For me, the most apt phrase ever coined about America, was by Gore Vidal - "We are the United States of Amnesia - we learn nothing because we remember nothing."
Thankyou for remembering almost EVERYTHING, Sarah, and documenting it with poignant truth. 🙂✊🏼💙
Sarah, I'm not sure you know how helpful this is, so I'll tell you. Your opening up on this level implicitly invites us to join you and huddle, think, not think, talk, not talk...to mutually comfort one another just by being here and saying all the truths we feel. And I, for one, feel less alone in what sometimes feels like a pileup of individual nightmares. We swim together. xoxo
I agree with everything you said about mutual comfort and its value and the contributions of Sarah Kendzior. She has single-handedly shaped my understanding of the political world these past ten years. And I’m also star struck because YOURE THE MOOSEWOOD COOKBOOK AUTHOR! 😍 Thank you for that wonderful work!
"For when you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little marker, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says 'You are here.'” -- D. Adams
Maybe your next book can be called "The Last American Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Just don't forget your towel or a heady supply of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters. :)
More seriously, thank you for sharing your quest, Sarah, and thank you for not finding that other dimension. We need you and the sustenance of your remarkably clear-eyed, remarkably loving writings here in this one more and more every day.
I read your books "They Knew" and "Hiding in Plain Sight" last year and felt...well, sad. You have had your finger on the pulse for far too long but no one wants to listen. This article also makes me sad, for the same reason you were hesitant to write it...what's the point? But thank you anyway. I fear we will not make it out of this but it's at least nice to know someone is out there screaming into the void.
I will never forget how Democrats and their paid sycophants took people’s general desires to resist rising authoritarianism and used it to boost their personal profiles for more money and political power while doing nothing substantial to try and protect this country. Biden seems to be the type of person who wanted to be president as if it was a bucket list item since he’s been in the Senate for most of his adult life. And now they want to push out people in the DNC calling for much-needed change. Every major institution is handing us over to dictatorship at this point. Bipartisan at its absolute worst. Thanks for your moral clarity, as always, Sarah!
Yes, it's disgusting! It was awful to witness both because of the total lack of integrity and because it helped bring Trump back with more power than before. An absolute trainwreck built on greed and cowardice.
And Sarah, I don’t know about you, but I feel like the situation in Gaza under Biden has made me look at how the media talked about all the loss in his life in a new way. Just seeing how he had no heart towards innocent people being starved and bombed just for being Palestinian is something that turns my stomach. No one deserves the kind of misfortune either he or Palestinians have faced, but he won’t extend any empathy or care, and that’s so vile.
Yes -- that will be his legacy. Sadly, he's not an aberration. But Biden has a long history of refusing to recognize the basic humanity of Palestinians -- to say nothing of their rights -- and was one of the worst politicians we could have had as president in 2023. In the 1980s, Biden had to be lectured about his bloodlust by Israeli officials, whose own bloodlust was quite high. Biden was even more extreme than they were.
And your trench coat analogy with Biden in the middle (with his ever so cool aviator sunglasses on of course) reminded me immediately of a certain movie... "with pockets so deep they extend to the ends of the matrix".
I was woefully ignorant of all this. I was never a Biden fan, but I failed to realize the level of treachery by establishment Democrats until way too late. I didn’t recognize the full urgency of the situation until Felonious Pusbag actually won again; maybe it was subconscious deliberate blindness, because now I kick myself for not seeing it sooner.
It looks to me like the oligarchy controls our entire politics as a shadow government. I see no other coherent explanation. They appear to operate it outside of formal processes, at least where it counts. Sometimes specifically but mostly in an overall direction day to day (since they can only direct the present towards the future). I never believed 2021-22 Democrats were going to right things because that would interfere with the overall mission. That the issue was insurrection was just a detail. It looks like the oligarchy decided the final phase would come down in this era, a culmination of their work the last forty years, regardless of what else might be going on.
I love this essay so much. It grabbed me in the beginning when you talk about looking for balm for a wound when you have lost what might have been. I have often wondered why I can’t shake my constant underlying despair. I am 74 and won’t be around for the worst. And I have no children or even close young friends to worry about. The answer, of course, is that I am blessed (or cursed) with empathy—The “bliss of ignorance” will never come to empathic people like you or me or those in this substack community. Melancholy will always be near.
Melancholy is a rational reaction these days. It’s also often a compassionate reaction. There’s so much pressure to be optimistic and cheerful for its own sake that it can turn on itself and seem cold and oblivious to painful circumstances. There are things that bring true happiness in the midst of it, but it’s because those things are real. Anyway, I’m glad you’re here!
Just remarkable! Your mastery at interweaving the seemingly personal with the political for a clear-eyed commentary about the moment borne of the historical failures characteristic of the American state is always fascinating.
Your love for your family and your country shines through your words. Even when the joy of being with your family is at times contaminated by the sadness that the failing state of your country evokes, you still find ways to be hopeful. Even if that hope—in some way—manifests in the willingness to finally write stories like this. Thank you Sarah!
Thank you! I feel like I'm trying to regain my footing here after the book tour and dealing with the publishing industry, so I really appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for your honesty about the Biden administration. I was not only furious, I was gobsmacked when the DOJ could not conclude an investigation and then indict 47 on……something. It just seemed like the message was that the system had to be protected at any cost. I have not believed we live in a democracy for a long time. We are told we do, and we want to believe it so we do. Democracy requires participation, and merely voting is not participation.
I take direction from my non-verbal daughter who lives life despite having a trach to breathe, a wheelchair to walk and a tube to eat. Her insistence to live despite so many setbacks -- her eyes like pools you can either drown in or look through and see trees, the blue sky of Los Angeles, the ocean, her caregivers bent over and tending her -- a vortex, I guess, of its own. Thank you, Sarah, for this stunning essay. I treasure you.
I want so badly to be on the internet less, with the exception of writing articles on here. I'm on social media out of necessary promotion. So everyone should subscribe to this newsletter so I can just talk to y'all and ignore the rest. ;)
That sign blew my mind -- the sheer volume of horrific information and detail. The photo I took has been sitting in my phone for years because I could never get over it.
The hardest, most beautiful people in the world built this country - I just can't get over the sharletons and grifters that now run it. But hey, look who I'm telling :) Keep up the great work! PS It's raining here in Seattle, and that sign sent me looking for my Complete Essays of Mark Twain... have a great day!
When you spoke of the commemoration of Charlie Birger while his victims were forgotten, it reminded me of the TV series Sons of Anarchy. If there was ever an example of why pursuing an outlaw biker lifestyle is bad, that would be it. But when the show concluded, motorcycle gangs were flooded with men looking to sign on. Is it surprising that our officials do nothing to curb criminal activity in our government, when these people sprouted from a culture that glorifies evil?
And we have a criminal president who grants pardons criminals, glorifying fraud, tax evasion, rape, murder, extortion, and insurrection just to name some crimes T-rump aren't.
The problem with a culture that glorifies evil is that it becomes too easy for ordinary Americans to see the current President as an anti-hero. When the courts smack him down, the courts become the villainous tools of a system that is more corrupt than he is. (The main characters of Sons of Anarchy were not good people. but they were saints in comparison to some of the truly vile cops they had dealings with.) Sarah has mentioned in other writings that Trump doesn't mind being seen as inept. It works in his favor, considering that most people I know see our government as inept to varying degrees. He will trot out a piece of ineptitude or a scandal for public consumption, while doing genuine evil behind the scenes. The scandal or ineptitude is business as usual to the majority of exhausted Americans who are just trying to live their lives. The perceived corruption of the government is the same. Yes, Trump is corrupt, but he is doing it to save us, like some kind of Orange Robin Hood, his naive supporters will say. A culture that glorifies evil will produce people who will embrace the "right kind of evil" in a leader. Trump convinced an alarmingly large number of people that he is Sam Crow, not the vile cops Sam Crow deals with, and that contributed substantially to his ability to prove that he is worse than both.
I had the same feeling when Obama and the Dems swept the elections and proceeded to do nothing to protect or improve voting rights. I always felt if we had true suffrage in this country we would eventually get healthcare that worked and a stable economy. But what do I know =/
The refusal of multiple Dem admins to protect voting rights is a chilling indicator, because they’re not only abdicating their oath and abandoning vulnerable populations, they are working against their own self-interest — which means their self-interest does not actually lie in a broad voter base. In Montgomery, I kept passing statues of John Lewis and wondering what he’d think of his party now.
Your writing is so exceptional. It really draws you in. I’ve gone from angry to sad to now, just acceptance. Kinda like when you are a loved one has a terminal illness. I know there’s good in the world and exceptional beauty in nature, but humans keep making such a mess and are gonna destroy it all. It is so very disheartening and sad because it’s totally unnecessary.
For me, the most apt phrase ever coined about America, was by Gore Vidal - "We are the United States of Amnesia - we learn nothing because we remember nothing."
Thankyou for remembering almost EVERYTHING, Sarah, and documenting it with poignant truth. 🙂✊🏼💙
Thank you! And yes Gore Vidal nailed it.
Sarah, I'm not sure you know how helpful this is, so I'll tell you. Your opening up on this level implicitly invites us to join you and huddle, think, not think, talk, not talk...to mutually comfort one another just by being here and saying all the truths we feel. And I, for one, feel less alone in what sometimes feels like a pileup of individual nightmares. We swim together. xoxo
Thank you very much Mollie! I appreciate that and appreciate that we've been internet friends so long; it is a source of comfort.
Same. So grateful.
I agree with everything you said about mutual comfort and its value and the contributions of Sarah Kendzior. She has single-handedly shaped my understanding of the political world these past ten years. And I’m also star struck because YOURE THE MOOSEWOOD COOKBOOK AUTHOR! 😍 Thank you for that wonderful work!
Aw thanks! You are most welcome. xo
"For when you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little marker, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says 'You are here.'” -- D. Adams
Maybe your next book can be called "The Last American Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Just don't forget your towel or a heady supply of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters. :)
More seriously, thank you for sharing your quest, Sarah, and thank you for not finding that other dimension. We need you and the sustenance of your remarkably clear-eyed, remarkably loving writings here in this one more and more every day.
Thank you Brian! And great Adams quote!
I could not love this sentence more:
"We followed the piles of horseshit anyway, like it was the internet in 2025."
I look forward to your work like those thirsty hippies looked forward to water...
Thank you!
I read your books "They Knew" and "Hiding in Plain Sight" last year and felt...well, sad. You have had your finger on the pulse for far too long but no one wants to listen. This article also makes me sad, for the same reason you were hesitant to write it...what's the point? But thank you anyway. I fear we will not make it out of this but it's at least nice to know someone is out there screaming into the void.
Thank you for reading and joining me in my pointless endeavor. Made it feel a little less pointless!
I will never forget how Democrats and their paid sycophants took people’s general desires to resist rising authoritarianism and used it to boost their personal profiles for more money and political power while doing nothing substantial to try and protect this country. Biden seems to be the type of person who wanted to be president as if it was a bucket list item since he’s been in the Senate for most of his adult life. And now they want to push out people in the DNC calling for much-needed change. Every major institution is handing us over to dictatorship at this point. Bipartisan at its absolute worst. Thanks for your moral clarity, as always, Sarah!
Yes, it's disgusting! It was awful to witness both because of the total lack of integrity and because it helped bring Trump back with more power than before. An absolute trainwreck built on greed and cowardice.
And Sarah, I don’t know about you, but I feel like the situation in Gaza under Biden has made me look at how the media talked about all the loss in his life in a new way. Just seeing how he had no heart towards innocent people being starved and bombed just for being Palestinian is something that turns my stomach. No one deserves the kind of misfortune either he or Palestinians have faced, but he won’t extend any empathy or care, and that’s so vile.
Yes -- that will be his legacy. Sadly, he's not an aberration. But Biden has a long history of refusing to recognize the basic humanity of Palestinians -- to say nothing of their rights -- and was one of the worst politicians we could have had as president in 2023. In the 1980s, Biden had to be lectured about his bloodlust by Israeli officials, whose own bloodlust was quite high. Biden was even more extreme than they were.
And your trench coat analogy with Biden in the middle (with his ever so cool aviator sunglasses on of course) reminded me immediately of a certain movie... "with pockets so deep they extend to the ends of the matrix".
I was woefully ignorant of all this. I was never a Biden fan, but I failed to realize the level of treachery by establishment Democrats until way too late. I didn’t recognize the full urgency of the situation until Felonious Pusbag actually won again; maybe it was subconscious deliberate blindness, because now I kick myself for not seeing it sooner.
It looks to me like the oligarchy controls our entire politics as a shadow government. I see no other coherent explanation. They appear to operate it outside of formal processes, at least where it counts. Sometimes specifically but mostly in an overall direction day to day (since they can only direct the present towards the future). I never believed 2021-22 Democrats were going to right things because that would interfere with the overall mission. That the issue was insurrection was just a detail. It looks like the oligarchy decided the final phase would come down in this era, a culmination of their work the last forty years, regardless of what else might be going on.
I love this essay so much. It grabbed me in the beginning when you talk about looking for balm for a wound when you have lost what might have been. I have often wondered why I can’t shake my constant underlying despair. I am 74 and won’t be around for the worst. And I have no children or even close young friends to worry about. The answer, of course, is that I am blessed (or cursed) with empathy—The “bliss of ignorance” will never come to empathic people like you or me or those in this substack community. Melancholy will always be near.
Melancholy is a rational reaction these days. It’s also often a compassionate reaction. There’s so much pressure to be optimistic and cheerful for its own sake that it can turn on itself and seem cold and oblivious to painful circumstances. There are things that bring true happiness in the midst of it, but it’s because those things are real. Anyway, I’m glad you’re here!
Just remarkable! Your mastery at interweaving the seemingly personal with the political for a clear-eyed commentary about the moment borne of the historical failures characteristic of the American state is always fascinating.
Your love for your family and your country shines through your words. Even when the joy of being with your family is at times contaminated by the sadness that the failing state of your country evokes, you still find ways to be hopeful. Even if that hope—in some way—manifests in the willingness to finally write stories like this. Thank you Sarah!
Thank you! I feel like I'm trying to regain my footing here after the book tour and dealing with the publishing industry, so I really appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for your honesty about the Biden administration. I was not only furious, I was gobsmacked when the DOJ could not conclude an investigation and then indict 47 on……something. It just seemed like the message was that the system had to be protected at any cost. I have not believed we live in a democracy for a long time. We are told we do, and we want to believe it so we do. Democracy requires participation, and merely voting is not participation.
I take direction from my non-verbal daughter who lives life despite having a trach to breathe, a wheelchair to walk and a tube to eat. Her insistence to live despite so many setbacks -- her eyes like pools you can either drown in or look through and see trees, the blue sky of Los Angeles, the ocean, her caregivers bent over and tending her -- a vortex, I guess, of its own. Thank you, Sarah, for this stunning essay. I treasure you.
Thank you and my best to you and your daughter. She is lucky to have such a loving and caring mom!
I shut it all out now. All the theater and noise. Make art, walk with my dogs. Hang out with the hubby. Life is close and simple.
I want so badly to be on the internet less, with the exception of writing articles on here. I'm on social media out of necessary promotion. So everyone should subscribe to this newsletter so I can just talk to y'all and ignore the rest. ;)
I hate that you have to do it but I’m grateful for your voice.
Right on! Come on people, subscribe so we can all ignore the gaslighters. :-)
But we need you to be present. Though art, dogs, and love are all important parts of the resistance.
I am present. Here we are, communicating. Supporting Sarah. I know who I am and what I contribute.
I'm grateful!
My subscription was my birthday gift to myself. Best present ever. Never give up. Never surrender. 😊
Thank you! And yes, NEVER surrender! I'd rather get beat in battle than surrender.
I just read the sign at the pauper mass grave, I plan to forward it to anyone who complains today. PS with a link to your article, of course :)
That sign blew my mind -- the sheer volume of horrific information and detail. The photo I took has been sitting in my phone for years because I could never get over it.
The hardest, most beautiful people in the world built this country - I just can't get over the sharletons and grifters that now run it. But hey, look who I'm telling :) Keep up the great work! PS It's raining here in Seattle, and that sign sent me looking for my Complete Essays of Mark Twain... have a great day!
Check out the book Wisconsin Death Trip.
My uncle gave that book to me in 1973 For my 18th birthday. He'd inscribed in it: "Welcome to America, here's your roadmap."
Prescient guy!
If you don’t have a copy of Wisconsin Death Trip, by all means get one. It’s right up your alley.
will do - although it seems a little dark.
The comment was meant for Sarah. I’m always making online mistakes. But you check it out too!;)
"so that luminaries like John Fetterman could fix things”
That didn’t pan out.
When you spoke of the commemoration of Charlie Birger while his victims were forgotten, it reminded me of the TV series Sons of Anarchy. If there was ever an example of why pursuing an outlaw biker lifestyle is bad, that would be it. But when the show concluded, motorcycle gangs were flooded with men looking to sign on. Is it surprising that our officials do nothing to curb criminal activity in our government, when these people sprouted from a culture that glorifies evil?
And we have a criminal president who grants pardons criminals, glorifying fraud, tax evasion, rape, murder, extortion, and insurrection just to name some crimes T-rump aren't.
The problem with a culture that glorifies evil is that it becomes too easy for ordinary Americans to see the current President as an anti-hero. When the courts smack him down, the courts become the villainous tools of a system that is more corrupt than he is. (The main characters of Sons of Anarchy were not good people. but they were saints in comparison to some of the truly vile cops they had dealings with.) Sarah has mentioned in other writings that Trump doesn't mind being seen as inept. It works in his favor, considering that most people I know see our government as inept to varying degrees. He will trot out a piece of ineptitude or a scandal for public consumption, while doing genuine evil behind the scenes. The scandal or ineptitude is business as usual to the majority of exhausted Americans who are just trying to live their lives. The perceived corruption of the government is the same. Yes, Trump is corrupt, but he is doing it to save us, like some kind of Orange Robin Hood, his naive supporters will say. A culture that glorifies evil will produce people who will embrace the "right kind of evil" in a leader. Trump convinced an alarmingly large number of people that he is Sam Crow, not the vile cops Sam Crow deals with, and that contributed substantially to his ability to prove that he is worse than both.
T-rump "thinks aren't crimes" I meant to write.
I had the same feeling when Obama and the Dems swept the elections and proceeded to do nothing to protect or improve voting rights. I always felt if we had true suffrage in this country we would eventually get healthcare that worked and a stable economy. But what do I know =/
The refusal of multiple Dem admins to protect voting rights is a chilling indicator, because they’re not only abdicating their oath and abandoning vulnerable populations, they are working against their own self-interest — which means their self-interest does not actually lie in a broad voter base. In Montgomery, I kept passing statues of John Lewis and wondering what he’d think of his party now.
Your writing is so exceptional. It really draws you in. I’ve gone from angry to sad to now, just acceptance. Kinda like when you are a loved one has a terminal illness. I know there’s good in the world and exceptional beauty in nature, but humans keep making such a mess and are gonna destroy it all. It is so very disheartening and sad because it’s totally unnecessary.