R&R: What I’m reading
Good morning! It’s Sunday, September 29, 2024. Election Day is 37 days away. The vice presidential debate is two days away.
Welcome back to R&R, a private email for Wake Up To Politics paid subscribers where I recap the week that was and recommend what I’ve been reading and watching lately.
The weather in D.C. has been fairly gloomy lately — it’s raining outside as I write this — but, when it brightens up, you can often find me working on the next day’s newsletter at a table right outside my apartment building.
I was sitting there on Thursday, working on Friday’s newsletter — a story of two inspiring Americans who have been lobbying for legislation on the Hill — when I heard a group of people passing by. “Congress is just the worst,” I heard one say. “They never get anything done.”
I had to smile to myself. As I was sitting there researching all the things the Congress had gotten done that week (including passing bills on childhood cancer, discrimination against people with disabilities, Alzheimer’s research, permitting reform, and more), there was someone walking by bemoaning that Congress doesn’t do anything. Can’t make this stuff up! (Or maybe the story just goes to show what people are talking about walking around Washington.)
Partially, of course, that sentiment means that person should be reading Wake Up To Politics (tell your friends to subscribe!) But it also made me extra grateful that I get to do what I do, trying in my own little way to dispel that pessimism and inform people about what their representatives are actually getting done.
And, in the same week, share analyses of the Republican Party and America’s razor-thin elections; an explainer on Eric Adams’ indictment; behind-the-scenes reporting on two interesting events in Washington; and share the stories of two inspiring people. What a treat. Thank you for reading and for making that work possible.
This is my first September since graduating college, and it’s a strange feeling: I keep half-expecting summer break to end and for it to be time to go back to school. (When does that go away?) But, instead, I remember that I get to keep doing exactly this: following all sorts of stories I want to cover — including, this week, a healthy dose of good news — and sharing them with you all. And I can’t wait to keep going.
Along those lines, at the risk of being too self-referential, one of my recommendations this week is actually a Substack post about Substack, by the writer
.