Welcome back to Lucid, and hello to all new subscribers. Our next Q&A will take place on Friday, June 19, 1-2pmET. Paying subscribers will receive a link at 10amET that day to register for the Zoom gathering. It will be “just us,” with no guest, so there will be plenty of time for questions. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone.
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I had a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation with fellow historian Timothy Snyder and I wanted to share it with you promptly. As subscribers of Lucid know, getting the language right and the concepts right is essential for analysis, all the more if what you are observing is something new.
Such attention to naming and frameworks also marks Tim’s work (his Substack is called “Thinking About”) and we were eager to meet up and speak about what is unfolding in America.
When this authoritarian nightmare started in January, I knew that a goal of the new Donald Trump administration would be to take down America as a democratic superpower. Less than three weeks after the inauguration, I wrote this essay.
I argued that we would see
Trump reorient the U.S. towards an autocratic axis dedicated to the nullification of democratic internationalism, solidarity, and human rights. How powerful and grandiose the American strongman feels as he issues edict after edict designed to void the world of American power and influence. Trump and his unelected co-president, Elon Musk, are targeting agencies, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy among them, that carry forth the democratic values of assistance and solidarity abroad.
I came back to this February 2025 essay after I listened to Tim speaking recently about “superpower suicide” —the wrecking of America— and wondered if a more proper term would be “superpower murder.” So we decided to have a conversation about it. I hope you find it informative.
