2023: Favorite stories from our politics team

+ the 3 stories you read the most US Edition - Today's top story: 'If you want to die in jail, keep talking' – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice [View in browser]( US Edition | 26 December 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( I got tired of using the word “unprecedented” in 2023. The previous five years can be summed up in the image of me standing in front of the TV, watching CNN and asking, “Have we ever seen anything like this?” But 2023 was the mother of all “haven’t-seen-anything-like-this-before” years: multiple Trump indictments, and his status as the GOP front-runner for the presidential nomination despite those indictments. The first-ever ousting of a House speaker. Two crises in Congress over the debt and budget. Growing ethics scandals at the Supreme Court. Chinese spy balloons – remember them? George Santos’ ejection from the House. And abroad, the huge pro-democracy protests in Israel, followed later in the year by the horrific Hamas attacks and the explosion of the Israel-Hamas war. Readers this year had their favorites in our coverage of all those events. Top among them was an interview with two national security practitioners and scholars at Loyola University Chicago, Joseph Ferguson and Thomas A. Durkin, about Donald Trump’s indictment under the Espionage Act. Asked how they’d counsel Trump if they were his lawyers, Ferguson said, “I’d tell him: [If you want to die in jail, keep talking](.” That story’s headline was easy to write. Asked to pick a favorite story from this year, though, I chose a different kind of piece, one that didn’t describe something unprecedented. My favorite was the gem of an essay by historian Thomas Coens at the University of Tennessee, “[Why Franklin, Washington and Lincoln considered American democracy an ‘experiment’ – and were unsure if it would survive](.” Democracy is a major focus of our politics coverage, and after seeing an increasing number of references in the media to “America’s experiment in democracy,” I commissioned Coens to write a story on the history of the phrase. Politics editor Amy Lieberman says her favorite story “was difficult to edit – not because of any particular problem with the article’s flow or scope. Brown University Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov [wrote beautifully and clearly]( about how children are ultimate victims in the Israel-Hamas war, on both sides. The problem was that the story was so vivid and poetic, it was difficult to work through, line by line, without feeling overwhelming despair. I was first captivated by a famous poem that Bartov featured in the piece, written in 1903 by the Jewish-Russian poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and which, Bartov writes, "every Israeli school child still knows today.” “And damned be he who says: Avenge! Such vengeance, for the blood of a small child, Satan has yet to devise.” Bartov’s story, says Lieberman, helped her “better articulate my own response to the war.” Howard Manly, race and equity editor, says his favorite story delves into how a critical element in the Trump indictments is [whether the former president knew that his actions were potentially criminal]( — and he did them anyway. But Trump’s state of mind is not an easy thing for prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard criminal law professor, explained how prosecutors might use a legal tool that would allow jurors to infer the intent of an accused, largely from his actions before, during and after an alleged crime occurred. Known as consciousness of guilt, the tool enables prosecutors to “dissect everything Trump did, said or heard” to argue that his behavior suggests that he knowingly lied and intended to break the law. I’ll end this note with a passage from our story on America’s experiment in democracy. Noting the shaky confidence many Americans have in democracy currently, author Coens writes that “Fears about its fragility should be tempered with a recognition that democracy’s essential and demonstrated malleability – its capacity for adaptation, improvement and expanding inclusivity – can be and has historically been a source of strength and resilience as well as vulnerability.” That’s a pretty good way to end a rough year in politics. [ [Sign up for our weekly Global Economy & Business newsletter, with interesting perspectives from experts around the world](. ] Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy Today's newsletter supported by [readers like you]( Readers' picks Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images [‘If you want to die in jail, keep talking’ – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice]( Thomas A. Durkin, Loyola University Chicago; Joseph Ferguson, Loyola University Chicago If you were Trump’s lawyer, what would you advise him to do now? Two national security specialists have some words for and about the former president after his federal indictment. Many Americans, many of them Republicans, seek leaders who would violate basic principles of democracy. AP Photo/Ben Gray [Large numbers of Americans want a strong, rough, anti-democratic leader]( Tarah Williams, Allegheny College; Andrew Bloeser, Allegheny College; Brian Harward, Allegheny College A large proportion of Americans is willing to support leaders who would violate democratic principles. Thurgood Marshall, left, had a very different view of the purpose of the Supreme Court than his successor, Clarence Thomas. U.S. Supreme Court via Wikimedia Commons [Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas moves to reverse the legacy of his predecessor, Thurgood Marshall]( Daniel Kiel, University of Memphis Throughout Thomas’ tenure on the court, he has pushed the Supreme Court to replace Marshall’s vision with one more amenable to the powerful than the powerless. Editors' picks Voters in a county election, 1854. Etching by John Sartain after painting by George Caleb Bingham; National Gallery of Art [Why Franklin, Washington and Lincoln considered American democracy an ‘experiment’ – and were unsure if it would survive]( Thomas Coens, University of Tennessee Is American democracy an ‘experiment’ in the bubbling-beakers-in-a-laboratory sense of the word? If so, what is the experiment attempting to prove, and how will we know if and when it has succeeded? Both Palestinian children in Gaza, as shown on left, and Israeli children, as seen on the right, have been hurt, killed and kidnapped in the Israel-Hamas war. Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images/Roy Rochlin/Getty Images [In the Israel-Hamas war, children are the ultimate pawns – and ultimate victims]( Omer Bartov, Brown University For Jewish people, Hamas’ violence against children was reminiscent of the Holocaust. For Palestinians, The Israel Defense Force’s killing their children reminds them of a painful past, too. Former President Donald Trump makes his way to the stage during a rally in Erie, Pa., on July 29, 2023. Dustin Franz for The Washington Post via Getty Images [Trump indictment: Here’s how prosecutors will try to prove he knowingly lied and intended to break the law]( Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University A key element in proving Trump’s guilt or innocence is determining the former president’s state of mind and whether he has shown a consciousness of guilt before and after the alleged crimes. - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? You might be interested in our weekly and biweekly emails: • [Weekly Highlights]( • [Science Editors' Picks]( • [This Week in Religion]( • [Politics Weekly]( • [Global Perspectives]( • [Global Economy & Business]( Trying out new social media? 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