June 2022
In high school AP U.S. History, I read Jay Winik's April 1865.
The premise was simple: the month of April 1865 was one of the most consequential in our nation's history. Between the final battles of the Civil War, the surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination, and the fallout from the installation of Andrew Johnson as president, our country endured 30 days that would set it on a much more different course than the one envisioned just one month prior. Nobody could have predicted that particular month would have unfolded the way that it did and nobody could have predicted the long-lasting impact that one, singular month would have on the fate of our nation.
June 2022 may very well give April 1865 a run for its money.
Between the January 6th Committee public hearings, the forthcoming Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the increasing investigations into TFG, these next 30 days have the potential to greatly alter our country's history. Because while the events of April 1865 shocked a nation, the events of June 2022 may very well reveal a nation and what it may reveal is the unprecedented corruption that occurred when for the first time in 240+ years, an American president became the enemy of the people.
Most Americans aren't like us. They don't pay attention to politics. Hell, only 23% of Americans are on Twitter and of that 6% account for 73% of all the politics content. That means that 98.6% of the country is largely ignoring the political events of the day and are going about their daily lives with little to no regard about what is happening on the bird app that seemingly causes all of us so much personal pain and anguish.
But this month will change all that.
Those 98.6% will not be able to ignore primetime hearings where Democrats reveal a coordinated Republican plot led by the outgoing president to overthrown the government. They won't be able to ignore an unelected judicial branch overturning 49 years of precedent to demote women into second-class citizens without bodily autonomy. They won't be able to ignore the fact that TFG is under investigation in New York state, in Manhattan County, in Fulton County, Georgia, and that more and more information will be coming out regarding what is going on. Remember that we are just now hearing that the Department of Justice has subpoenaed Trump's assistant Peter Navarro, proving that the "do-nothing DOJ" is, in fact, doing something and that something is quickly rising up the food chain in an investigation against the former president. While Merrick Garland and his team have been tight-lipped over the previous 14 months, there can be no doubt that behind the scenes they are doing everything that is needed to build a powerful case, the likes of which our country has never seen. How much of this case or any others come to light over the next month, we cannot say, but we must trust and believe in good faith that justice will prevail.
Those 98.6% will not be able to ignore primetime hearings where Democrats reveal a coordinated Republican plot led by the outgoing president to overthrown the government. They won't be able to ignore an unelected judicial branch overturning 49 years of precedent to demote women into second-class citizens without bodily autonomy. They won't be able to ignore the fact that TFG is under investigation in New York state, in Manhattan County, in Fulton County, Georgia, and that more and more information will be coming out regarding what is going on. Remember that we are just now hearing that the Department of Justice has subpoenaed Trump's assistant Peter Navarro, proving that the "do-nothing DOJ" is, in fact, doing something and that something is quickly rising up the food chain in an investigation against the former president. While Merrick Garland and his team have been tight-lipped over the previous 14 months, there can be no doubt that behind the scenes they are doing everything that is needed to build a powerful case, the likes of which our country has never seen. How much of this case or any others come to light over the next month, we cannot say, but we must trust and believe in good faith that justice will prevail.
History is unpredictable. Those living in March 1865 surely felt that they, too, were living in hopeless times. An endless war was dragging on, hundreds of thousands of their fellow countrymen dead, the state of Georgia being just 3 months removed from being razed to the ground, and a nation that was endlessly divided, both geographically and ideologically. But the war ended. The government lost an iconic president but the process of governing refused to grind to a halt. Four million former slaves now had hope for the very first time. All of this became suddenly possible when just 30 days prior it seemed as if the country might be bogged down in war for years and perhaps decades to come. History is like that; it can turn on a dime and that dime may not be seen until the very last moment. When it does turn, the result can be swift, decisive, and can leave its mark for centuries to come.
We don't know what the world will look like on July 1st, 2022. But what we do know is that it will look drastically different than it does today. These next 30 days will be the most significant of the 21st century. That's not hyperbole, that is a fact. Over the next month, we will get closer to that answer about who we are as a country. How we respond to the events to come will forever define us. And in another 140 years or so someone else will write a book about the critically important month that was June of 2022.
How the rest of that story is told is up to us.