A historian's fun field trip to the DNC

+ will Ukraine's incursion into Russia shift public opinion? US Edition - Today's top story: Historians diving for balloons and hoping for hot dish: What Smithsonian curators will be doing at the Democratic National Convention [View in browser]( US Edition | 15 August 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Imagine it’s your job to go to a huge political event and collect all the swag, signs and odd stuff that people bring, wear and use at the conference. Then you get to figure out how to transport all that stuff back to where you work. Sounds kind of fun, huh? The packing, maybe not so much. That’s what three Smithsonian curators have ahead of them next week when they travel to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The curators, Claire Jerry, Jon Grinspan and Lisa Kathleen Graddy, will be there to collect stuff – or as the professionals call it, ephemera: everything from balloons to tickets to articles of clothing. Then they bring it back to the nation’s capital for the Smithsonian’s political campaign collection, which includes items dating back to George Washington. For this week’s featured story, [I interviewed the curators about their upcoming trip](, as I did about their [collecting at this year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee](. There is, of course, a serious reason for their work − as historian Grinspan describes it, to “make sense of our moment to people wondering what we were all thinking.” But there are also the lighter moments, such as when the balloons drop at the end of the convention and the curators join the many attendees diving to grab some. I asked them: “Were you thinking, ‘I have an advanced degree in history, and I am down on my hands and knees picking up balloons from around people’s feet’ to bring back to the Smithsonian?” “Literally, I was,” Jerry said. “I thought I had my hand on one, and it bounced away, and I was very close to, actually, grabbing somebody’s ankle. I was a little embarrassed. I did not have any assignment in graduate school that said, ‘We will now practice grabbing balloons out of the balloon drop.’” Also in this week’s politics news: - [Even Hollywood didn’t see a candidate like Harris coming]( - [The problem with ‘pronatalist’ policies – they don’t work well]( - [A psychiatrist on how to avoid election anxiety]( Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy Curators from the Smithsonian were at the GOP convention in July to bring back items for the museum, including balloons. Joe Raedle/Getty Images [Historians diving for balloons and hoping for hot dish: What Smithsonian curators will be doing at the Democratic National Convention]( Claire Jerry, Smithsonian Institution; Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Institution; Lisa Kathleen Graddy, Smithsonian Institution Will there be Minnesota hot dish hats worn at the upcoming Democratic National Convention? Curators from the Smithsonian will be there, looking for both routine and unconventional campaign items. A Ukrainian tank near the border with Russia, on Aug. 12, 2024. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images [Ukraine’s cross-border incursion challenges Moscow’s war narrative – but will it shift Russian opinion?]( Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University The Kremlin has pushed a dual narrative: that the conflict represents an existential battle with the West, but that life goes on as normal for most Russians. California Democratic Congressman Phil Burton, second from right, with – left to right – Democratic State Assemblymen Leo T. McCarthy, Willie L. Brown and Art Agnos, in the early 1980s. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library [How San Francisco’s Democratic political machine led to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign]( Lincoln Mitchell, Columbia University Kamala Harris is the heir to a political lineage that dates back to a chain-smoking, hard-drinking and profane political mastermind first elected to Congress from San Francisco in 1964. [Despite Donald Trump’s claims, his gag order holds up against the Constitution]( Lynn Greenky, Syracuse University While the First Amendment protects a wide range of different kinds of speech, there is no fundamental right to cause harm. [Americans love free speech, survey finds − until they realize everyone else has it, too]( John G. Geer, Vanderbilt University; Jacob Mchangama, Vanderbilt University Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it’s acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate. [Wagner Group setback in Mali challenges Moscow’s strategy in Africa and the region’s faith in Russian mercenaries]( Christopher Michael Faulkner, US Naval War College Dozens of Russian fighters were killed in confrontation with rebel groups in Mali amid speculation that Ukrainian intelligence played a role. [Offensive names dot the American street map − a new app provides a way to track them]( Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee; Daniel Oto-Peralías, Universidad Pablo de Olavide; Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State A newly released app allows users to search for discriminatory roadway names, helping communities grasp the ubiquity of inequalities embedded in everyday spaces and the harm they cause. [Raising the retirement age won’t defuse China’s demographic time bomb – but mass immigration might]( Dudley L. Poston Jr., Texas A&M University By 2100, China’s population will likely be half its current size. It will also be a lot older, with fewer working-age men and women. [Chicagoans watch films of the violent 1968 convention protests to get ready for the Democratic convention]( Heather Hendershot, Northwestern University As the Democratic National Convention returns to Chicago, there’s an appetite in that city to revisit films from the bloody and violent time the convention was last held in that city: 1968. - [Kamala Harris’ sudden political rise echoes that of another female politician, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern]( Lydia Nobbs, The New School Jacinda Ardern, like Kamala Harris, unexpectedly became the leader of her political party close to the election. The similarities don’t stop there. - [LGBTQ people have a troubled relationship with police − new survey shows high rates of harassment, abuse and distrust]( Stefan Vogler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign A landmark study of police-LGBTQ relations finds that 21% of respondents have been stopped by police in the past year, and 53% of Black trans respondents have been the victims of police brutality. - [Local elections are less partisan because voters will cross party lines when issues hit close to home]( Edward L. Lascher Jr., California State University, Sacramento; Brian Adams, San Diego State University; Danielle Martin, California State University, Sacramento 4 in 10 voters would back a candidate from the opposing party for local office if that politician shared their views on homelessness and housing, according to survey data from California. - [3 years after fall of Kabul, US Congress has still not acted to secure future of more than 70,000 Afghan evacuees in US]( Kelsey Norman, Rice University; Ana Martín Gil, Rice University Attempts to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act have faltered, leaving tens of thousands of Afghans who fled chaos during the fall of Kabul in limbo. - [Dealing with election anxiety? A psychiatrist explains how to channel your fears and break out of tribal thinking]( - [The problem with pronatalism: Pushing baby booms to boost economic growth amounts to a Ponzi scheme]( - [Even fictional presidents don’t look like Kamala Harris − although Black men and white women have been represented in the Oval Office]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? You might be interested in our other weekly emails: • [Science Editors' Picks]( • [This Week in Religion]( • [Giving Today]( • [Weekly Highlights]( • [Global Perspectives]( • [Global Economy & Business]( Follow us on social media: • [Threads]( • [Bluesky]( • [Mastodon]( • [LinkedIn]( • [Instagram]( • [Facebook]( • Or [get one daily text from us]( - - About The Conversation We're a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you [facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world](. 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