Why subscribe?
Wolves and Sheep is a place to make sense of our out-of-control world.
The journalist Edward R. Murrow long ago warned, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” Well, here we are.
It’s scary and dislocating to live in a time when the foundations we took for granted our entire lives are under assault. Things like personal rights, free elections, and democracy itself. Things that provided a basic sense of personal security.
Democracy survived an insurrection – but the insurrection isn’t over. Could it succeed next time? Is partisanship going to define everything we do for the rest of our lives? What’s driving all this instability? Why is it happening now? Will things ever get better?
Wolves and Sheep is a place to understand these questions through the lens of history and social science – a perspective you won’t find in mainstream punditry. It’s a place to connect with others who have concerns about living in an age of peril. And it’s a place to engage with others in political action for the purpose of protecting our democracy.
Most political analysis is shaped in the echo chambers of Washington and New York, and while it may be conventional it frequently lacks wisdom. Not so here.
Just think about how many times you’ve heard well-regarded analysts proclaim with certainty that something was impossible, only to see it materialize a few months later.
That’s because so much political analysis relies on a journalistic frame of reference centering on idiosyncratic personalities and events. This approach can explain a lot during periods of political stability when deviations from orthodoxy are rare.
But a time like ours calls for a frame of reference that treats individuals, events, even entire elections as elements of a larger system. It calls for understanding them in the context of other periods of severe political and social dislocation, like the 1960s, 1930s and 1860s, which resonate with today’s disruptive politics.
These were periods when the political system experienced tremendous stress but ultimately proved resilient. They were eras – like ours – that played out along the fault lines of political party decline, decay and renewal, and they can help us understand events in a way that Beltway commentators may not be able to see.
Wolves and Sheep readers will have access to this analysis. All subscribers receive the newsletter, featuring a new column from Matt Kerbel every Monday and Wednesday and from Chris Bowers every Saturday, a Thursday “Let’s Do This!” column from Chris Bowers, and the Wolves and Sheep podcast. As a paid subscriber, you will also receive a “Life in Activism” post from Chris every Tuesday and an additional news-related post from Matt every Friday, along with access to comment threads and a monthly briefing with Matt and Chris on the state of politics. Plus you’ll have a chance to participate in a community of likeminded others looking to share their worries, take action, and ease their concerns through an informed understanding of what’s going on.
Informed and sober discussion free of breathless hype can work wonders. And it helps to know you’re not alone.
Welcome to Wolves and Sheep. And buckle up. We live in interesting times.
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