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Three!

Thank you for supporting Civil Discourse

Joyce Vance

May 31

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A week from today, it will be the third anniversary of this newsletter. That’s hard for me to believe. We’ve been through a lot together.

I started the newsletter just as the House January 6 Committee hearings were getting underway. I wanted to write about voting and election law, the intersection of much of my academic work and my personal passion, because I’m one of those people who believe voting is the right that unlocks all the other rights. But the newsletter took on a life of its own, and increasingly, I found I was using my experience as a prosecutor at DOJ to translate the legal proceedings we were in the thick of. Now, here we are. I don’t think any of us expected that in our lifetimes, democracy, which we have been able to take for granted for so long, would be in a fight for its life, under challenge by an American president.

There is a lot ahead of us in the coming year, and I hope you’ll stay here with me at Civil Discourse for it. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be finishing up my first book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. What a time to be rereading and writing about the fundamentals of American history and our legal system—I’m sure you all have noticed some of that creeping into the newsletter and my television commentary (I actually caught myself talking about the Founding Fathers on MSNBC last week). But I believe that understanding our system and how it’s supposed to work, as opposed to where Trump and his minions are trying to lead us, is critical to getting through this, so I continue to do that work.

If I’m a little quieter than usual as I finish up the book, I hope you’ll be patient with me. But, I have plans to speak with some important guests on Substack live these next few weeks, people who understand the threat of autocracy and are not afraid to speak plainly about the moment we are in. We need that sort of courage right now, and I hope you’ll join us and bring along some friends. It’s less a celebration of Civil Discourse’s third anniversary than it is a time to gather our resolve and steel ourselves for what’s to come.

It would have been one thing for the Supreme Court to go all in on the unitary executive theory and create an uber-powerful presidency with Barack Obama in the White House. Or even Ronald Regan or Jimmy Carter. I would not have been a fan; I think it’s a fundamental misread of the separation of powers the Founding Fathers created—important not only because it is required by our founding documents but because it makes sense, and it’s how a country prevents itself from being taken over by a dictator. But for the Supreme Court to do it now, with Donald Trump in office, is mind-numbingly senseless. In the presidential immunity case, there was mention of the importance of writing rules for “all time,” as though a majority of the Court has a total lack of self-awareness about the times we are actually living in and the threat of succumbing to an all-powerful presidency.

During these difficult years for our democracy, I’ve had the privilege of writing to you and speaking out on MSNBC and in podcasts. Traveling around the country, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many of you in person. Every day, you remind me why all of this matters. I am deeply moved, and also sustained, by the care, the thoughtfulness, the dedication, and the unbounded patriotism Americans are displaying in our moment of greatest need. We owe our children and our grandchildren the same freedom many of our grandparents and great-grandparents came to this country for and/or fought on the battlefields in Europe and elsewhere to sustain. History dubbed them the greatest generation. I wonder what it will call us?

Mostly tonight, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. It’s good that we are not alone in the fight for the Republic. Our support for each other is what sustains democracy. Thank you for being a part of the Civil Discourse community. And also, because I know there are those among you who will fuss if I don’t, a couple of chicken pictures for tonight. The second one includes a “friend” who dropped in to share their snack.