We are living in interesting times. Chaotic or tumultuous times, some might call them, and we wouldn’t disagree.
Yet crazy as recent days have felt, these are nowhere near the most interesting times in our nation’s rather short history. We believe it’s important to bear that in mind. And that is especially so when momentous news feels as if the ground is shifting beneath our feet.
That said, if you feel the cascading pace of events on the national stage has been a series seismic shifts, you’re not alone. Consider all that has occurred in just the past several weeks:
- It was just one month ago today President Joe Biden gave an alarmingly disoriented debate performance. His apparent cognitive decline in the global spotlight called into question his viability as the Democratic nominee for president and his ability to lead. Former President Donald Trump was his typical self, spouting lies about a stolen election that wasn’t and other mistruths, but he didn’t appear lost on stage as Biden did. Overall, it was an awful debate and a low point in our nation’s recent political history.
- Biden tried to dismiss the debate as a bad night, insisting he’d stay in the race, but the damage had been done. As days passed, Democrats increasingly went public, beseeching the president to realize what the American people had witnessed with their own eyes: He needed to get out of the race.
- Two weekends ago, a deranged 20-year-old climbed on a roof in Pennsylvania with an AR-15 rifle, pointed it at Donald Trump during a campaign rally, and began firing, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one audience member and injuring others. The shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper, but the failure to protect was an inexcusable dereliction that prompted the agency’s leader to step down.
- A few days after the assassination attempt, the GOP celebrated Trump’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Ohio Sen. JD Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
- Just last weekend, Biden did something no president had done since Lyndon Baines Johnson: He quit the presidential race. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, and Harris quickly secured delegate pledges sufficient to claim the nomination ahead of the party’s convention next month in Chicago.
All this is enough to wonder what next week will bring.
Yet looking back, we know Americans have lived through far more interesting times. We mentioned LBJ, and plenty of people can recall the terrible violence outside (and inside) the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the Vietnam War raged amid social upheaval.
More of us can remember a September morning 23 years ago when a plane flew into the World Trade Center in New York, then another, then the Pentagon. We realized we were under attack and our nation, our world, had changed forever.
A precious few are still with us who can remember our nation’s sacrifices in World War II or the hardships of The Great Depression.
And we haven’t even looked back 100 years.
History’s interesting times inform ours. The choices we make and the actions we take will shape the history our children and grandchildren learn, but more importantly, the world they will share.
Interesting times indeed.
