A chorus of political rants both online and on cable news so loud and discordant that truth is MIA.
Media continues to frequently underreport grassroots campaigns to extinguish authoritarian wildfires. Where to turn for cogent insights—especially with the midterms around the corner? Political analyst Robert Hubbell stands out as a critically important voice worth listening to now.
Since January 2017 he’s published a newsletter on Substack, Today’s Edition. But it started accidentally, Hubbell says, as an email for family: “my effort—as a father and husband—to provide hope and perspective … after the unexpected results of the 2016 election.”
Soon, Hubbell recalls, what he wrote to his family was being forwarded to friends. It “became a community of like-minded citizens devoted to preserving American democracy.” Today, upwards of 80,000 people read Today’s Edition.
Rather than stoking outrage or unsubstantiated assertions, three consistent pillars guide Hubbell’s writing, the Daily Next reported:
- Careful sourcing of claims from credible news outlets
- Legal and constitutional context for major political events
- A tone of cautious optimism, even when the news is difficult
Where Hubbell particularly excels is in capturing the depth and breadth of the grassroots resistance movement—especially contextualizing its successes. He stands out for consistently exposing the mainstream media’s blind spot in regularly failing to cover citizen activists’ tireless efforts to protect U.S. democracy under attack.
At the end of each day’s edition—which one can also listen to him narrate—he posts dozens of pro-democracy protest photos: people on highway overpasses, in small-town squares and on big-city streets holding an array of colorful banners and clever signs. It’s proof positive that a democracy brigade is alive and well.
But here’s what all of us can do: take 15 minutes to read Today’s Edition. Then forward it to a sister-in-law, a coworker, a city councilor—to anybody in one’s life who is aware of the dire threat facing our democracy.
A five-alarm autocratic wildfire rages. It isn’t necessary to be an activist to feel the hot flames of fascism licking the edges of the Constitution. Robert Hubbell has donned his firefighting gear and stepped into the fray. What about the rest of us? What are we going to do?
Rob Okun is editor emeritus of Voice Male, which has long chronicled the profeminist men’s movement.
