Month: December 2024

The Crisis Neither Party Is Equipped to Handle

America’s education system is in trouble again, @SykesCharlie writes in The Atlantic Daily. But neither Republicans nor Democrats are up for the challenge of enforcing change.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/12/the-crisis-neither-party-is-equipped-to-handle/680966/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYeK42cS3cfB3rOAlP9DbSGI&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

**** How Liberal America Came to Its Senses

“I believe that the illiberal-left movement has not merely declined,” @jonathanchait writes. “It is dead, or at least barely breathing. When was the last time you saw a social-media mob have any effect outside social media?”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYUBta63k4PYnoBSgsC9QTqc&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

********** How to Navigate the Era of Trump

Many friends, @EliotACohen has found, are despondent over Trump’s victory. “I respect their points of view but have decided to look elsewhere for advice, and so have turned to a different set of friends—those sitting on my bookshelves.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/12/navigate-trump-era-guide/681020/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYR6QfO0tV08jWciZW3fL5QM&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

For that, something more spiritual is indicated, and I find it in the Library of America edition of one of the previous century’s deep thinkers, Reinhold Niebuhr.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Serenity will be something we will need in the years ahead. If you ask me, a well-stocked library will be of more help getting there than tranquilizers, wide-eyed staring at one’s mobile phone, or scrambling to find out if an Irish ancestor qualifies you for a European Union passport.

****** The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

The obstacles the U.S. has faced in trying to supply Ukraine during the past two years have revealed a systemic, gaping national-security weakness, Mark Bowden writes. The vaunted American war machine is in disarray and disrepair.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/12/weapons-production-munitions-shortfall-ukraine-democracy/680867/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYfk8PlXjYcrzd0-wJ5yShIc&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social