Letters from an American

August 22, 2026
On August 18, Sen Darline Graham of South Carolina explained that she is not that informed on national security - although senators are supposed to manage national security, Graham is a perfect representation of today’s Republican Party, With little political experience, she is echoing Republican culture war talking points that worked for Trump in 2016, Trump told a rally in South Carolina that the election is really about him, Two former teachers endorsed by Democrats flipped the Sarasota Florida school board, The Republican Party tied itself to Trump and remains tied to him as he devotes his time to celebrating himself, Meanwhile the country is embroiled in a war in Iran, the economy is slowing, prices of food and gas are rising, and Americans are horrified by ICE and by Trump's corruption, Trump imposed a tariff on goods from Canada and Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs, The field is open for Democrats to redefine the nation’s policies, Pete Buttigieg recorded a video assuring Americans who oppose the Trump administration that they are in the large majority.
Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-
Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe
You can also find me:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson


Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 21, 2026
On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner led 70 enslaved and free Black Americans in a violent rebellion intended to awaken his white neighbors to the brutality of slaveholding, Responding to fears that educating slaves was dangerous, states across the South made it a crime to teach enslaved Americans to read and write, Denial of access to education read them out of society, The fledgling Republican Party passed the Land Grant College act that funded public universities, Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools were inherently unequal and unconstitutional, When Ronald Reagan was elected he vowed to work for abolishing the Department of Education and to push tax dollars from public schools to private academies, Donald Trump’s education secretary pushed to expand voucher programs, The claim was that vouchers would save money, but Arizona’s biggest voucher program in the nation blew a hole in the state budget, In Texas a voucher program was passed into law, which will leave public schools across the state underfunded and closing, In Arizona the state supreme court ruled that opponents to a voucher program won’t get a ballot measure in front of voters this fall, In 2026 it seems the intent is to exclude certain Americans from participation in the Enlightenment principles on which the nation was founded.  
Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-
Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe
You can also find me:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson


Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 20, 2026
Republicans are trying to hide the cuts they have made to health care in the US, Republicans are working to undo the progress made with the Affordable Care Act, The work requirement they have imposed on the ACA is really a paperwork requirement, Up to 15 million people are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage, In 1883 sociologist Wiliiam Graham Sumner published an influential book that concluded that citizens owe nothing to each other, Those succeeding in the industrializing economy agreed, The Trump administration appears to embrace the belief that the nation depends upon the survival of the fittest, Robert F Kennedy’s beliefs about vaccines seem to align with that idea, The US is experiencing a wave of foodborne illnesses, The administration cut back mandatory tracking of eight pathogens that had been covered by FoodNet before the administration cut six of them, The leadership positions at the CDC and FDA are vacant and need to be filled, Keeping government out of society undermined public health and safety in the past, Middle class Americans demanded regulation of the food and drug industry, ushering in reforms. 
Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-
Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe
You can also find me:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson



Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 19, 2026
Republicans are melting down over stories about Trump aide Natalie Harp, The White House attacked a CNN reporter for asking about a comment by Jon Ossoff, The right wing media piled on Ossoff although their outrage was manufactured, The Harp business did distract from news about Trump’s apparent stock manipulation and Trump’s ballroom - which is vastly unpopular, Trump is downplaying the poor conditions aboard USS Abraham Lincoln, and his administration’s flailing in Iran, ABC and the Walt Disney Company have launched a federal lawsuit against the FCC for violation of free speech rights, The national debt passed $40 million, a record, much sooner than expected, The Harp story has brought attention to Trump’s need for a buffer between himself and the outside world, and Republicans don’t seem able to change the narrative and use it to attack Ossoff.
Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-
Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe
You can also find me:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson


Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 18, 2026
On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, It gave the right to vote to women, The push for rights for women had taken root during the Civil War, But the Fourteenth Amendment tied the right to vote to male citizens only, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony formed the National Women Suffrage Association, followed by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe’s founding of the American Women Suffrage Association, Suffragists decided to test their right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment in the 1872 election, When Suffragist Virginia Minor was kept from voting, she sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court which decided that women were citizens, but that citizenship did not necessarily convey the right to vote, For the next two decades, women’s suffrage drew its power from women’s organizations across the country, While laws changed to allow women to vote in some states, federal action was needed, Woodrow Wilson, under pressure in the midterm election of 1918 backed a constitutional amendment, The amendment  became the law of the land after it was ratified by Tennessee, and 26 million American women had the right to vote in the 1920 presidential election, But most Black women and women of color would remain unable to vote for another 45 years, Black women activists were among the leading voices behind the 1965 Voting Rights Act that made Black voting a reality, In 2026, Christian nationalists want to repeal women’s right to vote.
Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-
Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe
You can also find me:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson


Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe