A Little Personal News

I wanted y’all to be the first people to know—late last year, I was contacted by an editor at Penguin Random House. He had read a post I wrote on November 19, Giving Up Is Unforgivable. He wanted to know if I would be interested in writing a book. I said yes.

In that column, I wrote: “Voters who ignored the facts about the economy and used them as an excuse to vote for Trump weren’t people who wanted a change. They were people who, actually, didn’t want any change at all. They didn't like new policies advanced by the Biden-Harris administration, a more inclusive vision of America where traditionally marginalized people had equal opportunity. They didn’t want a new generation of leadership. They wanted the “old stability,” the patriarchy that has run the country for generations. In many ways, that's what’s at the heart of the conservative coalition. It's not a rejection of the established order; it's an embrace of it.”

A return to the 1950s is not what any of us want for our future. And worse, the 1950s with a tyrant in charge. Even back in November, I thought the risk was clear, and I wrote, “Is there a chance Trump has now consolidated all the power he needs to become an autocrat, a dictator? Absolutely. When people tell you who they are, believe them. But, might we still find ways to limit the damage, to make a midterm election and a democratic future possible? I’m counting on it.”

We still don’t know how this will turn out (which makes writing this book a little bit tricky), but we do have lessons from law, history, and politics to draw on. I continue to believe that Trump’s success is not inevitable and that the future is largely in our hands. Something that President Biden said in the wake of the election has stuck with me, “Giving up is unforgivable.” We cannot give up on democracy, no matter how difficult it gets, because the alternative is unthinkable.

That’s the title of my book: Giving Up is Unforgivable.

I’m incredibly excited about the book, and I hope you’ll consider heading to your favorite bookseller to place an advance order! Early preorders are very important for signaling to booksellers which new books to watch out for and support, so I’d really appreciate it. As for the newsletter, it will continue to arrive in your inbox, just like it always has, including since January, when I started working on the book in earnest. Hopefully, you’ll notice little, if any, difference. 

One of my favorite books is Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. It’s a book I’ve read and then read again at different stages of my life. I am no Tom Paine, but I hope I can learn from his work in one regard and bring an idea to life for our day and age. Before Paine wrote Common Sense, the idea that the colonies might separate from England and the Crown was far-fetched. Independence was not on the table. But Paine changed all of that. His little manual, read out loud by candlelight and carried around in pockets, allowed people to imagine a future where they were their own country, in charge of their own futures.

I hope my book will also help us believe in something that many people struggle with right now. Donald Trump is not inevitable. He may be our current president, but he does not have to be our future. It won’t be easy, but we can still keep the Republic if we commit to democracy. The most frequent question Civil Discourse readers ask me is, “What should I be doing?” I hope to answer that question in the book, in a way that helps each of us decide what our role is going to be. Giving up is not an option. Giving up is unforgivable.

None of this would have happened without you—the community that reads Civil Discourse. This book is something that we have and will continue to create together. I’m motivated by the questions you ask, especially, “But what can I do about it?” This is our work. It’s possible because we really are in this together.

I’d love it if you would pre-order the book today. You can do that here.

We’re in this together,

Joyce