The American Brutalitarian Interregnum
Lets hope we're in it
Hail Vitruvians!
Rather than a single piece of writing on offer this week, I have three different productions of mine to tell you about and encourage you to read. Before I get to them, though, I want to thank my latest paid subscriber, Sarah C. Merrill. Thank you, Sarah! I’m reading, researching, and writing a lot these days, pretty much every day, and every time I receive notification of a new paid subscriber and feel that support, I do the work with just a little more inspired energy.
First among the writings today, my essay “Rescue Me,” about my late brother, Jeff, was published yesterday morning in a Substack publication called The Memoirist. The essay appeared on Homo Vitruvius almost a year ago, which means hundreds of you have never read it. It would please me very much if you went there to read it this time around. I think you’ll like it.
, a richly talented writer and memoirist herself, said of it, “Brimful of love and insight, this is one of the most affecting family memoirs I’ve read on Substack.” Fellow writer and editor of The Memoirist, wrote,This is an absolutely stunning memoir by A. Jay Adler — a perfect example of the quality stories I’m looking for at The Memoirist. It’s beautifully written, heartfelt, emotional, and truly takes you on a journey. This one is not to be missed!
Think of it as a two-for-one from me this weekend: one American Samizdat and one Homo Vitruvius.
Like and restack, too, if you would, to help promote the new The Memoirist.
Next, something I’m producing on a daily basis on Substack — not on Homo Vitruvius or American Samizdat but rather on Notes.
I know most of you don’t read me directly on Substack but in your email inboxes instead. You might need the reminder that Substack Notes is a social media platform embedded in Substack but distinct from its publication platform, which hosts my two Stacks. I’m active on Notes on a daily basis. (I’m also on Bluesky at @ajayadler.bsky.social and on LinkedIn. I’ve deleted my Facebook, Instagram, and Theads accounts, after previously leaving Twitter-X.) When you read me directly on Substack on the web, you can see a link to my Notes stream on the top horizontal menu. That’s always been there. But now, right next to it, you can find a link to a new American Samizdat Notes publication. It’s called American Brutalitarian Interregnum Notes. (I wanted a title that really rolls off the tongue. :)
The “brutalitarian” of the title recalls my labeling the Trump administration and the movement behind it a brutalitarian regime. I analyzed that historical political tendency just weeks ago in “The Brutalists.”
The “interregnum” of the title, defined above, recalls the British Interregnum, the period of 1649-1660, between the execution of Charles I and the restoration to the throne of his son, Charles II. This is the period when Oliver Cromwell ruled Britain. I don’t mean to draw too great an inapt parallel between the British interregnum and what I’m now calling the American Brutalitarian Interregnum under Trump, other than this: Cromwell’s commonwealth and then protectorate were failures, to a great extent because of how they came to be and the chaos of their rule. The Stuart Restoration ended that interregnum — the time between reigns.
Just after Election Day in November, I wrote “The American First Republic,” expressing my belief that the second election of Trump, with all that it signified about the national electorate, American society, and the future, signaled, too, the ultimate failure and end of the American republic established in 1789.
That republic is now in its death throws — with many nonetheless imagining that if we can somehow rid ourselves of Trump, our historic American democracy can escape that demise and resume its course as if nothing had ever happened. But this cannot be. It happened. It is still happening, with the worst yet to come, and if somehow the national polity survives this Trumpist brutalitarian ascent, Americans will need to begin again — with a new Constitution, new laws addressing the many social ills and political misguidances that delivered the death by a thousand cuts over decades that brought us to where we are. That is the hopeful scenario.
Since day 20 of Trump’s return to the presidency, I have taken every day to publishing American Brutalitarian Interregnum Notes. The notes offer my aggregation of five of the most notable stories of the day, from varied sources, tracking the Trump regime’s destruction of American government, the rule of law, the social fabric, and our American culture. I’ve created a page as a repository of those daily notes. I will post a link to it now with every American Samizdat essay, as here below.
Finally, collaborating with
, of America’s Fractured Politics, we have produced a statement and a pledge for which we are seeking signatories among fellow resistant voices — writers, podcasters, and videographers — dedicated to opposing the brutalitarians in the name of liberal democracy and the rule of law. Allied readers and supporters of all kinds are welcome to sign as well. We are seeking signatures publicly, on Notes and other social media, I am reaching out privately, and those reading these words who wish to add their names and any affiliation are encouraged and welcome to do so, simply by stating so in a comment below.The terms of the pledge are stark, but so is our situation. One of the purposes of the pledge is to make that clear. It’s happening. It’s really happening, and people need to decide how they are going to act in the face of it.
In solidarity,
AJA
Poet. Storyteller. Dramatist. Essayist. Artificer.
It was a pleasure to send you to The Memoirist. Thanks for the shoutout.