TLP Weekend Edition (February 22-23, 2025)
What we're reading and checking out.
📰 "The World Is a Mess, and It's Still the Best Time to Be Alive," by Nicholas Kristof. As we head into 2025, many Americans are pessimistic about the country's and world's future. But Kristof rightly points out that the myopia of the moment is leading us to miss broader trends that are much more promising. He writes that it's "valuable to take a nanosecond break at the beginning of each year to put it all in perspective. Look at the data, and it’s difficult to deny a larger truth: For all the challenges we face, there has been no better time to be alive."
📖 "Meet the Post-Trump, Working-Class GOP," by Ethan Dodd. Terrific reportage from the campaign trail in Pennsylvania by Ethan Dodd on American Compass' new webzine, Commonplace. As Dodd explains, Pennsylvania’s blue-collar voters went for Trump, but whether they stick with the GOP will depend on what the party does next. Speaking of which, this excerpt from the article provides food for thought:
The way people talk about JD Vance is very different from the way they talk about Trump. With Trump, it’s in your face: “the country needs him now.” With Vance, it’s more intimate. He’s familiar, like a distant cousin you know will do big things one day. Talking about him, folks sound calmer, curious—hopeful even. I encountered this on my first trek out to western Pennsylvania in late August when I saw Vance speak in Erie.
“I can relate to him so well. I relate to him totally,” said Chris Knight, 68, beaming after Vance blamed Harris for fentanyl coming across the border at a small rally in a warehouse garage decorated with two semi-trucks. She was clutching her hard copy of Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which details his origin story raised by a mom addicted to opioids. The school cook said her daughter struggled with heroin for years and “now helps other people so they don’t go down this path.”
📖 “More tips for being non-partisan in a partisan age,” by Greg Lukianoff. “It ain't easy, it can be exhausting, and you're not always going to get everything right. But you have to keep trying,” as Greg Lukianoff of the first-class organization, FIRE, puts it. It certainly would be a better—and saner—world if more of us conducted ourselves as Lukianoff recommends. Check it out!
🏉 Six Nations Rugby, Round Three. Rugby action is back this weekend with third round matchups featuring Wales v. Ireland, England v. Scotland, and Italy v. France. This annual rugby championship is a perfect showcase of the game if you don’t normally watch it. Ireland currently leads in the standings with two more rounds to go after this weekend. All matches are streaming on Peacock in the USA.
🎷🎹 Toot Sweet, by Lee Konitz and Michael Petrucciani. TLP just heard this live recording at a very chill jazz kissa in Shinjuku. As AllMusic describes: “This 1982 meeting between the veteran alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and the young pianist (19 at the time of the session) Michel Petrucciani is a success on all counts. Konitz's fragile alto is complemented by Petrucciani's lush backing." Kick back with this great record and a finger or two of Suntory whisky (or your favorite dram). Enjoy the weekend!
Vance is probably the standard bearer on the Right for populist fusion. Still waiting for the emergence of a comparable figure on the Left. I had thought Warren but she needs to take a breath and step back from the raw partisanship of the last month.
"There's no better time to be alive." That's undoubtedly true if you're Sir Nick and a member of the meritocratic aristocracy with blue blood in one's lineage, but from where most Americans sit the view ain't so grand.