Hope for America
Steuben, Wi
Hope for America
We’re sitting inside at a restaurant, where we can inhale without taking in lungfuls of wildfire smoke. Sundays are typically for early morning “master hikes,” a term I coined for challenging outings for just Dane and me, no dogs allowed! But not today—not with Dane’s nonstop coughing and the poor air quality outdoors.
Dane grabs the box of conversation-starter cards on the table and picks one to ask me: “Who is someone you admire?” Without a second thought, I say, “Jane Goodall,” and then quickly add, “James Talarico.” Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas.
Dane nods, encouraging me to elaborate. “I like Talarico’s spunk,” I explain. No matter what folks say disparagingly against him, he doesn’t lose his cool, he doesn’t back down, and he combats their outlandish takes on what being a Christian means with scripture from the Bible. The Christian lifestyle he holds to—“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”—seems straightforward and accurate.
Dane’s turn. He runs through a mental list of folks, then looks straight at me and says, “Heather Cox Richardson.” I grin and answer, “Good one! Yes!”
Richardson is a professor at Boston College and a renowned political historian. I introduced Dane to her free daily newsletter a few years back, and ever since, he rarely misses reading her Letters from an American.
Dane goes on to praise her, saying he thought he knew his history but has learned so much more from her. He particularly likes how she analyzes current US politics through the lens of history.
Richardson’s newsletter is the most-subscribed-to individual publication on Substack, with over 2.6 million subscribers. We feel the world makes more sense with her analysis and commentary. I’ve learned more about history from reading Letters from an American than I ever did in school.
We’re both also fans of her current project, called 250 to 250, a video initiative for America’s semiquincentennial year. Last August, when advocates of white nationalism, Christian nationalism, and authoritarianism claimed to be embracing American values, Richardson urged people instead “to see those who care about the preservation of democracy and who have worked to expand its values as the people who truly represent America.” As her team considered how to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, they kept circling back to the idea that “We Are America” and decided to develop a series of short videos highlighting people, places, and events that have moved our country forward.
Featuring mostly everyday Americans, the videos are designed to remind us of our own agency and ability to change the country. They help define what it means to be American, in categories such as community, democracy, innovation, mobility, civil rights, education, creativity, and conservation.
While Dane and I sip our coffee and wait for our food, we look up the first 250 for 250 video on his phone. In her introduction, Richardson says that our country’s story has been about “the ongoing effort from Americans of all races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities” to demonstrate “that we are all created equal and have a right to have a say in our democracy.… Because now, as ever, ‘We Are America.’”
The videos are easy to find on YouTube and are each only a minute long. Each one is narrated by a public figure, such as Rosanne Cash, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Harrison Ford, Peter Salk, Maria Shriver, Pete Buttigieg, and Cleve Jones.
Our breakfast comes, and as we eat, we agree that Talarico’s ability to convey the concerns and values of the Democratic Party on conservative Fox News is impressive, as is his reframing of issues as a fight between “top and bottom,” versus left and right.
Then we agree that no one in our time has been as accessible and brilliant as Heather Cox Richardson at communicating with a general audience the importance of our history and its lessons for our present moment. Putting down his fork, Dane says, “She gives me hope.”
“Something we all need right now,” I add.