Good morning,
Welcome to MS NOW’s Sunday Spotlight, where you can find a selection of the week’s most interesting and important stories. As America celebrates its 250th birthday, its greatness doesn’t come from its government. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court decision was too close for comfort, the Iran war has entered a new phase and conservative Christians may come to regret a win in Texas. Plus, the World Cup shows Americans how to be patriotic.
Don’t forget to check out more top columns and videos from the week below.
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Birthday presents: The government does a good job of building monuments to itself, promoting politicians rather than artists, scientists or entrepreneurs. But as America turns 250, its greatness doesn’t come from a government action, but from the millions of Americans privately making business decisions everyday that make lives easier and revolutionize the world, argues Christian Schneider, author of the Anti-Knowledge newsletter. Foreign visitors who have come for the World Cup aren’t impressed by our politics but by American culture, hospitality and our bottomless well of optimism. Read more.
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Close call: The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship was an important victory. But a dissent from Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered a disturbing road map for a right-wing Congress to finish Trump’s work by passing a law banning the practice, argue the Brennan Center’s Thomas Wolf and Samuel Breidbart. That dissent also left “the narrowest possible majority” for what should have been a unanimous decision. It was the latest instance of conservative justices engaging in revisionist history to justify an anti-democratic position. Read more.
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(Not) war and (not) peace: The Iran war has entered a new phase centered on the fight to control the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. has already failed to achieve the goals that Trump set at the outset of ending the Iranian regime or restricting its nuclear capabilities, argues political science professor Nicholas Grossman. But the conflict isn’t over, either, despite an ambiguous memorandum of understanding that didn’t resolve the core issues. Both countries have made conflicting claims about what the agreement means, and attacks have continued. But time is on Iran’s side as the U.S. and other countries could soon run out of oil reserves. Read more.
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Bible study: Some Christian conservatives cheered the news that the Texas Board of Education is mandating readings from the Bible in the state’s K-12 curriculum starting in 2030. But they may come to regret it, argues curriculum studies scholar Nicholas Mitchell. If teachers treat the Good Book as a book, they’ll ask students to analyze the language, the story and the philosophy behind the passages, which some parents may see as “tantamount to blasphemy,” as they believe the Bible is a flawless sacred text. There’s another problem, too: Parents may choose to opt out of biblical readings, but the law doesn’t require school districts to provide alternatives. Read more.
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Fan fare: While Trump has sought to claim patriotism for the MAGA movement, the World Cup has shown an alternative form of American patriotism, argues Katelyn Burns. At a recent game, U.S. fans were dressed up as eagles, the Statue of Liberty, the founding fathers and other kinds of “patriotic cosplay,” as many Americans have found cheering for the men’s national team to be a way of reclaiming their love for their country. The team’s melting pot of players, including a star striker who is a birthright citizen, and its fans, who come from completely different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, show the real promise of America. Read more.
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Vice President JD Vance mused recently that if the Watergate scandal happened today, it would be a “12-hour news story,” then went on to claim that it was the result of the “deep state” taking down Richard Nixon. But former assistant Watergate special prosecutor Nick Akerman argues that Vance’s description is “a fairy tale.” While Nixon was able to maintain the cover-up long enough to win the 1972 presidential election, it began unraveling not long afterward with revelations in Judge John Sirica’s courtroom, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and the reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Akerman writes that the “drip-drip of almost daily revelations” became an ongoing news cycle that didn’t end even after Nixon left office. “Working on the Watergate case, I dealt with the onslaught of allegations that turned into a flood of criminality,” he writes. A similar example from today would be more like Trump’s stonewalling of the Epstein files, which led to a yearlong clamor for the full release of the files that went far beyond a 12-hour news cycle. Read the column here.
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This week on “The Best People,” Nicolle Wallace is joined by Dr. Eddie Glaude to discuss his new book, “America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries,” and the wave of white nationalism that's sweeping the nation. Subscribe to MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content.
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