedicated himself to do as president: work "to defend ordinary Americans from the overreach of corporations, and to use the government to help everyone rather than a select few."

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Let's hope that what the musician is feeling in her travels is a ground swell of people who have had enough with the bullies, crooks and scoundrels of the last administration and not the other way around. I know I have had enough! Thank you very much Dr. Richardson. I wish I could take one of your classes. I learn so much every day from your letters!

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I cannot thank you enough for your clear-eyed, deep wisdom, the product of your many years of study, research and understanding of our beautiful, troubled country, our not-yet-failed-but-close-to-the-brink democratic republic. No one ~ and I mean this sincerely ~ connects all the dots on a daily basis like you do, Heather Cox Richardson. I am so grateful. Have a beautiful Sunday…May Day. Gather flowers and know how much we appreciate the work you do for us all. 💐

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Rep.Jamie Raskin’s powerful and forceful speech this week offered hope for our nation! He is one of our finest and most influential speakers today!!!

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Heather, I hope you will write a sequel to this Letter on how do we find this Alliance and how do we support it and become part of it. In part it sounds like what join the Union is trying to do -- jointheunion.us -- but it also sounds like the message is even stronger. If you want the Rich to get Richer at your expense vote Republican. If you want a fair deal for all the people vote Democrat. We, the People, All of us this time!

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In the Seattle area, where I live, I have noticed an uptick in clients seeking Canadian citizenship or Canadian permanent resident status. These clients are feeling a lot of anxiety about the upcoming mid term elections and what they are perceiving as an increased probability that TFG will win in 2024. Some tell me they feel helpless, witnessing a slow moving tsunami of hate, corroding our country into something unrecognizable. I tell them this is happening in Canada as well. There really is no escape but we can certainly take agency on a local level and turn the tide drop by drop. That's what I am doing. There are many folks here who feel the same and are acting on this. There is power in persistence...and we are finding ways to push back local Republicans who think it is their way or the highway. Maybe your musician friend is sensing that folks with common sense are fed up with the lies being paraded as truths and are doing something about it too.

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Apropos of nothing in HCR's newsletter, I just want to tell the political junkies here that you definitely want to catch "Gaslit." It's on Starz and you can get both Episode 1 and 2 on Sunday night. This very picky screenwriter, historian and political junky liked it on all levels - writing, directing, casting. Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell, Sean Penn as John Mitchell. Shea Whigham scares and confounds simultaneously as G. Gordon Liddy.

Logline: "A modern take on the 1970s political Watergate scandal centering on untold stories and forgotten characters of the time."

Tagline: "Watergate was wrong. Martha was right."

It's really good. I couldn't see anyone struggling to pull the rabbit out of the hat, a good sign. The creator and writer/director was head writer on the first season (the good one) of "Mr. Robot."

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Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I have yet to read today's Letter, because I first wanted to share this video of Nancy Pelosi and our delegation meeting with President Zelenskyy on May 1, 2022.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1520644107751809024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520644107751809024%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Flive%2F2022%2F05%2F01%2Fworld%2Fukraine-russia-war-news

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A historian’s knowledge and perspective helps the understanding that the nation has been through similar political division and struggles in the past and survived them. This letter is just that ray of sunshine that announces the dawning of a new day, one in which property and business are no longer deemed superior to individual citizens; that with the privilege of great wealth comes even greater responsibilities to the country and the workers who helped make that wealth possible. Thank you for sharing your historical perspective.

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This, especially the last paragraph, gives me hope. Thank you, Dr. Richardson.

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Dear Prof -- I wish that you had been my US History teacher! -- Thanks always for educating me and filling in some of the important gaps in what I was taught.

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May 1, 2022·edited May 1, 2022

If Elon Musk and other billionaires really supported free speech, they would devote billions of $$ to funding the launch of hundreds of local newspapers and TV news stations across the country, to help revitalize the vigorous, honest, and fair local reporting in this country. They would also fund a major lobbying effort to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine that was repealed in 1987 under Reagan, which required any entity with a broadcast license to devote air time to reporting in the public interest, and also required that that reporting be honest and balanced.

It's also worth noting that in 2011, Obama's FCC chair, Genachowski—who ran the media/tech wing of Obama's presidential campaign, and has since walked through the revolving door to The Carlyle Group—removed the language supporting the Fairness Doctrine from the federal register, thus driving the last nail in the coffin of regulation requiring truly fair and balanced reporting in this country.

The death of the Fairness Doctrine paved the way for conservative talk radio hosts like Limbaugh, and eventually for Fox News becoming Trump's propaganda arm. Between that and the not-unrelated rise of the unregulated internet, honest local investigative reporting in the US has been decimated.

I recognize that my fantasy about billionaires funding the revitalization of local reporting and lobbying for reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine is antithetical to the very proliferation of billionaires, who generally would rather dictate the story than enable it.

Prof and fellow readers: I would love to know more about what exactly this traveling musician has been seeing, what it looks like on the ground, and how to support it. To any and all of you: if you have more intel on this topic, please share, I would eagerly read up on this.

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Brilliant, hopeful, dangerous and timely!

Thanks to you Heather - and to your new (and my fellow) musician friend.

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Finding optimism in historically similar situations of today?

Well done indeed Dr. Richardson. Thank you.

Also, thanks for the pointers to more history I have never heard of.

It seems my ignorance of American history is bottomless.

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Early am, have my coffee and Heather’s letter enlarging my historical and political knowledge, but wait, what? A conversation with a musician regarding something powerful building in the country? A cliffhanger? I hope it’s an indication of a positive groundswell.

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Thanks for this letter! I’ve got a nephew. He’s 22. He’s working for Amazon in Staten Island NY. He’s been busy talking to others, sharing stories and food. He’s been helping organize and gather votes. They managed to unionize the first Amazon warehouse and they are working on the second. He’s been very busy so I haven’t gotten to talk to him much but, from what I can tell, it’s been a person to person, below the radar movement of people coming together to help each other have better lives.

Here’s and article about them…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/business/amazon-union-christian-smalls.html?smid=url-share

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