I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and/or Hanukkah — and I hope everyone will forgive me for not posting last week. In my defense, it was Christmas week.
Since today is the last day of the year, I’ve gone back and forth on whether I should reflect on the past year, look ahead to the coming year, or write about current events.
Personally, 2024 was not my best year, and I am beyond ready to kick it to the curb. I had two amazing adventures — to Ireland and New Orleans — but I also suffered some tough losses and rough patches.
Politically, 2024 was a whirlwind of shifting campaigns and the fervor leading up to Nov. 5 — followed by the chaos of a Trump win, the emergence of his shadow government already pushing policy weeks ahead of his inauguration, and President Joe Biden’s flurry of final actions, including pardoning his son. Not to mention all the drama happening in Congress, on the Supreme Court, and in statehouses across America.
I’m hoping that 2025 is better.
As far as current events, I’ve had parallel (though not analogous) events on my mind.
I’ve been contemplating what many commentators have called “preemptive capitulation” — yielding or surrendering to a potential threat or threatening force. Specifically, large newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post pulling endorsements and negative coverage of Trump ahead of Nov. 5, for fear the incoming administration will threaten the owners’ other business interests. Or the way congressional Republicans scrapped a carefully constructed funding bill because of a tweet Elon Musk sent threatening to fund primaries against Republicans who wouldn’t fall in line with his wishes. Or the way Disney decided ABC should settle a defamation suit with Trump when there is very little chance a court would have agreed George Stephanopoulos’ comment Trump “raped” E. Jean Carroll reached the high bar of maliciousness or knowingly lying.
And I’ve also been thinking about the attempted coup in South Korea and the way both legislators and everyday citizens leapt into action to protect their democracy. Ordinary people flooded the streets to protest the declaration of martial law. Lawmakers made it through the barricades and guards around the voting chamber, even climbing fences, and voted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law invalid.
Two totally opposite responses to authoritarian figures and maneuvers: Where Americans surrendered to the mere threat of retaliation, South Koreans showed out in force to oppose a potential coup.
I won’t say South Korea has handled the aftermath perfectly: There’s still a lot of turmoil as its lawmakers grapple with possible impeachment, where power will fall and to whom, and who has the authority to do what.
But I think Americans can learn something from South Koreans’ response, particularly that of everyday people.
There’s a defeatism that pervades American politics: very few people believe that their voice or their vote matters in the grand scheme. But that fatalism — this notion that they can’t change anything so why even try — becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Maybe a single voice or a single vote won’t make a difference (though I still argue that a single person can still make an enormous impact, especially in local matters). However, if all those people who think they don’t matter all showed up and used their voices and their votes, the combined force could and would make a huge difference.
So that’s the energy I want us all to bring into 2025 — and encourage others to bring as well. Our voices matter, and we can make an impact. Don’t ever doubt that.
J. Nelson - Writer 