Overdue-ing it

Rather than getting sucked into the chaos and crisis of Trump's second term, I've immersed myself in books like Alexei Navalny's `Patriot'—just not quickly enough.

The 19 days of Donald Trump’s second go-round as President have felt like years. Is it time to ramp up for the 2028 primaries?

For my own mental health, I’ve only skimmed the surface of news about the hour-by-hour constitutional crisis that’s raging in our country. Instead, I’ve turned more to books like Revenge of the Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell’s latest) and Patriot, Alexei Navalny’s memoir.

I recommend both, but especially Patriot, which is fascinating, humorous, poignant, maddening—and inspiring.

For years, Navalny was Russia President (and #1 Kleptocrat) Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic and fiercest political threat. After Putin’s attempted poisoning of Navalny failed in August 2020, Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 and was immediately arrested on trumped-up, politically motivated charges.

Navalny began writing the book after the assassination attempt, then takes you inside his three-year prison experience. As I read it, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels between what Russia has long endured as a nation under corrupt leadership and what’s afoot now in the United States.

My fellow Americans, see if you can relate to this excerpt:

“The biggest mistake people in the West make about Russia is that they equate the Russian state with the Russian people. In reality, the two have nothing in common, and the greatest misfortune in our country is that out of all the millions who live here, time and again power ends up in the hands of the most cynical and the biggest liars. There’s a popular saying that every nation has the government it deserves, and many people believe that this applies to Russia. Otherwise, surely, our people would have risen up and overthrown the regime. But I don’t believe this is true. A huge number of my fellow citizens don’t agree with what’s going on and didn’t choose it.”

To be clear, I’m not equating the U.S. with Russia. But there are troubling parallels.

In the book’s final passage, Navalny returns to a theme that he had established in his final years, particularly while being shuttled from one prison to the next:

“My job is to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of his family to deal with everything else. They won’t let me down and will sort out all my headaches. As they say in prison here: they will take my punches for me.”

He found comfort and peace in his faith, a humbling model for anyone to follow, whether persecuted like Navalny or merely annoyed and discouraged like the millions of Americans appalled at the actions of Putin’s kindred spirit, Trump.

A confessional subplot to my reading: both were overdue—Patriot by nearly two weeks and Revenge of the Tipping Point about twice as long. I would receive e-mail reminders but without any financial penalty—the library did away with late fees in 2017—the only cost was to my conscience.

You might say the late-fee waiving was an inside job: As president of the library board eight years ago, I was at the forefront of nixing fines for overdue materials. I’m not sure if that personal connection is fitting, ironical or somewhere in between.

Anyhow, I’ve been busy and couldn’t get through these books fast enough. On the one hand, I felt badly for the next person who had them on hold; but on the other (and bigger) hand, I would have been disappointed to return them unfinished.

Against the backdrop of this rising dilemma, it was on a rainy, blustery night—and only four minutes before closing time—that I hustled over to the library last week and surrendered Patriot.

This week, it was Revenge of the Tipping Point’s turn to be freed from my clutches.

A decent number of fellow Oak Parkers read this column, so if you were waiting for either one of these books or are generally aghast by my passive-possessive behavior, let’s cut a deal: if ever I run again for the library board, I promise not to count on your vote.