With so much going on in the news while Katie Phang and I were texting this morning, we decided to do an impromptu go-live to discuss it. We started with the Supreme Court argument in Slaughter, the case about presidential power to fire executive branch appointees at will (actually, we started with our pets, because that’s how we roll, but then we moved into law talk). We also touched on other topics, and ended up focusing on the question I posed to you last night: how do we consume the news without being consumed by it?
I hope you’ll take a moment to listen in (click on the arrow above) and also, to share your thoughts on the consumption question with me. I’m devoting some time to thinking about how we head into the new year prepared to do our job as citizens effectively.
This question of how to survive in the time of Trump is one I address both here at Civil Discourse and in my book. The key insight is that overwhelming us with news is a deliberate strategy by this administration, not an accident. It’s an effort to make us tune out, because democracy really does die—most easily—in darkness. It’s essential that we have a plan (or really plans, because one size will not fit all here) for being smart, well-informed, engaged citizens, while maintaining balance in our own lives. There were some great comments on this following last night's post, and I hope that if you didn’t share your thoughts there, you’ll share them now.
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We’re in this together,
Joyce
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