Letters from an American
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.Listen on
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Garamond
Impeach Trump.
Bondi too!
Impeach the whole damn administration! The first is as lawless as the last!
Does anyone know how impossible impeachment is in the current environment, or even the process required to remove a president from office?
Scary doesn't even capture this. As a grandchild of German immigrants who left Natzi Germany before WWII... this is insane to see similarities of injustice on this scale happening again - in the country that once stood for the exact opposite.
I look at the pictures of shaved, handcuffed nearly naked men lying on the floor and immediately thought of our ancestors in concentration camps. People should not be dehumanized like this.
2025 is the scariest year I've experienced in my 76 years. Scarier than the year 2020 when I was in septic shock and so near death. These days I protest. I march, I write letters. I make calls and I write posts but I still feel powerless. All said, gatherin in solidarity has been the most satisfying activity so far. Let's all keep up the protests. Thank you, Heather, for spurring me on.
Instead of trains to Auschwitz we have planes to El Salvador. Trump and company will ignore the results of the 2026 election if they are allowed to continue on the course they are following to a Fascist dictatorship.
In 1841, former President John Quincy Adams argued that if the U.S. government could send Africans overseas for trial, it could do the same to American citizens. That warning feels urgent today. During Trump’s presidency, many worried about attacks on immigrants, journalists, and political critics. In El Salvador, President Bukele has jailed thousands without trials, claiming it’s to fight crime. Adams's point still matters: when leaders get too much power over who stays, who speaks, or who gets a fair trial, everyone’s rights are at risk. Once the government can silence or remove one group, it can do the same to anyone. That’s why protecting basic rights for all people protects freedom for everyone.
Trump is handing Congress a clear path to impeach him.
Please call the capital switchboard at 202–2 24–3121 and speak to the congressional delegate of your choice.
We need to do more than listen to Heather, we need to act early and often.
Keep all courage and Godspeed to you!
Meanwhile, most American citizens have no ideas or even care what is happening in our country. Much of the western media barely or never tells us what is truly happening here or in the rest of the world.
That is probably usually true. My sense is that a goodly number of people are alarmed, though about different things. And most of the progressive sites I visit have their eye on the ball: the upcoming challenge to the Supremes. I’m 81 and scared, looking for a way I can show up.
I don't know if it's most, but, unfortunately, still too many to know if we will be able to stop annihilation of life as we have known it. What a sobering realization, to find how deeply so many are living in denial.
What say ye all? At this point in his political career. (having just lost an election), Trump was out there every single week meeting with his constituents, in the media talking about his plans for America. I think we should encourage Kamala Harris, who actually almost won the last election, to keep out there in the media, to point out every single thing that Trump does illegally and remind us that she told us he would do that. She needs to play clips of herself, saying that, clips of Michelle and Barack Obama saying the same things. They need to constantly be reminding us throughout this journey that they warned us that this would happen and that there is an alternative! These are the days when so many Americans and people across the world are looking for better leaders to take over. We all need hope and the Obamas and Kamala Harris would give us that hope if they were more visible. Otherwise people will just despair. Very interested to hear what you all think. We can’t just be in the media fighting against Trump. We also have to be reminding all Americans that America used to be better and that it can be better again if we support candidates with our votes! 🗳️ And not lose hope.
Thank you, Michael Moss, for the ways you deliver Heather Cox Richardson into our lives—through word and music. It's life-sustaining, as is she.
I really appreciate that it was read by an actual human. The robot version is always distracting for me. I can't help but focus on mispronunciations and other idiosyncrasies of the robot versions.
If “Accountability” doesn’t start coming soon, I dare say our system of government will fall to the incompetence that is this group of criminals!
Impeach Trump. Put an end to this lawlessness.
I’m not sure how you think that can happen with the cowardly and duplicitous Republicans in charge of both houses.
I’m a paid subscriber and expect to be able to read it in the morning. Am hard of hearing. Where is the printed word??
I found it here by clicking on "Letters from an American" at the top of this page.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-14-2025
I, too, like the email and not the podcast...but am afraid to unsubscribe the oral version for fear that I will lose the printed word.
You won't -- she's really very generous with her letters! She also posts them on Facebook. I think the only thing you _might_ lose if you unsubscribe (but don't quote me on this!) is that possibly you wouldn't be able to participate in the chat section.
Here’s a thought for a future commentary. Where does these past 100 days rank in terms of Presidential History. I imagine there were periods in the Civil War, in the Great Depression, post Pearl Harbor that were worse but I’d love your perspective. Certainly among the most dangerous/consequential, I’d reckon!
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Miss your voice Heather... but thank you Michael for continuing the words✌️♥️
I am unfamiliar with the Seder liturgy. In “Talking Feds Substack,” per the professor’s notes, Harry Litman invites the reader to contemplate part of its recitation, through the centuries, extending even to the Founders, and in this treacherous moment:
“For the sake of our redemption, we say together the ancient words which join us with our people and with all who are in need, with the wrongly imprisoned and the beggar in the street.”
PLEASE IMPEACH DJT AND ARREST HIM AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION...WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO SOME KIND OF SANITY IN THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY CALLED THE USA !!
We have a responsibility to ALL BETTER. Yes!
BEtsy5231....You misunderstood ...I didn't say I wanted to unsubscribe from the email. I said I wanted to unsubscribe from the "oral" veision which is a repeat of the email info only a day later.