A Deeply Rooted Story
This is just a short note to say thank you for Zoë Carpenter’s article “The Standing of Trees” [March 2/9], about Richard Powers and his book The Overstory. As an amateur botanist, I was particularly delighted. The article made my day (and week). Plus, I was thrilled to learn the good news that Powers is working on another book.
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The Iowa Debacle
Democratic Party leaders and organizers should all read the late Jeffrey Cox’s editorial “Iowa Was Just the Start” in the March 2/9 issue of The Nation. Then they should think about it—and read it again.
The debacle of the Iowa caucuses was much more than an embarrassment. It was a snapshot of how dysfunctional the leadership of the current Democratic Party is. And it illustrated just how far the party lags the Trump campaign in preparing for the 2020 election. It is time for the Democrats to unite around a clear understanding of who they are really fighting against and to act together to mount a successful campaign.
Will Keller
The Forgotten Foreign Policy
Reading David Klion’s article “The Woman Behind Elizabeth Warren’s Foreign Policy” [March 2/9] made me realize how little discussion there has been during the current presidential race of US policy toward Latin America (and how little foreign policy there is in our political discourse in general). It is only when a country runs afoul of Washington and is then punished with onerous sanctions or threats of invasion that it’s deemed worthy of mention, often in one-sided screeds that are more propaganda than useful information. The uninformed public never makes the connection between the asylum seekers at our southwestern border and our catastrophic Central American policies.
Nevertheless, since the turn of the 20th century, this country’s constant interference in the internal affairs of the nations south of the Rio Grande has kept them in a subservient role, creating the opportunity for bloody right-wing dictatorial regimes, corruption, and the perpetuation of rule by wealthy elites. Many attempts to introduce progressive economic policies in Latin America have resulted in coups d’état. And both Democratic and Republican administrations have been implicated.
Some of the candidates in our current presidential campaign are advocating progressive political and economic changes, and that is a good thing. However, I am not sure they include the rest of the hemisphere in their equation, thereby missing an opportunity to end a supreme injustice.
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth.
The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more.
But this journalism is possible only with your support.
This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?
Ada Bello philadelphia
They’ve Crossed a Line
I was sickened and outraged to read Morley Musick’s article “Meet the Boy Scouts of the Border Patrol” [February 3]. “The age-old games of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers have simply been harnessed for a modern, state-run, militarized equivalent: border guards and immigrants,” he writes. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that someone came up with the idea to recruit young people into the Border Patrol’s ranks by putting a patriotic stamp on it. What does surprise me is that some of the recruits are first-generation immigrants themselves. Debra-Lou Hoffmann forest ranch, calif.
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