We all were.

The Watergate hearings began during my second summer working for Senator John L. McClellan, and like much of the country, I watched a president finally cornered by the truth.

It mattered. It was satisfying. It felt like proof that even the most powerful man in America could be brought down by evidence, testimony, and law.

But that was before Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld showed us how much a government could get away with—war, torture, deception, catastrophic arrogance—and still walk away.

And it was before Trump showed us what happens when shame disappears altogether.

This audio essay traces the road from Nixon’s resignation to Bush-era impunity to Trump’s lawless presidency—and the terrible question underneath it all:

What happens when the powerful know they are not accountable — and the rest of us stop demanding that they should be?

Listen now.

Note: I changed the title after publication because the original one, Back to the Future, didn’t make clear enough what this piece is really about. Watergate did not stop the lawless presidency. It taught the powerful how to come back stronger.

Thank you for reading — and for listening.

Pieces like this are made possible by the readers and listeners who support this newsletter. If this work has been meaningful to you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber, or sharing it with someone who is also trying to make sense of this dangerous moment.

This is an entirely reader-supported publication, and your support helps me keep writing, recording, thinking out loud, and telling the truth as clearly as I can — week after week.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you. You make this work possible.

Jo-Ann is the artist behind the powerful works featured in my recent piece on art as activism — pieces that confront grief, violence, history, and political rupture not with slogans, but with the deeper language of image, symbol, memory, and witness.

In our conversation, we talk about how she came to this work, what it feels like to create art out of tragedy, whether some pieces were harder than others, and what she is working on now. We also talk about the complicated, necessary relationship between art and politics — especially in a moment when looking away is its own kind of choice.

When art refuses to look away, it can help the rest of us see.

I’m grateful to Jo-Ann for joining me for this first video conversation, and for sharing not only her work, but the thought, feeling, and courage behind it.

I hope you’ll watch our conversation here.

Here is the Art AS ACTIVISM piece if you missed it earlier. You can see more of Jo-Ann’s powerful pieces there. Here are a few more:

“Jorge Garcia came to the United States from Mexico as a child and had been in the country for 30 years when, in 2018, he was deported to Mexico. After two years, with the help of Michigan congresswoman Debbie Dingell, he was reunited with his family. This artwork begs the question, how many families live in fear of being torn apart?”

“Jose Flores, Jr. had just made the honor roll for the first time on May 24, 2022. He wanted to be a policeman and had been told good grades were required to get the opportunity. He enjoyed playing in Little League.”

“Tess Marie Mata had a Siamese cat named Oliver. Perhaps that was why she wanted to be a veterinarian. She was an athlete at heart and enjoyed softball, soccer, and gymnastics.”

“Alejandro Carranza Medina, pictured with his son Libiston, was a lifelong fisherman and a father of four from Santa Marta, Columbia. He was killed by US bombs on September 15, 2026, while fishing. Since September 2025, the US has conducted numerous strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 192, whom the administration has called "narco-terrorists" despite no proof being shared.”

Thank you for watching this first video conversation for From the Inside Out. I’m grateful to Jo-Ann Morgan for joining me, for sharing her work, and for talking so openly about what it means to make art in a time like this.

If this conversation was meaningful to you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. From the Inside Out is an entirely reader-supported publication, and subscriptions make it possible for me to keep doing this work — piece by piece, conversation by conversation, week after week.

Please also share this video with anyone who cares about art, democracy, memory, grief, or the ways artists help us see what we might otherwise turn away from.

And I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What did Jo-Ann’s work bring up for you? Do you think art can change the way we understand a political moment? What stays with you after seeing these pieces and hearing her talk about them?

Pieces and conversations like this are made possible by the readers and listeners who support this newsletter. Thank you for being here.

P.S. No audio piece this week since this is a video post. 👋🏻

In this audio version of “Kumbaya, Democrats,” I talk about a party establishment that still seems tone-deaf to the anger, fear, exhaustion, and moral urgency of this moment. Voters do not want to be managed by consultants, scolded by insiders, or handed another set of slogans. They want leaders who understand what they are living through—and who know how to fight for them.

And right now, Trump has handed Democrats an opening. His war with Iran, rising energy costs, surging inflation, higher gas prices, the loss of health care and food aid, and the plain spectacle of his corruption have made one thing brutally clear: the American people are hurting. And despite Trump’s pathological lies, many of them understand—finally—who is making their lives harder.

But that does not mean Democrats automatically win. Senator Bill Cassidy’s race is part of the warning. So is the larger Democratic habit of mistaking institutional loyalty for strategy, and party discipline for real solidarity. This piece is about what Democrats are getting wrong, why the old playbook is failing, and why unity cannot mean asking people to fall in line behind the same tired politics.

And that is where Kumbaya comes in—with its honorable beginnings in the Gullah community, its spiritual force, and its long resonance in the Civil Rights movement. Come by here was never empty sentiment. It was a plea, a summons, and an act of faith in the face of suffering.

That is the kind of unity Democrats need now: not manufactured agreement, but moral solidarity. Not consultant language, but human connection. Not a party telling people what to feel, but leaders willing to come to where people are hurting — and stand with them before it is too late.

**This audio recording differs slightly from the written piece because the news has changed since I recorded it, sharpening the urgency of the argument I make here.

Thank you for listening.

Conversations like this are made possible by the readers and listeners who support this newsletter — people who believe there is still value in clear words, hard truths, moral seriousness, and the stubborn hope that this country is not beyond saving.

If this piece spoke to you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Both matter. Both help this work reach more people. And paid subscriptions help sustain the time, thought, research, and voice that go into these essays and audio pieces week after week.

Please also share this with someone who is worried about where we are, frustrated with the Democratic establishment, or still believes that unity has to mean more than falling in line.

And I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What do you think Democrats are missing? What would real solidarity look like now? What would it mean, politically and morally, to truly come by here?

In this audio companion to WHEN THE EVIDENCE LIES, I’m talking about a British thriller called The Capture — and the frightening world it points us toward: one where AI swallows reality, deepfakes destroy evidence, and surveillance systems track, sort, and predict our lives.

This isn’t science fiction anymore. It’s the world we’re already living in, where video can lie, algorithms can accuse, and powerful systems can make the truth almost impossible to prove.

Pull up a chair and listen.

Thank you for tuning in.

If this conversation has been meaningful to you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. From the Inside Out is an entirely reader- and listener-supported publication, and both free and paid subscriptions help sustain this work week after week.

If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. I’m deeply grateful.

And if you know someone who might care about this piece — someone thinking about AI, surveillance, deepfakes, or what happens when reality itself can be manipulated — please share it with them.

Conversations like this are made possible by the readers and listeners who support this newsletter.

From the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act to the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, from Trump’s long history of racial grievance to the GOP’s renewed war on multiracial democracy, this piece asks what we are willing to see clearly—and what we are willing to fight.

I’m in.

Are you?

Thanks for listening.

Conversations like this are made possible by the readers and listeners who support this newsletter.

If this piece mattered to you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. From the Inside Out is an entirely reader-supported publication, and your subscription helps sustain the work that allows me to keep writing, reading, recording, and showing up here week after week.

Free subscribers are deeply appreciated, too. Listening, commenting, sharing, and sending these audio pieces to people who might care all help widen the conversation.

And on this one especially, I’d love to hear from you. Where do you see racism being rebuilt into American life—and where do you see antiracism still holding the line?

If something here stayed with you, please share it.

Pull up a chair. We have work to do.

This is a sample of the powerful exhibits at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. There are more on the text piece. Every American should see this memorial.

A free press is not an abstraction. It is how we know what is happening. It is how power is held to account. It is how citizens remain citizens instead of hostages to propaganda.

In this audio version, I read “Spend Money, Speak Out, Stand Up: A Crisis in Journalism”—about facts, fear, Trump’s war on the press, the journalists still doing the work, and what the rest of us must do now.

Because the time is now.

Thank you for listening.

This piece is about journalism, but it’s also about citizenship. A free press does not survive on principle alone. It survives because people insist on it, defend it, and help sustain the people and institutions still doing the work of facts, truth, and accountability.

If this work matters to you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. From the Inside Out is a reader-supported publication, and your subscription helps sustain this work—week after week.

And if this audio piece moved you, angered you, or clarified something for you, please leave a comment and share it. Send it to a friend. Post it. Talk about it. The truth needs readers, listeners, and carriers.

Spend money. Speak out. Stand up.

The time is now.

What can art do when the world is breaking? In this audio reading of ART AS ACTIVISM: “The Mourning After,” I explore Jo-Ann Morgan’s unforgettable quilt exhibition and the power of art to make us see what we would rather avoid. It’s an essay on grief, witness, and why empathy matters now more than ever.

I urge you to also check out my written piece to see more of these incredible and moving works of fabric art.

Thank you for listening, and for spending this time with me. If you value this kind of work, please consider subscribing and sharing it. Independent writing and recording like this is how I make my living, and I’m deeply grateful for your support.

Power to the people. 👊🏻

After years of corruption, Viktor Orbán has been defeated—and the shockwaves are already moving far beyond Hungary. The illusion of inevitability is cracking.

In this piece, I trace that shift—from Orbán to Trump, from the history of fascism in America to what we’re living through now—and what happens when people finally say: enough.

Here’s the audio of And The Worm Turned.

And thank you for listening. If this resonated, I hope you’ll subscribe—your support makes this work possible. And if it meant something to you, please share it.

FROM THE INSIDE OUT by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’m grateful for all your support. 🩵 Power to the people. 👊🏻

In this audio version of The Collaborationists, I think about the men who once understood that—and the ones who no longer do.

From Nuremberg to Watergate to where we are now, this is about the quiet decisions of character that define a country…and the people who fail to make them.

I hope you’ll listen.

Thank you for listening—and for giving this your time.

If this piece resonated with you, I hope you’ll consider subscribing. Free subscriptions help grow this community, and paid support makes it possible for me to continue this work.

FROM THE INSIDE OUT by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

And if you believe this conversation matters, please share it. That’s how it reaches others.

I’m truly grateful you’re here.🩵

Always thankful for your support. Power to the people. 👊🏻

It’s about the kind you feel happening underneath your life. The moment when you realize you can’t keep doing something the same way anymore. When honesty starts asking more of you.

This is me, talking about why A Liberal Southern Woman became From the Inside Out—and what that actually means.

I’m also compelled to post an update on Peter Thiel. He’s back out there—this time in Rome—preaching his loaded version of the Antichrist to stir up the far-right, deeply-conservative Christian nationalist fringe.

And there’s more. The Duggar family—made famous by the wrongly named TLC, The Learning Channel, and their long-running show 19 Kids and Counting—are members of a cult. Their world is an exercise in toxicity—for women, for children, and for men.

P.S. I said the wrong date. 🙄

***

Thank you for listening—and for being here with me as all of this keeps unfolding.

Subscriptions—both free and paid—are what make this possible. If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you. It matters more than I can say. And if you’ve been thinking about it, this is how you support the work and keep it going.

And if something here stayed with you—passed through you in some way—share it. That’s how these stories find their people.

Pull up a chair. We’re just getting started.

FROM THE INSIDE OUT by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always thankful for your support. 🙏🏻 Power to the people. 👊🏻

And then, as always, the conversation turns.

To Trump.

To power.

To what it means to live in the South right now.

This is the piece—and the story—behind the hospitality.

Thank you for listening—and for spending this time with me.

Reading these pieces out loud feels different—more immediate, more human—and I’m so glad you’re here for it.

If this resonated with you, I hope you’ll consider subscribing. It’s what allows me to keep telling these stories, in both voice and on the page.

And if you know someone who might connect with this, I’d be grateful if you shared it with them. That’s how this work finds its way.

And whether you’re a free or paid subscriber, I’m grateful you’re part of this.

P.S. Pull up a chair and stay awhile—subscribe if you’d like to keep listening.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always thankful for your support. 🩵🙏🏻 Power to the people. 👊🏻

About what it means to grow up Black in America.

About what it means to live openly as a trans woman.

And about why she ultimately chose to build her life in Paris.

But in this companion audio conversation, Avari goes even deeper.

We talk about racism in America and Europe, the long arc of American history that still shapes our present, and the strange feeling—shared by many Americans living abroad—of watching your own country from the outside.

Avari speaks with the same fearless honesty she has carried throughout her life. She has survived things many people never see, and she has come through them with a clarity that is both bracing and deeply human.

As she says in the interview:

“Success came because I survived.”

I’m very grateful that she trusted me—and all of you—with her story.

Thank you for listening.

It was an honor for me to tell Avari’s story, and I hope it’s been meaningful for you to hear her honesty and courage. Stories like hers help us understand what the world looks like from someone else’s life and experience—and, in doing so, they bring us closer together.

If you value conversations like this one, please consider subscribing. You can sign up for free to receive every new piece, or become a paid subscriber to support my work as an independent journalist.

Work like this is made possible by readers and listeners like you. Thank you.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always thankful 🩵🙏🏻🩵 for your support.

WELCOME TO THE companion interview of Part 2 of The Trans-Atlantic Conversations with Diva Avari, an imposing Black American woman and powerful singer of House Music who lives in Paris. As I said in the first piece: Avari is a Presence. She has no fear. She is trans, and she’s had to fight so hard in her life to just be herself that she refuses to let anyone take advantage of her or put her down. Over the years of our friendship, she has educated me about racism and prejudice on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Part 2 of our conversation, Avari is deeply revealing about how she’s dealt with these painful social and personal issues—and how she’s protected herself—as well as other struggles in becoming her true self. One reason I felt this series was important is because the trans community has been cruelly attacked by the Trump Administration, a regime that has conducted a smear campaign against them just as they have immigrants, and just as the GOP has vilified people of color, now and in the past. And let’s not forget the Christian nationalists, who have weaponized religion against the entire trans (and LGBTQ+) community, who have not hurt anyone; they just want to be who they are and live their lives in peace.

If you missed the first written interview in the series, click here. And for its companion audio, click here. To read the written version of Part 2, click here. Our conversation continues in Part 3 next week.

Now, back to this companion conversation/Part 2. Avari’s father was in the military, and we pick up with her family moving back to the U.S. from Germany.

Thank you 🩵 for listening—and for being part of this community, whether you subscribe for free or support the work as a paid member.

If you value conversations like this one and the writing I publish at A Liberal Southern Woman, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Paid subscribers make this work possible.

PS: If you know someone who might appreciate this conversation, please feel free to share it. 🩵

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I HAD NOT met Diva Avari yet. She was one of my new pal Martin’s best friends, and he’d told me all about her. In certain parts of the world, she was legendary—a big Black American woman and powerful singer of House Music. Martin was Estonian, and they had met in Paris at an underground gay party. Martin was then the Artistic Director of Club Hollywood in Tallinn, and one month after they met, he called and asked Avari to come sing at a party. She did—and so began the buzz around her.

On this fateful day, Martin and I were descending the grand stairs of the gorgeous salon of his celebrity hair stylist partner—David Mallett—off the Place des Petits Péres in the 2nd Arrondissement of Paris. David was actually my first friend in Paris. I had read about him and his splendid new salon when my husband (The Lone Wolf) and I lived in the artist village of Collioure in the south of France. I treated myself to an appointment with David for my birthday, and we immediately hit it off. As fate would have it, a few weeks later, The Lone Wolf and I were kicked out of our sweet flat in Collioure because our landlord wanted to move in a new girlfriend, so we moved to Paris.

In a synchronistic turn of events, we ended up living in the very first apartment we looked at—beautifully decorated, chic with 14-foot ceilings plus modern built-ins, and right around the corner from David’s salon. So first there was David, and then there was his boyishly handsome naughty scholar of a partner, Martin, who became my hanging buddy. And now here we were, descending the salon’s grand staircase, and, suddenly, there she was: Diva Avari, standing right in front of us.

From that day on, Avari has been one of my sisters.

Diva Avari is a Presence. She has no fear. She is trans, and she’s had to fight so hard in her life to just be herself that she refuses to let anyone take advantage of her or put her down. Over the years of our friendship, she has educated me about racism and prejudice on both sides of the Atlantic.

Next week, Part 2:

Back in Boston—“That’s where I really discovered racism”…The first time Avari saw Donald Trump’s face…Sleeping with skinheads (“If anyone finds out, we’ll kill you.”) And more!

Welcome new listeners. 🎧 And thanks to all for coming. If you like what you hear, please ❤️ and share.

Conversations like this are why I write and publish Notes From A Liberal Southern Woman.

If you believe independent writers should be documenting this moment in American life—honestly and without institutional pressure—please consider subscribing.

You can join for free, or become a paid subscriber to help support essays, interviews, and conversations like The Trans-Atlantic Conversations.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always thankful 🩵🙏🏻🩵 for your support.

We’re all in this together. 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️ Sending love and my best wishes.

Every year I write a letter to someone who can’t answer me.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has been gone for twelve years.

And yet — this year more than ever — I found myself wanting to explain the world to him.

How do you tell a person who died in 2014 what America feels like now?

How do you describe a country that doesn’t feel like itself anymore?

This is a piece about movies, memory, grief, and why art may be one of the last places we still recognize each other.

This is Dear Philip Seymour Hoffman #3.

Thanks for listening. 🎧🩵

If this letter spoke to you, you already understand what this publication is.

I write here the way people used to write to each other — honestly and personally.

Subscribing keeps this kind of writing alive and lets me keep doing it.

Free subscriptions matter. Paid subscriptions make it possible.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always thankful 🩵🙏🏻🩵 for your support.

We’re all in this together. 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️ Connect to people you love or find your tribe. Sending love and my best wishes.

He invested in infrastructure.

He named his company Palantir — after Tolkien’s “Seeing Stones,” tools that allowed the powerful to see across the world and bend it to their will.

Today, Palantir software helps ICE locate people.

It powers military AI systems.

It secures billions in federal contracts.

And the ideology orbiting it questions democracy itself.

This is not speculation.

It’s venture capital.

This is Peter Thiel’s Seven Seeing Stones: The Software Behind America’s Authoritarian Drift.

This is Part Two in an ongoing investigation into the Thielverse — the money, the ideology, and the infrastructure shaping American power. For Part One, click here.

P.S. I changed the title of this piece after I’d recorded it.

Welcome to my new listeners! 🎧 Happy to have you. 🩵

I’m an independent journalist. No institution behind me. No corporate backing. Just research, reporting, and the time it takes to follow these threads where they lead.

If you’re not yet subscribed, I hope you will sign up.

If you’re already reading, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

That support makes this work possible.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Always grateful 🩵🙏🏻🩵 for your support.

We’re all in this together. 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️ Connect to the people you love or find the tribe that fits. Sending love and my best wishes. 💖

Ring Art by Peter J. Yost

In Let Us Prey, I trace the hidden power of a secretive Christian nationalist network that has spent decades courting presidents, dictators, and lawmakers—operating invisibly, without accountability, and in the name of Jesus.

This isn’t about religion. It’s about power. And it’s already reshaping American Democracy.

I’m Beth Arnold. Thanks for listening.”

Parts of this could be controversial. Your thoughts?

I want to welcome new listeners. Glad you’re here! We’re all in this together.

If you value independent journalism that takes its time and asks difficult questions, I hope you’ll consider subscribing.

Free subscriptions matter. Paid subscriptions make this work possible.

I’m grateful for any and all support.

This is only Part One.

Next: Peter Thiel, Palantir, surveillance, and the machinery of power.

For Part Two, click here.

Thanks for listening! If you’re new here, welcome. If you’re not a subscriber, I invite you to sign up.

This is where I write and speak about power, politics, culture, and the stories behind the headlines—without corporate interference, billionaire money, or ideological gatekeepers. A Liberal Southern Woman is supported by paid subscribers. Become one. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

P.S. I added this bit after I’d recorded my piece: (As we prepare to publish, the Democrats are threatening to hold the line on today’s vote—which importantly includes Department of Homeland Security/ICE funding—to avoid a government shutdown. Schumer and the other Democrats better have found their backbone and stand strong for American citizens this time.)

This is one of those moments when paying attention matters. DEMOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS isn’t about outrage or tribal loyalty—it’s about responsibility, moral clarity, and the cost of political evasion. If this work helps you think, steady yourself, or articulate what feels off but hard to name, I hope you’ll consider supporting it. Independent writing like this only exists because readers choose to make it possible.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’m grateful for all support! Namaste…🙏🏻 🩵

In this piece, I look at Donald Trump’s escalating threats, his authoritarian impulses, and the eerie global alarm bells now ringing from journalists, allies, and intelligence services alike. Through the lens of the classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I ask a disturbing question:

What happens when the madman isn’t locked inside the institution—but running it?

Trump is both patient and Nurse Ratched—and we’re all living inside his asylum.

This is about power, propaganda, fascism, and the dangerous normalization of madness. And it’s about why we can’t afford to look away.

🎧 Listen now.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

News! Thanks to my you my readers 💖💐🥰, my Trump’s Heart of Darkness piece has had a bit of a viral moment. I want to tell you guys how grateful I am 🙏🏻 and how much I appreciate y’all. It is a pleasure for me to do this work, especially in this insane time when we all need to stick together and try to make sense of what’s happening.

I’m working on growing my readership, and I need all the support I can get. Will you help me? I’ve learned a couple things about how this viral thing works: When people click the ❤️ button and restack the pieces soon after they’re published, it helps trigger the Substack algorithm, which kicks pieces out to be seen by more people who can also ❤️ and restack them. I gratefully and respectfully ask you to do this. It would make such a difference in my pieces getting seen by more people and absolutely mean the world to me.

If you don’t see my posts regularly, I invite you with pleasure to become a free or paid subscriber. 💌

Namaste. Thank you ever so. 🩵🩵🩵

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’m always thankful for a simple cup of coffee.

Speak to me! Let’s discuss.

Thank you so much for being here—truly. If you’re not a subscriber, I request the pleasure of your company and invite you to join us. 👋🏻 🥰 🌺 And if you are a subscriber and enjoy my work, I would be honored if you’d sign up as a paid subscriber. 🎖️🏅We live in an age of independent journalism, and I count you to allow me to produce it! I blow you a kiss 💋. If you know other people like us who want to be inspired, feel not so alone in what’s happening, or find some kind of meaning, please pass my Substack along. 📬

Namaste. 🙏🏻 I am grateful.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

What do you think? Let’s discuss.

Thank you so much for being here—truly. If you’re not a subscriber, I invite you to join with pleasure. 👋🏻 If you could see me now, I’m doing a curtsy. 🤩 And if you are a subscriber and enjoy my work, I would be honored if you’d sign up as a paid subscriber. I’ll blow you a kiss 💋 and buy you a lottery ticket. (Just kidding. 😘 ) If you know other people like us, please pass my Substack along. 📬

Namaste. 🙏🏻 I am grateful.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

We are one.

I’d love to get your thoughts!

If you’re not a subscriber, I’d love for you to join! And if my work brings clarity, comfort, or courage into your week, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support sustains this work and helps me keep writing the truth. ✍🏻🌎👩🏼‍💻🌏📑

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Sending love now…🩵💙🩵 We shall overcome. Peace. 🕊️ 🕊️🕊️ We are one. ☯ 🙏🏻🪷

Video art at the Heartland Whole Health Institute

Let’s talk! Let me know what you think.

Independent journalism matters more than ever. If you value this work — the truth-telling, the political clarity, the historical context, the refusal to normalize cruelty — please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You make this work possible.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I talk about the real implications of Hegseth’s decisions, the value of satire when politics goes off the rails, and why a little humor sometimes tells the truth better than the headlines. There’s even a family story in here—from Champagne and caviar to Mr. Hankey—that reminds us how long South Park has been part of our cultural compass.

Let’s Talk!

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I’m grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for reading. 💖💋✌🏻

This essay wanders the quiet corridors between ritual and rupture. It is an elegy—layered, tender, cinematic—where rainbows arc across walls like whispered vows, and a single cheesecake becomes a vessel for everything unsaid.

Here, Thanksgiving is not merely a holiday but a reckoning with love, loss, and the fragile inheritance of memory.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 🍁🦃🍁🦃🍁 Wishing you a lovely holiday no matter how you spend it. For example, going to a movie can be ideal.

If this is a sad time of year for you, please take care of yourselves, keep up your spirits. Do what you love and find other ways to nurture yourselves. Write your thoughts and feelings in a journal. Call a good friend. The holidays can be so lonely. But family doesn’t mean only people you’re actually related to.

Sending love…❤️❤️❤️

Beth and Brent

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Let’s talk! ☎️ I’d love to know your thoughts. 🔮 Please leave a comment. ✍🏻

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A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

In the middle of a MAGA-manufactured government shutdown—and an FAA brought to its knees by political sabotage—America’s air travel system is once again a weapon, a pressure point, a way to make life miserable for ordinary people. As flights snarl nationwide, I revisit not only our current travel chaos but the long corporate march that turned flying into torture: shrinking seats, swollen fees, deregulation run amok, and a two-tier system designed to remind us exactly who’s in charge.

From James Fallows to Ganesh Sitaraman, from the collapse of airline service to the rise of what I call “The Graceland Syndrome,” this piece exposes how our skies became hostile territory—and why a Mexican bus between Mexico City and Oaxaca once offered more humanity and comfort than a cross-country U.S. flight today.

It’s time to confront what we’ve lost. And what we should demand back.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I decided to change the title of this piece after I recorded it.

Please send any questions or comments, so our community can address and respond to them. Let’s talk!

Peace. 🕊️ 🕊️🕊️ We are one. ☯ 🙏🏻🪷

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

From Bill Clinton’s rise—and the deal the Democrats made with corporate America—to the hope sparked by progressive voices like Zohran Mamdani and his stunning election, Beth traces how the party of the people lost its soul… and how it might find its way back.

It’s part political history, part personal story, and all heart—a deep dive into what it means to be a real Democrat again.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

In TRUMP & THE GOP ARE STARVING AMERICAN CHILDREN, I look at how the MAGA regime’s shutdown has turned the government against its own people, how fascist ideology cloaked in “Christian nationalism” is reshaping our country, and why Democrats must find the courage to evolve—or risk losing democracy itself.

This is not the time for silence or sanewashing. It’s time to name what’s happening and fight back.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

Thanks for reading A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold! This post is public so feel free to share it.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

A Liberal Southern Woman by Beth Arnold is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Note: I added this last bit after I’d recorded the voice version of this piece. I want you to see it.

I was glad to read in this piece that “The US still captures the imagination.” And I was very happy to read that one French artist living in the U.S. thought our cultural openness to allow one to reinvent himself was intact, even if artists like him—and like everyone else here—is standing strong but scared. Reinventing yourself is the American dream in a nutshell, and it is what we also proudly offered in welcoming immigrants. But as Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in her October 1st newsletter even American citizens are being profiled, arrested, and detained every day. Military-like raids in Chicago look more and more as though our president has declared war on his own people and his own cities and that an American Gestapo has been launched. As AP reported: Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

A NOTE FROM BETH

The subject of freedom, in this case freedom of speech, is much on our minds since Donald Trump bullied Disney into shutting down Jimmy Kimmel for a week. Thanks to the American public, Disney was hammered with our anger and Kimmel is back on the air with even larger audiences. Good for him and bravo, us! All those complaining phone calls, emails, cancellations, and boycotting worked.

But in this country, the corporate sector seldom makes decisions in the interest of the public good. While corporations could make a handsome profit and still do the right thing, they usually don’t. It always comes down to money—which makes them especially vulnerable to Donald Trump’s campaign to destroy free speech. First, cowardly ABC bent their knee. CBS then did the same. Jeff Bezos trampled on The Washington Post’s First Amendment principles and foundation. Is anything left of its once gleaming integrity?

Freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the legacy of The Washington Post come together in the following post by my brilliant friend Ray Gastil. When he sent this piece to me, I immediately asked if I could post it on my Substack. As you will see, no one else in the world could have this story or his POV. I am proud to introduce him to you.

Ray Gastil is a writer, city planner, and urban designer who has held city planning leadership positions in New York, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. He currently serves as Commissioner for Planning, Seattle Design Commission, and teaches in the urban design and planning program at the University of Washington. Ray Gastil has spoken on sustainable urbanism and public space from local to international platforms, most recently in September’s International Forum on the Sustainability of Cultural Institutions. As a writer, he has published in scholarly and general interest books, periodicals, and journals and is the recipient of fellowship and grants from Dumbarton Oaks, MacDowell, and the Graham Foundation. Current writing projects include short fiction and personal essays.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

Editing Note: After I recorded Collateral Damage, I added this to the piece:

Now, Utah prosecutors have brought charges against Robinson. As reported by the BBC:

Text messages: Gray read out texts between Robinson and his roommate, who is transgender and with whom Robinson was in a romantic relationship. The messages Robinson sent allegedly say he shot Kirk because he "had enough of his hatred". The messages also detail his attempts to recover the rifle he hid, and instruct the roommate to delete the exchange.

This situation is evolving every day.

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I ask you to sign up to be a Paid Subscriber, if possible—and “Heart” and Restack them. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

I so appreciate your reading A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are truly essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I hope you’ll subscribe and pass A Liberal Southern Woman along to your people. And if you’ll take a moment to “Heart” and Restack my posts, that would also give me feedback and a little a bump. I’d love to hear from you! Please comment. Also, if possible, please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

I so appreciate your listening to A Liberal Southern Woman. I am an independent creator, and your financial and social support are essential to me so I can do this work. If you enjoy my pieces, I ask you to sign up to be a Paid Subscriber—if possible—and “Heart” and Restack them. Every bit of your backing counts. It makes a difference. And please help me spread the word by sharing my newsletters and site with family and friends. Thank you ever so for all of the above! I am truly grateful.

Love, Beth 💖🙏🏻💋

I asked ChatGPT to map the wreckage. The answers are staggering.

We are 185 days into an authoritarian takeover—one orchestrated like a reality show, engineered by nationalist ideologues and tech titans, and fueled by disinformation, power grabs, and rage. The question now: what will the next 185 days bring?

Audio recording of THE WHITEST HOUSE published on July 10, 2025.

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Dear Readers and now Listeners,

I’m going to start reading my pieces for audio versions, so people can listen if they’d like. This is the first one—the piece I published this morning, July 3, 2025! You’ll definitely hear the South in my voice. Hill-country Arkansas.

See what you think. I’ll be streamlining this and working out any kinks ASAP. Thanks for any notes you’d like to give me.

Apologies to Ross Douthat for mispronouncing his name.

All my best,

Beth