During this holiday season I’m warm, I’m comfortable with only first world problems to complain about. Not to be a buzz-kill, though, I’m also fearful of what next year’s holidays might look and feel like, mostly because of some close parallels to1940.
Like 1940, we have those who are flirting with the easy, but dangerous idea, that democracy is too messy and too inconvenient. All of our problems could be easily wiped away if we could just eliminate the opposition-not terribly different from those many Americans in 1940 who thought Nazi Germany had the right idea.
Like 1940, we are watching smaller country hold its own in a brutal war, at least for now, against a Russian thug with delusions of grandeur. There is much to admire in Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as there was with Winston Churchill.
Like 1940, 2024 will be a presidential election year. While Wendell Willkie and Franklin Roosevelt agreed far more on policy than they disagreed, the country itself was deeply divided between isolationists with strong memories of the horrors of World War I, and those who rightfully predicted we needed to mobilize if for no other reason than to be ready if the worst should happen.
But, here is what I fear most when it comes to 2024: foreign interference poisoning our internal debates that exacerbates present divisions, sows discontent, creating a ripe environment for the fall of our republic, or least greatly weaken our presence on the world stage. After all, vultures tend be patient creatures.
