[There are a
number of significant
anniversaries in 2019, so for this New Year’s series I’ve highlighted a
handful of such historical anniversaries. Leading up to this special weekend
post featuring exclusive AmericanStudier predictions on the year ahead!]
First and
foremost: I’m not gonna predict a darn thing about the future for Trump et al.
Even the most AmericanStudying of AmericanStudiers can admit to feeling totally
unable to see what’s coming down the pike with this crew, in these far too
interesting times. Trump could be impeached or in hiding at Mar-a-Lago by the
time this post (which I’m writing in mid-November) is published, he could have
started a war with North Korea or Iran or French Guyana, he could have added
himself to a new outcropping of Mount Rushmore or replaced every face on every
denomination of bill with his orange mug, who the hell can say.
So I’m not gonna
do that. But I will share these three predictions:
1)
The new blood’s gonna shake things up: I wrote
last week about a few of the many inspiring and impressive newly elected
Congresspeople. As of this writing, a group
of the young women in particular have already assembled as a kind of
superhero team, and are proposing
a range of progressive new
policies and plans. Throughout the McConnell and Ryan era Congress has
pretty much become a propaganda wing of first Fox News and now Trumpism, and
the thought of young Congresspeople getting things done that really move the
needle for American society is a surprising one to be sure. But I believe in
this young core, admire their ambition, and can’t wait to see what they do in
the new year.
2)
The citizenship debate’s gonna keep heating up:
I know that Trump’s late October floated idea of redefining birthright
citizenship by Executive Order seemed like a fake pre-election October
Surprise a la his mysterious “middle-class tax cut,” and maybe the EO will
disappear as fully as that
fake news seems to have. But to my mind—and maybe I’m biased ‘cause of that
forthcoming
book and all, but I don’t think that’s it—the battle over American identity
is the defining conflict of our era, and will only intensify in 2019. The white
supremacist exclusionary side of that battle has never been content with
limiting future arrivals to America, and has always fought to destroy existing
communities that don’t fit their vision of the nation. Ending birthright citizenship
would be a key step for that exclusionary agenda, and I predict Trump will
pursue it (if he hasn’t already by the time this appears).
3)
Pop culture’s gonna surprise us: I know the
current propensity for remakes and reboots and sequels and prequels makes it
seem like popular culture is out of good ideas. And the most financially
successful pop culture texts do generally fit that bill, although I’m not sure
too many folks would have predicted that 2018’s #1 film
would be Black Panther. But if you
dig deeper and look at some of the year’s
best-reviewed films (Eighth Grade,
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), or some of
its most
acclaimed TV shows (Atlanta, The Deuce, A Very English Scandal), or some of its most
popular albums (George Ezra, Post Malone, Dua Lipa), you find a ton of
unexpected surprises and strikingly original content. To my mind, there’s never
been more breadth and depth in our popular culture, and I can’t wait to see
where 2019 takes us.
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Anniversaries you’d highlight or predictions you’d share?
No comments:
Post a Comment