PurpleAmerica's Week in Review (11/10-11/17)

Pass the Cranberry Sauce and Turn On the Game

We made it to Thanksgiving week! Is it just me or did 2023 cruise right by? It’s only a matter of days before we start seeing Christmas commercials (I’ve already seen some), Hallmark movies, Year End “Best Of” lists, Oscar bait films, and more focused talk about the 2024 Presidential primaries and election season. If you think 2023 came and went in a blink of an eye, wait for 2024 to be a flash in the pan.

Which brings me to PurpleAmerica generally. When I first took out my computer last December and started contemplating a recurring webpage of commentary from the middle of the electorate, a group I’ve often felt were silent, neglected and who actually determine elections, I immediately gravitated to Substack. It was home to many of the writers I liked to read, such as Matt Yglesias, Ken White (a.k.a. PopeHat), Ruy Teixeira at the Liberal Patriot, and Andrew Sullivan. I don’t always agree with these people, but they write well, make good arguments and engage in lively thoughtful discussion. That’s what I wanted to begin. I’ve also found new writers I like to read like Geoff Anderson, Holly Berkeley Fletcher (whose “A Zebra Without Stripes” is a must read) and Thomas Hutcheson (“The Radical Centrist”). Their constant feedback, posts on their own sites and common viewpoints all make me realize this effort is not in vain and there are a lot of us out there thoughtful, reasonable, rational people who are frustrated with the extremes we see and encounter every day (and yes, one entire party right now is entirely extreme). I highly encourage you to subscribe to their newsletters as well.

Over the last year, this site has exceeded my expectations. Slow and steady improvement throughout the year, but the volume of shares of individual posts, the quality of the feedback and thoughtful responses from the growing PurpleAmerica community continues to amaze me. Seeing some of the very engaged readers provide genuinely intelligent insights and perspectives makes me smile more and more every day. PurpleAmerica is growing, and I owe all of it to readers like you.

That being said, I’m wondering what your favorite posts have been this year. Was there one that you really enjoyed? One that blew your mind? One that was completely reassuring to you in what you generally thought. Are there issues you want to see me discuss more often? Please send me your comments at PurpleAmericanUnity@gmail.com or place in the comments. I’ll put together a post closer to the end of the year with all of your thoughts and suggestions.

PurpleAmerica 2024! Let’s get back to civilized discourse, reasoned discussion and break this Red State/Blue State dichotomy and turn the country Purple.

—PurpleAmerica

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

You remember Batkid? The five year old with cancer who’s Make-a-wish to be a superhero became true when the entire city of San Francisco stepped up to make it happen? That was 10 years ago, and he’s alive today and healthy enjoying high school.

Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Blessed be the Peacemakers. To understand why Bernie is here, check out “The Ugly” section.

President Biden and Chinese President Xi had what seems to be a cordial and productive summit this past week. Let’s see more of this.

The Bad

The Marvels bombed as expected. Outside the MCU diehards, this one failed to excite anyone. At least 2024 will bring us a Deadpool sequel which should actually be watchable.

Ultrarunner Joasia Zakrewski was banned for 12 months after it became known that during a 50 mile race she got a ride in a car with a friend and then placed third. If you’re going to cheat and get caught, the least you can do is get first.

Cleveland Quarterback DeShaun Watson, who was facing serious jail time for multiple rape and sexual assault charges (he got out of them), and who Cleveland traded a boatload of top picks (including three first round picks and two third round picks among others), and made the highest paid quarterback for a brief period (five years, $230 million guaranteed), was placed on injured reserve ending his season again. He’s played only 12 games over the first two years of that contract and has been mediocre at best. Karma. This is the most Browns thing ever.

The Ugly

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) tried picking a fight this week at a Senate Hearing with Teamster’s boss Sean O’Brien. Now, asking a Teamster twice your size to take it outside and go a couple rounds is pretty dumb; doing it when you are a sitting Senator at an actual Senate hearing is outright insane. Thank God Bernie Sanders (!) was there to talk some sense into him. “You’re a sitting U.S. Senator…” This event just goes to show that the incentives on the right wing, with Fox and other Right Wing outlets, is just to talk tough and berate, rather than it is to accomplish anything of value.

But our ugliest of the week belongs to Elon Musk, who aside from continuing to troll in right wing propaganda and anti-semitism, supported and promoted a post on his platform X this week that claimed Jews push hatred against white people. There’s ugly, there’s atrocious, and then there is stuff like this that is flat out repugnant.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five

This week: The Top 5 Things About Thanksgiving Weekend

As we are off all next week enjoying the Thanksgiving Holiday, let’s take a moment and give thanks to the five best things that make this holiday enjoyable.

5. Pumpkin Pie, and the end of the Pumpkin Spice season. I love pumpkin pie, especially with a huge dollop of whipped cream on it. But more importantly, you can walk by a Starbucks and not smell pumpkin spice from here on out. Yeah!

4. Black Friday. Yeah, I know, most people are petrified to go shopping on Black Friday. You know what? It’s a blast, and far more open than people think. Great deals, fun time, you can have all your Christmas shopping done by noon.

3. Football. Usually the Detroit game is a real snoozer but this year the Lions are tough and fun to watch, playing a divisional foe in Green Bay. Dallas is competing strongly for a playoff spot playing another divisional foe in Washington, which should be fun. The 49ers and Seahawks is going to be a great divisional game to watch. Load me up with mashed potatoes, sit me in a recliner and let me watch 10 straight hours of football.

2. Getting Christmas shit out. If you’ve done it already, shame on you. There is no greater day than when you put on some Christmas music, get out the decorations, and get into the Christmas spirit, and it should never happen before Thanksgiving.

1. The Food. There are few days which are a complete bacchanal dedicated to gluttony. The more you eat, the more you are celebrating the season. White meat, dark meat, doesn’t matter. Cranberry sauce, potatoes, all of it. If you don’t loosen up your belt a little, go into a tryptophan coma and eat leftovers for the next three days, you completely missed the point of the holiday. Sure, family is nice, but gaining a few pounds on your fat layer in anticipation of the cold winter is a requirement.

PurpleAmerica’s Best Articles of the Week

Charlie Warzel at the Atlantic discusses his utter amazement of the Las Vegas Sphere.

Political communications guy George Packer discusses why political activism leads to such horrible political writing. (I’m taking note George).

Politico commenting about what a circus the House GOP is, regardless of who leads it.

Rick Wilson talks with media reporter Brian Stelter about Fox News, the Dominion lawsuit and what a complete mess it is as a news organization.

A couple by Ruy Teixeira at the Liberal Patriot

• One noting the overconfidence and complacency of Democrats when it comes to their current political situation.

• The other on Democrats’ growing Hispanic voter problem, which I wrote about this week here.

Lastly, the always readable and insightful John Dickerson on how the GOP has no moral standards, other than bending to Trump’s will.

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

Q: Do you get the impression we are getting closer to Idiocracy every day, when Trump does everything he does and still seems on track to win (or at least make it close) in 2024? —FrustratedLib2024

Dear FrustratedLib2024-

Yes.

Sincerely, PurpleAmerica

Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com

PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

On November 21, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. Yes, I know pilgrims and puritans are overdone when it comes to this time of year but this is actually an important date, and actually has nothing to do with the first Thanksgiving (which occured the following year).

The Pilgrims were some of the worst travelers in the history of mankind. A total of 102 passenger and 30 crewmembers departed September 6th, 1620 from Plymouth, England for the New World, on a ship that was not nearly designed to hold that many or endure the lengthy journey at sea contemplated. Intending to settle the area in NY at the mouth of the Hudson River, incredibly bad weather and repeated failures of the ship resulted in the trip taking over two months. They first saw land near Cape Cod and then tried to sail southward. Attempts to further continue against the current to NY were unsuccessful and with provisions running low, on November 9th the colonists instead decided to settle the area near where they were stuck. They sent out people to investigate the land and area and decided on the place which became Plymouth, which actually was not a good place to settle at all, particularly with winter approaching.¹

But they had a problem. They didn’t have a patent to settle this area. There was also no sense of how the settlers would organize and govern themselves in the New World. Not all of the people on the Mayflower were a part of the Puritan group but were “strangers” hoping to start a new life in America and another 30 were crew. So, on November 21st, 41 of the travelers (all males) agreed and signed “The Mayflower Compact” which is considered the first establishment of democracy in America. It set out how they would resolve disputes and coordinate amongst themselves until they got their land patent from the British Monarchy.

Half of all the settlers died that first winter. Of who remained, only 26 families resulted in descendants of pilgrim settlers.² From those 26 families, there are a total of 35 million living descendents today, with 10 million of those in the United States, or roughly 2.8% of the entire U.S. population.³

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

When are turkeys most grateful?

The Day after Thanksgiving.

And with that…

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. If you’ve ever seen a nor’easter that time of year, you’ll know what I mean.

2. Mayflower Society Website.

3. Ibid.