Saturday Q&A

It's been a while since we had a 100% normal weekend. That will happen during "end of the school year" season. Anyhow, it is non-politics questions day (though we do allow historical questions about politics; just not modern stuff).

If you are still working on the headline theme—which was apparently a little tougher than we thought, but still way more doable than the previous one—we'll tell you that the band that recorded "New Orleans Is Sinking" and "Wheat Kings" would likely have an advantage.

Non-Politics Questions

M.P. in Austin, TX, asks: Given our current leader's desire to build memorials (and the many Internet comments making clear what terrible things will happen to them over time), I did a quick search to see if there were previous memorials or structures built by presidents that quickly fell into disrepair due to their unpopularity. Most of the results discuss gravesites, which is not quite what I was looking for. Any good examples from past days?

(Z) answers: Not so much. First, because the era of monument building is largely limited to the last 150 years. Second, because presidents don't typically concern themselves with monument-building, as it's so obviously tacky for them to do so.

If you want "examples," you have to bend the parameters of the question quite a bit. There are, for example, presidential monuments that have fallen into disrepair, but they weren't the work of presidents, they were the work of private citizens. Presidents Park, which is not far from Colonial Williamsburg, is probably the most famous one of these.

The closest thing we can think of, within the parameters of the question, are efforts to rename things in honor of deceased presidents. Lyndon B. Johnson, for example, exerted some muscle to get Cape Canaveral renamed as Cape Kennedy. That lasted only a few years, and then it was back to Cape Canaveral. Similarly, Mt. McKinley was not initially renamed by a president, but it WAS re-renamed by a president, namely Donald Trump. Most folks in Alaska, and around the world, are still using Denali. And once a Democrat takes over the White House, the federal government will resume using Denali, as well.

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M.W. in Ottawa, ON, Canada, asks: Since Donald Trump recently relaunched the Presidential Fitness Test, I'm curious how you'd rank the presidents by physical fitness. Perhaps just the top and bottom five. Let's say on their (first) inauguration day (to be fair to those who suffered an incapacitation while in office).

(Z) answers: The five fittest presidents, with most fit at #1:

1. Abraham Lincoln: He was a gifted athlete in his youth, and as president impressed men 30 years younger with feats of strength. The doctor who treated Lincoln on his deathbed marveled at what a physical specimen he was.
   
   
2. Theodore Roosevelt: He was picked on as a four-eyed nerd as a kid, and through sheer force of will, made himself into something of an Adonis. A short Adonis, but an Adonis nontheless.
   
   
3. Gerald Ford: He was offered an NFL contract, and remained a talented athlete into his senior years, exercising and playing golf regularly.
   
   
4. George W. Bush: A fitness fanatic with excellent genes.
   
   
5. John Quincy Adams: He kept himself in great shape—famously, through nude swims in the Potomac early in the morning.

The five least-fit presidents, with most unfit at #1:

1. John F. Kennedy: Despite his youthful, healthy image, he suffered from several serious chronic conditions, including back problems and Addison's Disease. He took a vast cocktail of drugs, and was often drugged enough to not be of sound mind. He was in pain all the time, and wore a stiff corset under his suit, much of the time, to try to cope. Even if he'd served two full terms, he is not likely to have lived long beyond his presidency.
   
   
2. Franklin Pierce: He was a severe alcoholic, and he suffered through his entire term with what we now know as clinical depression. Mental health is health, too.
   
   
3. Donald Trump: The book is still being written on this one. However, he clearly has cognitive issues, and those issues could well prove fatal (as they did for his father and grandfather). There is copious evidence of biological dysfunction, possibly caused by an adderall addiction. His sleep schedule is atrocious. His diet is atrocious. He's got symptoms of other issues, even if we don't know what those issues are. If he survives his term, and lives another decade, he might move down this list. But this is where we put him right now.
   
   
4. William Henry Harrison: He was 68 when he assumed the presidency; the modern equivalent would be something like 83. And he was frail, which undoubtedly laid the groundwork for him to contract pneumonia and die after just over a month in office.
   
   
5. Chester A. Arthur: During his entire time in office, he was suffering from Bright's Disease (now known as nephritis), which killed him the year after he left office.

Note that William Howard Taft was relatively hale and hearty, despite his weight, and the same was true of Franklin D. Roosevelt early in his term, despite his disability. Meanwhile, some of the presidents who developed significant health problems while in office, such as Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge, did not have those health problems on their Inauguration Days.

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B.S. in Huntington Beach, CA, asks: After reading Erik Larsen's The Demon of Unrest, I was surprised by the premise that South Carolina dragged the rest of the South into the Civil War. Understanding that the immediate cause was the election of Abraham Lincoln and opposition in the north to slavery, I have always understood that those states which became the Confederacy did so of their own volition, with little to no hand-wringing over the issue of secession. It seems to me that all of the secessionist states withdrew from the union for very simple and understandable (although despicable) reasons: to continue the institution of slavery, which was the backbone of the southern economy, and to maintain the state of white privilege to which those privileged Southerners had grown accustomed.

To what extent do you believe it was South Carolina's fault versus the almost universal desire of the Confederate states to maintain their immoral status quo?

(Z) answers: Remember that Larsen is a popular author. And while he's very good at what he does, his starting point is "What you've always known about history is wrong." He does not make his money affirming historical consensus.

The pre-war South had a very limited intellectual tradition. But most of the political philosophy that WAS produced came out of South Carolina, particularly Senator and VP John C. Calhoun. So, the intellectual basis for secession was certainly the work of the Palmetto State, at least primarily.

Also, South Carolina went first, and set a template for how to secede. That made it much easier for the other states to take the plunge.

But that is the extent of South Carolina's leadership of secession. The South Carolinians did not call for some sort of national secession council, or travel around proselytizing on behalf of secession. Keep in mind that the other six Lower South states seceded just a couple of weeks after South Carolina did, in the middle of winter, in an era when travel times were very long. There is no way people from South Carolina could have played a role in, say, lobbying Texas to secede.

That secession was driven primarily by self-interest, with South Carolina merely serving as a model/inspiration, is indicated by the fact that the first seven states to go were the seven slave states with (by far) the highest number of enslaved people per capita. The next four states to go, after Sumter, were the four slave states with the next-four-highest numbers of enslaved people per capita. The four slave states that did not go (Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland) were the ones with the lowest numbers of enslaved people per capita.

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D.R. in Fremont, CA, asks: My great-grandfather was conscripted into the Confederate Army in Tennessee, where he lived. He did not want to fight in the war and escaped, was caught, and escaped again. Somehow he managed to go to Mexico and he stayed there until the Civil War was over.

My question is: How on earth was an able-bodied young male able to get to Mexico at that time without being caught and forced back into the Confederate Army? I learned online that he was not the only young man to go to Mexico to escape military service. Was there something like the Underground Railroad going South to help these young men go to Mexico?

(Z) answers: There was no Underground Railroad-type operation for Confederates fleeing to Mexico, and there was no need for one. It was a fairly easy matter to catch a boat to take you down the Mississippi River, and then another one to take you to Mexico.

The Confederate (and Union) authorities did not work especially hard to recapture men who fled the draft, for a couple of reasons. The first is that resources were scarce, and every person assigned to track down draft dodgers was one less person helping to win the war. The second is that both sides knew that draft dodgers made lousy soldiers, because they didn't want to do the job. Better for them to self-select out of the armed forces.

The purpose of the draft, in the Civil War era, was not to enroll new soldiers, at least not directly. It was to "encourage" soliders to volunteer, because the financial and reputational benefits of being a volunteer soldier were vastly better than what a man got if he was drafted. It is estimated that only 4% of men who were drafted ended up actually serving.

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R.H.D. in Webster, NY, asks: President John F. Kennedy would have turned 109 yesterday. When he was inaugurated in 1961, there was a gentleman holding the Bible, I presume, in between him and Chief Justice Earl Warren:

Do you know who that person was?

(Z) answers: Kennedy used the Fitzgerald family Bible for his swearing in. As that Bible is very heavy, and very fragile (it was printed in 1850), it was held up by Clerk of the Supreme Court James R. Browning.

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K.W. in Albuquerque, NM, asks: You mentioned recently that you think Western movies will stand the test of time. What are your nominees for the top ten films in the genre?

(Z) answers: I don't particularly want to rank them, so these are in chronological order:

1. Stagecoach (1939): The film that established John Ford as a director, John Wayne as a leading man, and Westerns as a serious genre. It still holds up, nearly 90 years later.
   
   
2. High Noon (1952): Great performances by Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, and an obvious allegory for McCarthyism.
   
   
3. The Searchers (1956): This might be Ford's best performance as a director, and Wayne's best performance as an actor, even if neither won an Oscar for their work. Best seen on a proper screen, as the movie is chock-full of small details that give the tale nuance and depth.
   
   
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): The greatest of the spaghetti Westerns, with what is probably the most iconic scene to be found in any Western film.
   
   
5. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968): The second-greatest of the spaghetti Westerns, and the opening scene at the railroad depot is almost as memorable as the three-way standoff from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
   
   
6. Rio Bravo (1959): This is Quentin Tarantino's favorite Western, and for good reason. It's a virtuoso demonstration of directing from Howard Hawks (note, for example, that nobody says a word until more than 6 minutes into the film). And what a cast. It's also a very obvious response, allegorically, to High Noon.
   
   
7. Blazing Saddles (1974): There have been many Western comedies, none have come close to this one. My favorite Mel Brooks film.
   
   
8. Unforgiven (1992): The best of the revisionist Westerns, though it wins out over Django Unchained by a very small margin. And, unlike Dances with Wolves, it's not basically a "white savior" film.
   
   
9. Tombstone (1992): The story of the shootout at the O.K. Corral has been adapted for at least 80 Westerns. The best of those adaptations is Tombstone, which was a masterpiece, even if Disney didn't know what it had on its hands. If they hadn't botched the rollout, Val Kilmer surely would have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, as his performance was magnificent. And the fact that he stood out is really saying something for a movie that also has Kurt Russell, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Dana Delany, Sam Elliott, Charlton Heston, Stephen Lang, Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Billy Zane. My Darling Clementine, a much earlier telling of the shootout, is also a worthy contender for this list.
   
   
10. No Country for Old Men (2007): Probably the best of what's called a "Contemporary Western" or "neo-Western" or "urban Western." I give this film the nod primarily due to Javier Bardem's performance. That said, I thought long and hard about giving this slot to Die Hard.

It is not easy to limit it to ten, of course.

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T.K. in Boulder, CO, asks: I inherited a fondness for Western movies from my grandfather as a young boy in the 80s. Later, I wanted historical context so I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Now, I can't help but see themes of them-versus-us, xenophobia, or killing aliens in every one. Is that a product of the generation that produced them, or a fundamental theme of the genre? I'm not angling to cancel Western movies or the people who enjoy them; even problematic media can teach us lessons. With westerns surviving 500 years from now, I wonder what we're passing to our descendants.

(Z) answers: For the first 30 or so years of the Western genre, the dominant theme (not true of all films, but most) was "the Indians were dangerous and savage, and so of course we were justified in taking their land." Put another way, most Westerns operated as nationlistic propaganda serving to legitimize the appropriation of Native lands.

In the mid-1950s, and particularly in the 1960s, that messaging became problematic, thanks to greater sensitivity about social issues, and about representation. It also became less necessary, as the Indian Wars were no longer in living memory for most Americans (having ended in 1890), and American ownership of the land was a broadly accepted reality.

Everyone has heard that the conflict in movies is either going to be man vs. man, man vs. nature, or man vs. himself. Well, for man vs. man Westerns after 1960 or so, the antagonists were less and less likely to be Native Americans, and much more likely to be white men (criminals, or opponents in a land war, or corrupt government officials, etc.). Meanwhile, there were a lot more man vs. nature, and man vs. himself Westerns. For example, the last 20 films of John Wayne's career did not involve Native Americans as the main enemy, or even as a subsidiary enemy.

These are very broad generalizations, but they largely hold true. In terms of what is passed on to future generations, well, again, not all Westerns are them-versus-us, xenophobia, or killing aliens. Further, there are some very problematic elements of, say, the works of Shakespeare (e.g., The Merchant of Venice). But people largely tolerate and accept those elements as a product of their time.

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D.S. in Layton, UT, asks: Where on the spectrum of great movie actors would you place Marlon Brando? Who would you place with him?

(Z) answers: It is very tough to compare actors, because differences in style, and differences in eras, mean you're often comparing apples to oranges to kumquats. That said, here is my attempt to list the 10 greatest movie actors, in alphabetical order, and treating "actor" as a non-gender-specific term:

1. Henry Fonda: If you do any acting, you know it is pretty easy to play "big." Fonda pretty much always played the everyman, which means playing "small," and yet he dominated the screen in pretty much every film he was in. That takes talent
   
   
2. Charles Chaplin: Perhaps the greatest genius on this list, and maybe still the best comic actor that the film world has ever seen.
   
   
3. Daniel Day-Lewis: I don't care for Paul Thomas Anderson films, but I nonetheless liked Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview. That said, my favorite performance of his is, not surprisingly, his turn as Abraham Lincoln.
   
   
4. Humphrey Bogart: He has been dead for nearly 70 years, and yet he still has at least half a dozen films that remain well known, with Casablanca at the top of the list. I was on Hollywood Blvd. a couple of says ago, and Bogie shirts, posters, etc. are still for sale all over the place. Clearly, he penetrated America's psyche.
   
   
5. Marlon Brando: It is a damn shame that he often lost interest in acting, and so phoned his performances in. But when he was engaged, he was maybe the best ever. And his Vito Corleone is certainly in the running for finest film performance of all time.
   
   
6. Morgan Freeman: One of the most versatile actors on this list, he's done comedies, dramas, historical epics, war films, prison films, comic book films, etc., and he's done pretty much all of them well.
   
   
7. Katharine Hepburn: The only actor to win four Oscars, she managed to stay at the forefront of her profession for nearly 60 years. She and Fonda in On Golden Pond is one of the great movie pairings of all time, up there with Bogie and Bacall, or Gable and Leigh.
   
   
8. Diane Keaton: Every movie I've seen her in, from The Godfather to Annie Hall to Father of the Bride, she was just perfect.
   
   
9. Peter Sellers: The other contender, with Chaplin, for the greatest comic actor of all time. Just an absolute genius, and a chameleon who could disappear into any role, much like Gary Oldman.
   
   
10. Meryl Streep: She's pretty much brilliant in everything, from Kramer vs. Kramer to The Iron Lady to The Devil Wears Prada. It's hard to think of the last time she was in a bad film. I don't much care for jukebox musicals, but she was even good in Mamma Mia!.

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D.J.M. in Salmon Arm, BC, Canada, asks: Since it's AI week, I was wondering what you think about the use of AI in movie scenes compared to years ago. For example, consider this short video of a Charlie Chaplin stunt:

Are we losing our creativity to AI?

(Z) answers: Well, I don't know if AI has had enough time to do that kind of damage.

However, something I have said many times about video games is that CGI and other such tools have done a lot of harm. Back in the early days of video gaming, the graphics were so crude, a game had to be carried by a really great concept and/or storyline. Now, all the CGI bells and whistles are used as a crutch, and the concepts/storylines often aren't as strong.

I could be persuaded that movies have suffered a similar de-volution, for a similar reason.

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S.N. in Sparks, NV, asks: On Memorial Day, I listened to a local rock band that included Blacks, Latino and white members. While I like rock music, I typically don't pay much attention to band members, so the following may be off-base. My perception is that few black musicians are members of notable rock bands. If this perception is accurate, why is this?

(Z) answers: It is true that a lot of talented Black musicians have chosen genres other than rock. Undoubtedly, Marvin Gaye, Dr. Dre, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, and a host of others could have been successful rock musicians if they had chosen that as their genre.

Still, there are many prominent Black rock and roll solo artists, including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Bo Diddley, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Tina Turner, Billy Preston, Ray Charles, Lenny Kravitz, etc.

If we are only allowed to include Black musicians who are in rock bands, the list is still pretty long, and includes Sly Stone (Sly and the Family Stone), Slash (Guns N' Roses), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), William DuVall (Alice in Chains), Angelo Moore (Fishbone), Jaimoe (the Allman Brothers), Chuck Mosley (Faith No More), Floyd Sneed (Three Dog Night), Randy Jackson (Journey).

And finally, don't forget all those Motown bands, like the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Supremes and the Four Seasons.

So, I think Black musicians are pretty well represented in rock, on the whole. Even if none of them will be performing an America 250 concert.

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A.S. in Bedford, MA, asks: What is your favorite national anthem?

(Z) answers: Sorry to be obvious, but "La Marseillaise." Maybe I've seen Casablanca too many times. The Japanese national anthem is also quite nice.

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F.S. in Cologne, Germany, asks: Do you agree that "Offense wins games, defense wins championships" in the NFL, the MLB, the NBA and the NHL?

(Z) answers: I think it is probably most true in MLB, assuming we count pitching as part of defense (which we certainly should). Baseball requires consistency if you want to win, and great pitchers produce at a more consistent level than great hitters. A great pitcher could very well pitch two gems in a week. On the other hand, for every game in which a great hitter has 2 HRs and 5 RBIs, he'll also have four games where he goes 0-for-5.

I think it is next most true in the NHL, where a goalie who is on fire can almost single-handedly lift his team to a title. I'm thinking prime Dominik Hasek or Patrick Roy here.

I think it is only a little true in the NBA. Having strong defensive players is nice, but nobody would trade a Ben Wallace or a Dennis Rodman for a Magic Johnson or a Kobe Bryant. As long as a strong offensive producer is at least somewhat capable on defense, scheme and strategy can compensate for their lack of defensive dominance.

I don't think it's particularly true in the NFL. There are teams who famously won on the strength of their defense, like the "Steel Curtain" steelers, or the 1985 Chicago Bears. There are also teams who famously won on the strength of their offense, like the west-coast-offense 49ers of the 1980s, or the "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams of the early 2000s. In the NFL, it's "good defense OR good offense can win championships."

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P.R. in Arvada, CO, asks: Who do you think will win the Stanley Cup this year? The Las Vegas Golden Knights or the Carolina Hurricanes?

(Z) answers: The Hurricanes. They were a considerably better regular-season team and they have home-ice advantage.

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J.K. in Elk Grove, CA, asks: Growing up, I was very much into trivia books and still keep a well-read assortment of books from this genre. I have also been reading your site for many, many years and one of the things that draws me to it is the combination of intellect, wit, and (occasional) snarkiness. Which leads me to my question: I see similarities to your writing style(s) as I did with The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams—although Cecil, I recall, tended to puff up his narcissist side. Is the series something you used to read? The website still has archives from past years (last updated in 2018), and still proudly displays its tagline: "Fighting ignorance since 1973. (It's taking longer than we thought.)"

(Z) answers: I was a regular reader of that site for at least 10 years, until they stopped producing new content. I am sure Cecil had an influence on my writing. That said, I always thought the narcissism bit was tongue-in-cheek.

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P.D.N. in Austintown, OH, asks: Who were (Z)'s favorite teachers, and why did he become a history professor?

(Z) answers: In chronological order:

1. Mrs. Karen Heitman (Kindergarten and First Grade): She was the ideal teacher for young kids, balancing "nurturing" with "maintaining discipline." She had been teaching at that school for so long, that some of my classmates were children of her former students, and a couple of my classmates were grandchildren of her former students.
   
   
2. Mrs. Patricia Hugh (Seventh Grade): She was tough, but she taught us a lot, including about discipline and focus.
   
   
3. Mrs. Lisa Roseman (High School): I did 4 years of high school theater, and she was the teacher for all of them. As we were both endowed with artistic temperaments, we butted heads sometimes. However, no other high school teacher had a bigger influence on the person I am today.
   
   
4. Mr. Carl Sims (High School): His freshman English class was wonderful, and helped me to start understanding abstract concepts like theme and symbolism and allegory.
   
   
5. Mr. Hank Woods (High School): There are no history teachers on this list, until we get to the college professors, because my pre-college history teachers were mostly pretty mediocre. However, the kind of thinking I would eventually do as a historian was the kind of thinking Mr. Woods demanded in his senior English class.
   
   
6. Prof. Joan Waugh (College): I first had her for the Civil War, then for the Gilded Age, then for a seminar on Civil War soldiers, then as supervisor of my three-quarter honors thesis. So, her signature is on something like 20% of the credits that earned me my undergrad degree. Then, she was chair of my dissertation committee, and I also worked for her as a TA and in other capacities. No person has had more influence on either my teaching style or how I think about history. If you saw one of her lectures, and then saw one of mine, you would know instantly that I must have been her doctoral student.
   
   
7. Prof. Jan Reiff (College): I had her seminar on urban history, and then she also served on my committee. She did much to help me see the hidden possibilities of evidence.
   
   
8. Prof. Peter Tokofsky (College): He taught Urban Folklore and Mythology; from his class I took the lesson that there is hidden subtext beyond many things that people do and say (for example, we had a whole lecture on the hidden subtext of elephant jokes).
   
   
9. Prof. Mortimer Chambers (College): I had him as a student for Western Civilizations (4000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.) and then was his TA for the same class. A brilliant teacher, and a model of how to behave like a gentleman.
   
   
10. Prof. Merrick Posnansky (College): He taught classes on African history and archaeology, and did both very well. My interest in material culture comes from him.
    
    
11. Prof. Michael Dukakis (College): Obviously, his analysis of presidential politics ended up having a pretty big impact on what I did with my life.
    
    
12. Prof. Jeff Cole (College): I took Intro to Mass Communications with him. He managed to make every lecture engaging, such that the 400-person room would be packed, even on rainy days. He also had a big influence on my teaching style.
    
    
13. Prof. Susan Rhoades Neel (College): I had her for history of the West. On the first day of class, she walked up on stage and said "Hello, Westerners!" I had never realized, until that moment, that I was born and raised in the West (to me, up to that point, "The West" was what I saw in John Wayne movies). It was an eye-opening class, in terms of what place does, and does not, mean.
    
    
14. Prof. S. Scott Bartchy (College): I took, and then TA'd for, his History of Religions course, and I also TA'd for his courses on the history of Christianity. Very eye-opening, and my final paper topics these days are an adapted version of his final paper topics (same methodological concepts, different raw material).

My having become a professional historian is primarily due to three things. First, my maternal grandparents were very interested in history, and encouraged that interest in me. Second, Prof. Waugh's Civil War class, which I took as a sophomore, engaged me in a way that none of my previous college classes had. So, I continued with her (five more classes, as noted) and also switched my major to History. Third, when it came time to make decisions about my future, I said, "Well, I'm good at writing, and good at speaking, and I've done well in my history classes, and I already have someone to work with. So, history grad school seems to make sense."

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D.S. in Smithtown, NY, asks: Since you are spread out over multiple time zones and cover events in even more time zones, how do you keep track of what time/day it is for someone/somewhere else? Do you have multiple clocks, an app, just do the math in your head?

(Z) answers: For purposes of writing, we usually just give times for the Eastern Time Zone. The much harder part is to make sure to use "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow" properly, since the day we are writing is usually not the day we publish.

For purposes of coordinating, it's not too difficult. One of us lives in the Netherlands, all the others live in the same time zone (and, in fact, the same city). So, we have a set schedule for editing, etc. based on which person is that day's primary author.

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J.K. in Boston, MA, asks: I love this site and have nothing but positive things to say about the tone, the number of days off, the timing of the postings, and all of that. As far as I'm concerned, this whole operation feels like an act of love, and I am not one to nitpick about a gift.

My question is actually about the regular website versus the mobile website. When I open Electoral-Vote.com on my phone, it defaults to the desktop site. I then click on the mobile site icon and it opens a second window. Am I doing something stupid? Like, is there a more straightforward way to open the mobile site right away? For that matter, does the site have any way of knowing if it is opened on a mobile device versus a desktop?

I will continue doing what I'm doing and don't need you to change anything, it's more just a curiosity.

(Z) answers: We appreciate the kind words, and the many similar messages we got from readers!

Our habit, in nearly all cases, is to cause all links to open up a new page. So, you're not doing anything wrong or stupid. If you want to go directly to the phone page, then bookmark www.electoral-vote.com/phone/.

Reader Question of the Week: Mental Dis-ease, Part I

Here is the question we put before readers... well, the last time we put a question before readers:

J.B. in Radnor, PA, asks: How does one keep their sanity and avoid becoming depressed from getting so deep into all the demoralizing news in U.S. politics, and the country as a whole?

We got a lot of good answers, and we think this is a very important subject. So, we're going to share some of those answers right now, and more next week. Maybe we'll even go into a third week.

A.H. in Newberg OR: Yes, I get as frustrated as I believe everyone else about the current state of affairs, and I want to pull my hair out, what little is left!

I, on occasion, have been known to self-medicate with a cold craft brewed IPA while listening to Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, CCR, Jefferson Airplane, Glen Yarborough, The Beatles, Peter Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkel... the list is long!

I was, and always will be a carpenter; the greatest stress relief is just to go into the shop, take out my favorite 20-ounce waffle head framing hammer and beat the hell out of some wood and drive nails until my arm tires. Then it is time once again to grab a tall cold one and self medicate.

I have also been known to join other citizens standing on a street corner holding signs and flags and waving at passersby; we have always had good turnouts for our "NO KINGS" celebrations.

We, GAWD and I, used to unwind watching our children play soccer of volleyball in high school—very relaxing. But now our children are grown, and it is our grandchildren playing soccer or baseball that helps us believe that someway, somehow, someday.

AND, most importantly, I VOTE to register my beliefs and preferences!

There's a New World somewhere, they call the Promised Land.

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L.S. in Greensboro, NC: When I was working, there were a number of occasions when the entire company was in a tizzy. Everyone from the CEO on down were in crisis mode. People were working into the wee hours of the morning. It was an absolute frenzy. But if anyone bothered to ask me, I'd tell them, "Take a deep breath. Calm down. We have a great company with outstanding employees. We'll figure it out." And, of course, we always did. In the end, 90% or more of all the extra hours were really unnecessary, and within a few months, or at most a couple of years, the whole thing was completely forgotten and the company continued on successfully.

When I was a child, the world was going to be destroyed by nuclear war. As a tween, the nation was going to be destroyed by race riots and violent anti-war demonstrations. As a teen, the crimes of the Nixon administration had permanently damaged the nation forever. In the first 10 years after I graduated from high school, inflation ranged from a low of 5.74% to a high of 13.55% with a 10-year compounded rate of 8.79%. (I had to grin slightly whenever people complained about the horrible level of inflation from 2021-2023, compound rate of 5.61%, and our dear leader's assertion that it was the worst ever. Made me wonder exactly what he was doing from 1973-82. I know he doesn't drink, but was he on something else?). Of course, the economy would never recover.

I remember the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, the dot-com crash of 2000-01, the Great Recession of 2007-08, and how each was a blow to the economy from which we would never recover. I remember friends panicking as their investments plummeted. I told them to sit tight and wait a year, and of course it took only about a year for all the market losses to fully recover.

The point is, life goes on. Should we be concerned about some of the things going on? Of course, and if able we should do what we can to make things better. But nothing ever proves to be as bad as it seems in the moment.

And even if the worse should happen and this country really does come to an end, well, the world absorbed the end of the Mayan, Egyptian, Persian, Roman, various Chinese and Indian, and the British empires, among many others, and has continued to muddle along.

So stop, look around, be grateful for family and friends, personal circumstances which either are good, or if bad, will recover and realize that few things are a greater waste of time than worrying. No matter how bleak things may seem, remember that things were undoubtedly worse in the past, and like them, these too shall pass.

I've sometimes been asked "what keeps me awake at night?" I've always answered, "nothing," because losing sleep won't solve any problems, so better to get a good night's sleep and, refreshed, tackle things in the morning.

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J.P. in Pittsburgh, PA: How do I stay sane? Well, I never watch any television news. I acquired that "gift" living in Italy for 10 years of my life, and being in Italy often for business for the past 30 years. Since I couldn't really understand the news initially, I just got out of the habit of listening to it, and then, on my return to the USA, I was shocked by how "shocking" newscasters sounded (and the fact that there were so many commercials). It took me only days on my return to resolve that I would get my news from the BBC which, to this day, on my car radio, always "sounds" less intense and, frankly, doesn't really have to worry about pleasing American shock-and-awe syndromes. I READ the BBC sites (which, thanks to its global commonwealth concerns, contains news from—wait for it—the Pacific, Asia and Africa). I also read AP for my news and ignore basically anything that sounds like a "clickbait" headline. It has most certainly kept me from needing anti-depressants or alcohol to drown everything out... My disgust remains for the current American political environment, but I find it doesn't "consume" me.

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M.A. in Park Ridge, IL: I've been a Democrat and a liberal all my life, and nobody is more upset by what's going on than I am. My approach to mental survival has two factors: an internal one and an external one.

First, the external: Years ago I was fretting about the Bush-Gore election, and my wife (wiser than me in all respects) told me to stop fretting and do something. So I volunteered in the Gore campaign. That was the beginning of my own political involvement over the past quarter-century, which has included: running for (and winning) a seat on the local City Council; serving as an officer of the local Democratic Party; working for other candidates running for offices (from local all the way up to president); assisting my wife in her leadership of a local political organization; and, of course, donating all the $ I can spare to candidates and causes. In short: DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Second, the internal: You have a life. It continues on regardless of who's in office and what lunacy is going on. Someday you will look back on today and wish you had it back (my mom used to say "I wish I was 70 again."). Are you healthy? Are you loved? Do you have someone to love? Is there a roof over your head? Are you safe and comfy in your bed? Do you have interesting and rewarding things to do? If so, appreciate these things, look for ways to help other people, and don't let the clowns in D.C. steal your life. In short: SEIZE--AND APPRECIATE--THE DAY.

Better days are coming. By working at it, we can hasten their arrival. Keep the faith!

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C.R. in Pittsburgh, PA: In current times, taking in the world news of the day (especially news involving the actions of our current administration and/or the U.S. Supreme Court) always leaves me depressed. This kind of depression doesn't seem to be the kind of depression, however, where you can simply treat yourself to an ice cream cone and come out of it. In all my seven decades I don't remember feeling this bad. Not even when I stood in Times Square in 2003 and read the ticker/zipper news on the One Times Square building about invading Iraq.

What I try to do now is to do things that make me feel good. I am an actor and a singer, so listening to a great piece of music (Bach, Mahler, the Beatles, Motown, Lady Gaga, etc.) lifts my spirits. Or I go to see a play, or the ballet, or an opera. (Yes, Mr. Chalamet, you should try it sometime.) I find a museum that will inspire me with its art and its exhibits. Experiencing the arts helps me climb out of the doldrums and sometimes gives me ideas about how the world should work. It sometimes makes me think about things I might do to make humanity more human and better. I call my Millennial nephew and his wife who live eight hours away and hear what they're doing. I seek out elderly people I know and reminisce with them about how things used to be. Usually one of these tactics will work to make me feel better.

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R.L.D. in Sundance, WY: A coping mechanism that I have used for a long time and embrace thoroughly is that I can only do what I can do, but I can always do something. Maybe that's just challenging ridiculous theses on Internet forums or comment sections. I know I won't change the mind of the person I'm arguing with, but at least anyone who is reading has the opportunity to see another perspective and that there are reasonable objections that don't amount to hating America. For a lot of people, it's attending protests. Maybe it's running for political office for some people. It should definitely, for everybody, be casting your ballot every chance you get. The other thing is that I am not a victim. Sure, I don't necessarily have a lot of control of what happens around me, but I always have control over how I choose to react to it. I can move (out of state, out of the country, whatever). As difficult as it is to live with the end of America as I know it, it's still better than moving, but mainly because I choose to keep up the struggle. I stay so I can fight back. America is worth it.

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P.D. in London, England, UK: Serious alcohol abuse and a TV diet of The Simpsons and Family Guy.

And it is not limited to U.S. politics. Have a look at what is going on in the U.K.

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M.S. in Highland Park, IL : I find that focusing on the here and now—right here, right now—is the best way to stay sane. When the headlines are overwhelming, I turn them off and ask: Am I, right now, in physical danger? Am I hungry? Am I loved?

Less existentially, I ask: Is there a book to read? A show to watch? Dinner to make? Laundry to do?

Then I just do those things. The vast, vast majority of readers on this site are not in immediate danger. Could that change? Maybe. Right now? No. Will worrying about it help? Also no.

Even if you are in a category of person targeted by the regime (immigrant, LGBTQ, woman, etc) the odds that your immediate physical well-being is in danger at the moment you read this are nearly nonexistent. So my advice is, get up, make your coffee, watch the birds by the feeder, and, when in despair over the blood and sins of this world, remind yourself that the evils of the world can affect you only as much as you let them in.

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J.S. in Sudbury, MA: I keep my sanity by going to peaceful protests, two or three a week. Holding a snarky sign and cheerfully waving at passing cars restores my spirits, especially since I have become friends with the other regular protesters. Every time a driver waves, smiles, or honks at us, I feel hopeful for humanity. When a child waves, I feel even better.

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J.C. in Milwaukee, WI: The short answer is, stop watching on the sidelines and enter the game.

Start volunteering with a local or statewide political campaign. Even if it's only a few hours a week, even if it feels really basic. Importantly, join the online community and show up to in-person events, too. Make friends. If you have a big skill set that you think would be valuable for the campaign, keep trying to figure out how to flag someone's attention about it—I can all but promise they could use your talents if the right person slows down enough to understand what you have to offer.

The more tapped into politics I get, the more optimistic I am about our country's future. I see people increasingly break out of their paralysis and into civic engagement. Being in community is not only a powerful antifascist measure, but inherently an organizing force. And the leviathan that is a leftward-moving Democratic big tent is still awakening; most of the election cycles over the next few years are going to be overperformances. The new leaders of the party emerging from the 2026 senatorial and gubernatorial races will accelerate the realignment of the Democratic Party that started in 2016.

The U.S. has been broken since at least Reconstruction. We've taped ourselves back together and papered over the cracks. But all of those flaws have been exposed. The second Trump presidency showed us all that this is who we are.

But there are more of us than them, and for everything that gets shattered, the only option will be to rebuild or reform from the ground up.

It may be cliché to say it is darkest before the dawn. However, I promise you it's impossible for the darkness to demoralize you if you surround yourself with people working hard to ensure the sun will rise again, and soon.

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G.K. in Blue Island, IL: I know this may sound escapist to some, but I'm very serious when I recommend that people get a dog. Aside from there being a surplus of dogs who need good homes—which makes adopting one the virtue-signaling "right" thing to do—there are many entirely self-serving, mental-health-enhancing considerations, including:

1. Dogs don't vote, so you don't need to worry about being in political conflict with them.
   
   
2. In most cases, dogs won't outlive you, so you don't need to worry about what kind of world you're leaving them.
   
   
3. Dogs live completely in the present, easily dismiss or forget the past, and care not a whit for the future, because it's always going to be great, and you're always going to be their human, and it will just go on forever, right?
   
   
4. Being around a dog helps you to see the world through their eyes, which is centering.

In a world of extreme uncertainty, everyone could stand to experience the bedrock certainty that, when they walk through the front door, they will be greeted with joy by someone who is genuinely glad to see them.

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W.H. in Ballston Spa, NY: Three "groundings." The first is shared with most: the anticipated passing of the ringleader.

Second is a general treatment—recommended to all—daily viewing of any of the many masterworks performed by Diana Ankudinova. A fine soul and person with unmatched vocals and exceptional performance presence. Lives each song with all her might. Always appropriately dressed and admirable behavior. Millions of fans. She heals sick souls. Survived heart-breaking trauma to become a powerful force for good.

Third is the special solution, for me—a budding close friendship with a remarkable Gen Z person. Smart, agile, alert, kind. Does not mind our (56-year) difference in age. (Also very good-looking, but that is the least of qualities one should notice. Substance over image, but image has its role.) Aches, pains, worries of old age—disappear when she is near.

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L.B. in Boise, ID: I am fond of saying "you define your own happiness." (Apparently, I am not the only person to come up with that idea, as there are plenty of sources to be found on the Internet who did not hear it from me.)

It is not particularly productive to focus mainly on the bad things when there is so much good around us all the time. We are alive, we live in an amazing time technologically, etc., with arguably the highest level of human progress happening on a daily basis in spite of those who wish to pull us back to a different century. Most everyone who reads these words won the geographic lottery and was born into a wealthy country, and everyone who reads these words won the educational lottery by becoming literate. Reading this website shows a certain level of critical thinking skills which puts one in the upper echelons of consciousness of the events in the world around them.

One trick that I have for winning most things in life is that if I am not winning by one metric, I just come up with a different metric. When I am behind in the game of Scrabble, looking at an opponent with an insurmountable lead, I just start playing a different game where I score the same number of points on every turn, or spell into two words on every turn or block my opponents from the best places on every turn. A wise man once told me that there will always be someone else with more money, better tools and a bigger penis. Enjoy what you have and find joy in many things and your life will be happier, because your happiness is up to you.

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H.R. in Chapel Hill, NC: I read the news too much. It will take more than one good President to undo the damage Trump has done. If the Russians are not paying him, they should be.

I've retreated into the past, reading history and writing capsule biographies of my ancestors, for the sake of the next generation. I've recently begun using AI to polish my prose, and am frankly annoyed that it polishes better than I do.

I see no hope for us until the midterms. But on that front, I have finally begun to be a bit hopeful. With his stupid war in Iran, Donald has broken something he does not know how to fix, and his supporters are feeling the pain.

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M.M. in Central Illinois: Short answer: I don't.

Long answer: Clinically depressed in my 20s, I recognize my current dysfunction as déjà vu all over again. Endeavors I love seem pointless. The pastimes I built my retirement around became dependent on Chinese manufacturing in the '00s, and we know where that stands for the foreseeable future. My bucket list is becoming unachievable. Though lofty, 10 years ago it was a worthy objective.

But what disturbs me more than anything else is the wholesale destruction of Trump's "reverse Midas touch" will not be mitigated before I pass. My remaining 10-20 years will run headlong into barrier after barrier, depleting my resources at an accelerating pace just in the living.

Sanity? Thank goodness for organized movements like "No Kings"! I can anonymously—important given the "retribution" our President so loves—express my dissatisfaction and angst along with millions of others. BUT... in experiencing the protests firsthand, where are the young people? Do they not care? Because they've learned the Boomers have taken it all, so why bother? Or is it that they anticipate no means to house or feed themselves because the AI billionaires are wiping mid-level employment off the face of the earth, and, at the same time, conservative interests are pulling the rug out from under social support systems?

Then, what happens if the "blue wave" y'all keep talking about for this November doesn't manifest? Especially because conservatives are taking every opportunity to game the system? I've known since childhood that conservatives cheat, and pat themselves on the back for it. My parents were Ayn Rand libertarians, and thinking back on their thinking disgusts me.

So... I feel helpless. And hopeless.

P.S.: My "too big for a bumper sticker" thought—"Republicans = Money. Democrats = People. Which one are you?"

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T.H. in Champaign, IL: Retaining my sanity? I'm not. This is literally destroying me.

More next week. If anyone is inspired, by these answers, to weigh in, there is still time at comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Mental Dis-ease"!

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