Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, and it has been my custom at this time of year to offer a list of the things for which I’m feeling thankful. Unfortunately, that task requires a bit more effort this time around.
Conflict in the Middle East continues to waste thousands of innocent lives, tarnish the United States’ reputation, and sow the seeds for future trouble. Russia’s war in Ukraine seems headed for a disappointing denouement. Populists are gaining ground in many countries, sowing division and suspicion while offering few solutions for the daunting challenges that modern societies face. The planet continues to heat up while measures to address the climate crisis languish.
And oh, yes: Voters in the United States just elected a criminal as their next president, who is now busily appointing a government of loyalists, plutocrats, and oddballs looking to fleece the public and enrich themselves. Good times, eh?
Even so, I’ve found 10 reasons to give thanks this year, although a few of them are bittersweet.
1. The U.S. Election Was Not Challenged
The outcome of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 was not what I wanted, but I’m thankful that it didn’t end up in a prolonged tussle over the results or another effort to steal an election. If President-elect Donald Trump had lost, there is little doubt that he and the Republican Party would have done everything to try to reverse the outcome. As it happened, Democrats showed their class and their commitment to the U.S. Constitution by accepting the results with sad hearts but impressive grace. A second Trump term may not be good for the country, but an orderly and peaceful transfer of power was.
2. Out With the (Very) Old Guard
Speaking of Democrats, I’m thankful that the gerontocracy that has dominated the Democratic Party for decades will finally cede the stage. I’m not sorry to see President Joe Biden, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Clintons, and some others head off into the sunset—a few years later than ideal. These people did some good things during their political careers, for which we should also be grateful, but they also clung to power as they grew out of touch with the American people. It’s time for new blood and new ideas.
I hope that some fresh thinking extends to U.S. foreign policy. The Biden team, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, tried to resurrect the failed strategy of liberal hegemony with a few tweaks, but it hadn’t worked for their predecessors, and it didn’t work for them either. Clinging to outdated beliefs and policies led to disastrous outcomes in Ukraine and Gaza; the less influence that these ideas have on U.S. foreign policy in the future, the better.
3. The Soft Landing That U.S. Voters Missed
Not everyone in the Biden administration performed as badly as the foreign-policy team. I’m grateful that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Council of Economic Advisors Chair Jared Bernstein, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell were managing the U.S. economy in the aftermath of the COVID-19 recession. They pulled off the “soft landing” that so many pundits assumed was unlikely. Their record was not perfect, of course, but it could have been far worse.
It’s unfortunate that voters didn’t give them more credit for what they accomplished, in part because Biden was simply too old to go out on the road and explain this to ordinary Americans. Greater efforts to address rising inequality and housing costs would have helped, but serious measures to solve those problems would never have made it through Congress or overcome local barriers. The U.S. electorate clearly didn’t feel thankful on Nov. 5, but I do.
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4. Reproductive Freedom Battles Back
Given the Trump campaign’s self-evident misogyny, Project 2025’s plans to make safe abortion effectively impossible, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to ignore precedent in its rush to deregulate everything except women’s bodies, many people were rightly dismayed by what this year’s election will mean for reproductive freedom, women’s health, and gender rights more broadly.
Yet the electoral picture was not entirely bleak. Ballot initiatives to safeguard women’s health and rights passed in seven of the 10 U.S. states where they were under consideration, and candidates who supported abortion rights won key races, including in states that went for Trump. A small consolation, perhaps, but this year I’m taking whatever I can get.
5. The WMD Taboo Held Up
We should all give thanks that another year has passed with no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) being used, even as violent conflicts involving countries with nuclear weapons have continued and expanded. But our thanks should be tempered by the knowledge that the threshold for nuclear weapons, and perhaps other WMDs, is being lowered. Headstrong hawks in several countries—including the United States—are starting to talk openly about using them. I hope I can include this item on my Thanksgiving list next year, but I fear that this gets a bit less likely each year.
6. The ICC Arrest Warrants
While I’m on the subject of norms, I’m thankful that the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not bow to political pressure and issued arrest warrants for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif (who may no longer be alive), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The warrants are a hopeful sign that people who order or commit war crimes or crimes against humanity can still be singled out and sanctioned by the international community.
As a realist, I recognize that such measures are not going to stop some leaders from doing bad things. But even in the dog-eat-dog world of international politics, where enforcement mechanisms are weak or nonexistent, states can try to discourage governments from inflicting deliberate and excessive cruelties on innocent civilians. If the arrest warrants convince a few future leaders not to head down the dark road that Hamas and Israeli leaders seem to have chosen, we should be grateful for that, too.
7. Civil Servants
Politicians and pundits love to take potshots at government officials who are supposedly choking society with red tape and imposing their preferences on the rest of us. They are an easy target, but society could not function without the thousands of mostly dedicated, largely apolitical, and systematically underpaid civil servants who work every day to make things better for all of us, often with inadequate resources.
The United States may be about to discover what happens when these people are replaced with loyalists and hacks taking direction from ideologues and opportunists. That strategy hasn’t worked very well in other places, and Americans won’t be happy if public services decline dramatically in the next few years. I hope I’m wrong about this. For now, I’ll just be grateful for the expertise and dedication that has kept public institutions running despite the whims and follies of appointees at the very top.
I also give some special thanks for the government officials such as Josh Paul, Annelle Sheline, and Harrison Mann, who put morality and principle ahead of careerism and resigned to protest the Biden administration’s unconscionable and probably illegal support for Israel’s genocide. Had a few of their superiors followed their example, U.S. policy might have taken a more constructive turn.
8. Authors
I’m fortunate that my job requires me to do a lot of reading, and every year I’m grateful to the many writers who have educated, challenged, inspired, or entertained me. There is no way I can mention all of them, but a quick word of special thanks to Stacie E. Goddard, Erin Jenne, Shiping Tang, Steve Coll, Calder Walton, Adam Shatz, James Goldgeier, Daniel Chardell, Victoria Tin-bor Hui, Noam Chomsky, and Nathan Robinson. I don’t agree with everything they’ve written, but I found much value in all of them.
And a special shout-out to Natasha Wheatley, whose The Life and Death of States is a dazzling history of the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the creation of the modern state system, and an extraordinary combination of legal history, philosophy, and much more. It’s not exactly light reading, but I found it richly rewarding and deeply thought-provoking.
As for lighter fare, I’m grateful for the pleasure I’ve found in the works of the late Paul Auster, Giuliano da Empoli, Barry Eisler, Bonnie Garmus, and especially Nick Harkaway, who managed the near-impossible feat of bringing George Smiley back to life in a wholly satisfying manner. Thanks to all of the above for enriching my reading life.
9. A Silver Lining?
This one may be premature, but I will offer some tentative thanks for the early signs that a second Trump administration is displaying the incompetent, vindictive, and overzealous hubris that his opponents warned against. To be clear: I’m not hoping for bad things to happen to the United States; my worry is that they are going to happen anyway.
I take no joy in the problems that this will cause and the suffering that many Americans will endure, but if Trump, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the rest end up doing a lot of damage, I’d rather it was swift and obvious to all. If that happens, the backlash may begin before Trump and his minions can rewire the electoral system to keep themselves in power, as other illiberal autocrats have done. And in case you’re curious, I’d be delighted to be proved wrong and will be happy to admit it if things go that way.
10. Personal Blessings
I’ve been fortunate to spend this semester as a guest of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, and one could not ask for a nicer environment in which to think and write. My thanks to Misha Glenny, Ivan Krastev, and IWM staff for being such good hosts. Lastly, I remain deeply grateful for all of you who choose to read this column, even if you’re one of the readers who take me to task in the comments.
And I’m especially grateful to have an alternative to the hellsite formerly known as Twitter. Henceforth, you can follow me at @stephenwalt.bsky.social. Happy Thanksgiving!
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