This week, I asked my readers for feedback and what they’re looking...
Thomas Zimmer@tzimmer_history
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Mar 28, 2026
~4 min read
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This week, I asked my readers for feedback and what they’re looking for from political writers.
Their responses tell of a pervasive sense of exasperation with politics, the search for ways out of this mess, and the longing for optimism amidst the chaos.
steady.page/en/democracyam…
Their responses tell of a pervasive sense of exasperation with politics, the search for ways out of this mess, and the longing for optimism amidst the chaos.
steady.page/en/democracyam…
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Over a decade into the Trump experience, how could there not be a sense of fatigue and exhaustion? American politics has been a shitshow for so long that it is hard to remember it was ever different - a draining combination of bizarre and threatening, of deranged and terrifying.
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There is, as an aggravating factor, the media and information landscape through which we have to experience it all. The media landscape has fractured. And as a result, the way we stay informed has fractured too.
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As much as the desire to escape, to flee, is relatable, and as much as the temptation to resort to cynicism is understandable: Democracy relies on some form of active participation. A populace that has largely checked out only helps the authoritarians.
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There is no magic solution here, and who am I to give out advice. But I do want to tell you: I am a big believer in airplane rules. In case of emergency, you pull that oxygen mask over your own face first – because no one is helped by you passing out trying to take care of others
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Don’t allow yourself to be bombarded with “Breaking News!” alerts constantly, don’t scroll news sites all day, reading hundreds of headlines… It only simulates staying informed. But it actually has the opposite effect: We are drowning. Look instead for clarity, perspective.
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Another recurring theme: A general sense that explorations of how we got here are less valuable now – that the focus should firmly be on the question of how we get out of here, and what comes next. I get it. But I’m also alarmed by this general “We don’t need more history” sense.
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Even if you believe, quite plausibly, that the focus now needs to be on the question of how we get out of here, any project of renewal and transformation better be based on a proper understanding of what it is that ails the nation, of what we are actually living through right now
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Finally, a reader recalled that I used to combine explorations of why/how everything was so messed up with a reminder that the situation is not hopeless, that there is, in fact, a glass-half-full interpretation of our moment in world history. That strikes me as important.
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The stakes in this moment are so high because of the world-historic significance of the current fight over democracy: Is it possible to establish a stable liberal democracy under conditions of gender-egalitarian, multiracial, multi-religious pluralism?
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A truly egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy in which an individual’s status was not determined to a significant degree by race, gender, religion, or wealth?
I don’t think that’s ever been achieved anywhere.
I don’t think that’s ever been achieved anywhere.
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And here comes the glass-half-full perspective: The reason why the Right has been radicalizing so much is that they feel their backs against the wall. The anti-democratic radicalization of the Right has not been fueled by a sense of strength, but by a pervasive sense of weakness.
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And they are reacting to something real: Our “Western” societies have indeed become more pluralistic, less white, less overwhelmingly Christian.
In that sense, it was not some perfectly stable liberal democracy that suddenly fell into crisis (because such an order never existed)
In that sense, it was not some perfectly stable liberal democracy that suddenly fell into crisis (because such an order never existed)
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What’s come under pressure is white Christian patriarchal dominance – what the Right likes to call the “natural order.” In a way, we have never been closer to finally realizing that promise of egalitarian democracy. And that is precisely why the Right is freaking out.
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That doesn’t change the fact that this escalating rightwing assault on democratic self-government and the rule of law is acutely dangerous; nor does it mean that the reactionary retrenchment will inevitably fail. The forces of reaction might be in charge for quite some time.
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But let us not forget that this cause is worth fighting for.
Democracy can feel tiresome, boring, frustrating. It is all about constantly negotiating and re-negotiating conflicting interests and sensibilities. Not exactly the most rousing stuff. But…
Democracy can feel tiresome, boring, frustrating. It is all about constantly negotiating and re-negotiating conflicting interests and sensibilities. Not exactly the most rousing stuff. But…
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But democracy is the day-to-day implementation of the grandest and noblest of ideas: That all people are equal.
We do have a world-historic chance here. To prove to ourselves and all future generations that it is indeed possible to build a society worthy of that idea.
We do have a world-historic chance here. To prove to ourselves and all future generations that it is indeed possible to build a society worthy of that idea.
