Join me in Washington DC, or on Teams
Time to step up and resist, together
Waking on a snowy February morning in 2025, one might reasonably wonder what the stock markets will tell us today and whether the US government’s money is now controlled by Elon Musk (read “Follow the Money” and “Why Has Trump Gone Soft on China and Hard on Canada?”).
But what I thought about first was the FBI. If hundreds of FBI agents are fired, or locked out, who replaces them? These are experienced law enforcement professionals who have been trained in defensive tactics and the use of firearms. Who would be available to replace them? My waking thought was, What about the Proud Boys? They presumably have firearms training and might need a job after being released from prison.
After a few cups of jasmine tea, I moved on to writing about the public square, and about public spaces in history and the role they play in civic life and democracy. Civic life today demands that we build new relationships. These include relationships with people who have different political and religious beliefs, but who share some fundamental values and are also deeply worried by what’s happening in the US and want to do something about it.
With this in mind, I’ll be going to Washington DC in a couple of weeks to attend the Principles First summit.
This is not my usual cohort. Principles First was founded by conservatives as an anti-CPAC (an annual conservative conference now taken over by the Trump gang).
I like Sarah Longwell’s description: …….
This isn’t your typical, stuffy political conference—Principles First is different. It’s hundreds of smart people getting together for a weekend of conversation, collaboration, and real talk about the future of our country.
You can check out the full speaker list here.
I’ll be honest: These kinds of gatherings are getting rarer and rarer. Lots of people are choosing to keep their heads down and hope for the best. Don’t be one of them.
Come out and see us. Dark times like these are when we need each other most.
I want new connections because that’s what these times require, and I’ll be reporting from the event. (Yes, I’ll make sure to mention climate change when I talk to people there.)
My daughter also thinks I want to make sure I’m on Trump’s enemies list. I wonder if hotels in DC will continue to host events like this, and if there will be apparatchiks taking photos of protesters for the files of the Trump FBI?
And I’ll host a small online meetup this Wednesday, on Microsoft Teams. Informal, no agenda, but I would love to get some thoughts on public spaces you’ve known.
The public space in the photo you see above is a small green in front of Great Barrington’s Town Hall. I was reading about locations where early American protests took place and found that courthouses figured largely in early protests about British rule. One of them was the courthouse here. The monument states that on August 16, 1774 occurred the first open resistance to British rule in America. The Boston Tea Party occurred the previous December so I’m not sure what makes this resistance different. The protesters in western Massachusetts were farmers – I imagine them with pitchforks in hand – surrounding courthouses to protest British taxation. Judge Ingersoll apparently had a bad time of it.
PS: If you’re wondering about the US media, I urge you to read this explanation from economist Paul Krugman of why he left the New York Times after 25 years and started a Substack newsletter.
