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Cox Richardson clocks the moment: now and then [1]
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Date: 2025-04-18
Historian Heather Cox Richardson, who writes the daily “Letters from an American” ( substack), raised her finger up to test the winds yesterday, April 17, and found, “There seems to be a change in the air.” Amid the swirl of events, she honed in on harbingers of change on the right, then did what she does best: find the historical moment of relevance. This time, words of Lincoln. If nothing else, read them.
On April 17th:
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) was able to visit in person with his constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in El Salvador, despite that country’s dictator having mocked efforts to right the wrong of Garcia’s removal to that country. Sen. Amy Klobuchar credited the meeting to her colleague’s “dogged persistence.” Cox Richardson’s take: “ Bukele might be reassessing the distribution of power in the U.S.” (Van Hollen serves on the Foreign Relations committee.)
Bukele might be reassessing the distribution of power in the U.S.” (Van Hollen serves on the Foreign Relations committee.) A unanimous decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, conservative by reputation, upheld the lower court’s order that the (mal)administration bring Garcia back to the U.S. as soon as possible. The decision, which could only be described as scathing, was written by a long-serving and well-regarded conservative judge appointed by Ronald Reagan. Did I mention scathing?
Hedge fund founder Spencer Hakimian posted: “Cleanup of orange vomit on Aisle 3,” this in response to the White House’s attempt to walk back a not-at-all-veiled threat to fire the Fed chairman, apparently because of his disinclination to lower interest rates in the face of the inevitable inflation that will come with tariff wars. (Trump threatened Powell during his first term — and he appointed him, remember — but MSNBC mentioned last night that Powell had vowed then to resist such a firing, no matter the cost, in order to preserve the Fed’s independence.)
this in response to the White House’s attempt to walk back a not-at-all-veiled threat to fire the Fed chairman, apparently because of his disinclination to lower interest rates in the face of the inevitable inflation that will come with tariff wars. (Trump threatened Powell during his first term — and he appointed him, remember — but MSNBC mentioned last night that Powell had vowed then to resist such a firing, no matter the cost, in order to preserve the Fed’s independence.) “Yesterday, former neocon and now fervent Trump critic and editor of The Bulwark Bill Kristol posted a photo of plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers kidnapping Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, and commented: ‘Where does the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement go to get its apology.’ ” [emphasis added]
” Conservative commentator David Brooks called for a “comprehensive national civic uprising” — and quoted Marx by way of explanation: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.” David Brooks.
and by way of explanation: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.” David Brooks. And Bret Stephens, “who is generally a good barometer of the way today’s non-MAGA Republicans are thinking,” said in an interview, “[M]y feelings about not only Trump, but the administration, are falling like a boulder going into the Mariana Trench. So the memory of things that this administration has done, of which I approve, is drowning in the number of things that are, in my view, reckless, stupid, awful, un-American, hateful and bad—not just for the country, but also for the conservative movement.” (I guess bad for the country would be bad, but bad for the conservative movement would be really bad?)
In 1858:
The Northern states had been in disarray, caught off guard by the overturning of the Missouri Compromise (1854) that had kept slave states and free states in balance, and were late to see the threat: “it would only be a question of time until they made slavery national. Soon, the Slave Power would own the country.”
Northerners of all parties who disagreed with each other over issues of immigration, finance, and internal improvements—and even over the institution of slavery—came together to stand against the end of American democracy. Four years later, in 1858, Democrat Stephen Douglas [a proponent of the 1854 legislation] complained that those coming together to oppose the Democrats were a ragtag coalition whose members didn’t agree on much at all. Abraham Lincoln, who by then was speaking for the new party coalescing around that coalition, replied that Douglas “should remember that he took us by surprise—astounded us—by this measure. We were thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach—a scythe—a pitchfork—a chopping axe, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direction of the sound; and we are rapidly closing in upon him. He must not think to divert us from our purpose, by showing us that our drill, our dress, and our weapons, are not entirely perfect and uniform. When the storm shall be past, he shall find us still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.” [emphasis added]
Her point: “We have been in a similar moment of shifting coalitions before.”
A coalition of the “woke.” Left and even the right are awakening. Latinos are awakening. Bernie’s long called-for movement may be taking shape.
How will we celebrate our nation’s Semiquincentennial? Will we have proved outselves “no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore”?
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