As Heather Cox Richardson describes Musk’s catastrophic defunding of NSAID and NIH, I am struck by how much good our government does behind the scenes, and how we as a nation have come to take it for granted - even demonize it.

And this is why it's so crucial to study the Reconstruction era. There were so many massacres and insurrections that took place purely to stop Black political power and biracial coalitions advocating for Black civil rights. We're living through similar reactionary times.