It was Michael Anton (writing as Publius Decius Mus) who exactly one year ago famously declared that 2016 was “The Flight 93 Election,” an existential fight for survival for state-loving conservatives: 2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You—or the leader of your party—may make it…
Babbittry
Babbittry, Politics, Resistance, Trump
Trumpism Down to the Local Level
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote last week, in a post entitled ‘What Putin’s team is probably telling him about Trump,’ about five degrees of culpability for Putinism’s insinuation and degradation of American politics. One could modify that list only slightly, and thereby describe Trump’s present influence in America: (1) those who have served the Trump as operatives and…
Babbittry, Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 8 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the eighth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter from Part Four (2011) of Janesville (The Ambassador of Optimism). I’ll cover the chapter in detail because it’s so perfect in its account of boosterism, as though Sinclair Lewis’s protagonist George F. Babbitt overtook a Janesville resident and…
Babbittry, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, Politics
Margaret Sullivan on Great Local Reporting
by JOHN ADAMS •
Margaret Sullivan, the Washington Post’s media columnist observes that Great local reporting stands between you and wrongdoing. (Sullivan was formerly The New York Times public editor, and the chief editor of her hometown paper, The Buffalo News.) Sullivan explains what great local reporting means: “In only 15 years, American newspaper companies slashed their workforces by…
America, Babbittry, City, Local Government, Trump
‘The Closest Thing We Have to State TV’
by JOHN ADAMS •
In the clip above, Seth Meyers considers the relationship between Fox News and the Trump Administration, concluding that Fox News is ‘the closest thing we have to state TV,’ represents ‘sycophantic coverage,’ and that ‘instead of a Bible, Trump should have been sworn in on a TV Guide.’ (H/t to Raw Story for the pointer.)…