Culture Wars/Current Controversies

For Trump, Every Week Is Apparently Shark Week

JUNE 14, 2024
For Trump, Every Week Is Apparently Shark Week
Donald Trump Jumps the Shark →
You could be forgiven for feeling a tad depressed about the state of the world this week. We woke up on Monday to the news that the far right had made inroads in the European parliamentary elections. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won so thoroughly that President Emmanuel Macron called a snap legislative election, opening the door for Le Pens party to gain even more power. As Harrison Stetler writes, the best chance to hold off the far-right tide appears to rest with forming a new leftist “popular front.” That would have, at least, a fighting chance.

 

Things are not much more cheerful on this side of the pond, where several members of the Squad are attempting to rebuff primary opponents backed by loads of money from AIPAC. On Thursday, Hadas Thier wrote about her time on the trail with perhaps the most vulnerable Squad representative, New Yorks Jamaal Bowman, who is trailing in the polls despite his challenger’s obvious attempts to play on anti-Black and anti-Muslim fears. Anyone who wants to curb the power of Big Money and the Israel lobby should be keeping their fingers crossed that Bowman makes it over the line.

 

Please, please, some good news, I can almost hear you wail. Luckily, it hasnt all been doom and gloom. As Arvin Alaigh chronicled this week, voters dealt a hammer blow to Narendra Modis efforts to turn India into a one-party Hindu nationalist state. The uncommitted campaign officially became President Joe Bidens most powerful opponent in the Democratic primaries. The Supreme Court turned away an attempt to restrict access to abortion pills—for now, anyway. And Donald Trump said some bonkers things about sharks.

 

These things do not a utopia make, but this is 2024. And we have to take the wins where we can find them.

 

—Jack Mirkinson

Senior Editor, The Nation

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In France’s Snap Elections, Can a “Popular Front” Hold Off the Far Right?
At least they’re giving themselves a fighting chance.
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Why So Much Depends Upon Jamaal Bowman Beating AIPAC
The pro-Israel lobbying group is spending millions to oust the New York congressman, but Bowman has “people power.”
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India’s Elections Shocked the World. They Shouldn’t Have.
The roots of the revolt against Narendra Modi’s government were visible to anyone who cared to look.
ARVIN ALAIGH
 
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Why I’m Suing Joe Biden for Complicity in the Genocide in Gaza
I promised my surviving family members in Gaza that I would do everything in my power to advocate on their behalf.
LAILA ELHADDAD
 
The Supreme Court Sides With the FDA on the Abortion Pill—for Now
The outcome is a win for abortion rights, but the court left open the possibility of future challenges to the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone.
AZIZA AHMED
 
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Our June 2024 Issue: The Plot Against America is out now!

 

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