Please Join Me on Substack

4 Jun 2025 By Susan Barsy in Politics, Protest and Protestors, The Trump Years Tags: activism, non-violent opposition, Politics, self-government

A historical illustration titled 'Raising the Flag May 1861', depicting a diverse group of people celebrating the raising of the American flag, with the U.S. Capitol in the background and soldiers in uniform present.

I’m excited to announce that I’ve launched a new publication on Substack called Village Intellectual. I hope you’ll check out it out and subscribe.

“Village intellectual” is the term I’ve come up with to describe my position and calling since moving to Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, in late 2023. I moved from Chicago, where the political culture was deep-blue almost to a fault, to a region of ambivalence, where partisan polarization expresses itself in a culture of mutual suspicion, defiance, even fear. Meanwhile, federalism is under attack from within, signaling a national emergency that all good Americans are trying to redress.

It’s History. Make History.

Since January 6th, 2021, the United States has been heading toward a many-sided political and Constitutional crisis, which, with Trump’s return to the White House, has entered an acute and acutely dangerous phase. We can’t ignore our common obligation to defend Constitutional federalism, no matter how outlandish and unfamiliar that portfolio seems. Many I know are looking for a way forward, trying to find a new formula for effective political action on the ground. It’s bizarre that such an outsized burden has fallen on us.

Village Intellectual is my way of encouraging and supporting those of you striving to constrain the executive’s abuse of power and bring this nightmare of a Dark Age to an end. In this, we can draw on the American political tradition, which is rooted in a revolutionary ideology that rejects monarchical corruption in favor of self-government, personal dignity, and autonomy. This common inheritance is perhaps our greatest resource, offering a language, inspiration, and models to be deployed in standing up for our common rights and asserting our power as a self-governing people.

So, please join me over on Substack, where I hope we can build an active and voluble civic community. If you like what you find there, I hope you will subscribe and share its contents with your friends. Please note that free and paid subscriptions are available.

American Inquiry will continue to remain freely available and online. Given its deep archive, this parent website will likely remain my preferred venue for formal history writing. I’m proud of all the work I’ve published here over the years and deeply grateful for your loyal readership and lasting support. Onward!

Image: from this source.

Hijacked

27 May 2025 By Susan Barsy in Politics, Protest and Protestors, The Trump Years Tags: activism, non-violent opposition, Politics

Americans face an unprecedented and unlooked-for political emergency. We must band together to save ourselves and the nation from a dark future. In such a situation, we can expect new leaders to emerge, but it falls on us collectively to unite to preserve our autonomy and right to self-determination.

KEY MOMENTS

Imagine you’re on a plane a madman has hijacked: this is our political situation (0:03)
In the present situation, none of us can expect to have a separate fate; we must band together (1:15)
We must set aside normal ways of proceeding for the sake of unity (2:30)
In an unlooked-for emergency, plans and leaders tend to emerge spontaneously. (3:00)
As in the years prior to the Civil War, party warfare has marginalized many capable leaders. (3:55)
Fortunately, our nation is full of capable people who care about others and the rule of law. (6:30)
One whole party, the Republicans, has proved itself incapable of standing up to the president and demanding that he respect Congress and the laws created by our best minds over the years. (7:00)
As a consequence, we are headed into a very dangerous situation. (8:00)
I implore you to band together with others to limit the harm. (8:25)
A strike against one American is a strike against all. (8:55)
The consequences of allowing this situation to unfold unchecked are grim. (9:30)

Day 35: The Mobilizers

29 Sep 2020 By Susan Barsy in Candidates and Campaigns Tags: 2020 election, activism, political engagement, political innovation, political parties, voting 3 Comments

Election 2020 is the most important election of our lives. It is also the most unusual, because of COVID, because of Trump’s dirty tricks, and because underneath the titanic struggle between Trump and Biden is a creaky, deaf party system that many voters loathe.

The “nationalization” of political campaigns under the direction of an army of political consultants and ad directors has reached the limits of its efficacy. Citizens are tired of slick ad blitzes, tech-only wizardry, and political negativity. They are tired of being reduced to a statistic, tired of being bombarded with impersonal appeals.

In the interstices of all this, something truly extraordinary is happening. Americans are organizing themselves in more authentic and locally appropriate ways. They are mobilizing their friends and families, reaching out through personal networks, developing bloc-specific agendas, hoping to multiply the influence of their constituencies at the polls.

The ideological agenda of the new mobilizers may be a bit vague. They don’t operate at the pleasure of a political party. Their overarching mission is to preach the power of civic engagement to groups underrepresented in the polity. The Minnesota Youth Collective, for instance, asks prospective members to take a pledge to be civically engaged: “Young Minnesotans are the largest voting bloc in the state, and we’re ready to use that power to get things done for our communities. By filling out this quick form, you’re making a commitment to join this fight with us, whatever that means to you.”

Similar groups are springing up all over the country, sometimes banding together to increase their visibility:

Alliance for Youth Action (national consortium)
BLOC: Black Leaders Organizing For Communities (WI)
Engage Miami (FL)
LIT: Leaders Igniting Transformation (WI)
Voces De La Frontera (national)
Voting While Black (national)

These groups could have an unexpectedly large effect on the presidential election, precisely because they are mobilizing communities that the national party system has cynically neglected for years. They lie outside the aegis of the Biden campaign and may be reaching voters whom political polls miss.

Image: “Electioneering in Georgia,”
from this source.

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It’s History. Make History.

Hijacked

Day 35: The Mobilizers