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June may turn out to have been an especially historic month.
Unusually, at least five events took place that are changing the U.S. and the world. Amazingly, only one of them was related to a current armed conflict and, in that case, not a single member of the American military was under fire. The historic almost became so routine as to nearly miss being noticed.
The event related to war that drew worldwide notice was the uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his fumbling military. Despite his efforts to restore its former role as a world power, Russia was finally revealed as the second-rate dependency of China that it has become.
Putin had parlayed his mistakes into an epic loss. He believed Ukraine would collapse with only a small push, that the West would not support Ukraine and that he had tamed Europe by making it dependent on Russia’s energy. Wrong, wrong and wrong.
Suddenly, a Russian election may mean something. Next year, a presidential election there may find Putin open to challenge. While he can still try to throttle the opposition, ranging from repressive to reform, his success is no longer assured.
This month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkin delivered to China an American message placing clear limits on what would be tolerated. While acknowledging that the two huge economies both benefit from a good relationship, the U.S. stressed that it would not sell out its vital interests for the sake of that linkage.
He told the Chinese leadership that its shipments of the raw materials of fentanyl to Mexican drug cartels were seen as an attempt to undermine American society by promoting drug dependency. Such exports to criminal elements were hostile acts undermining hopes for improved relations. Arrests followed.
Despite China’s attempts to scare off American naval and air forces from the China Sea, the U.S. made clear that it would not recognize Chinese claims that the Sea was its internal waters. Much of world trade passes through this international sea, and the U.S. and its Asian allies would keep it that way. It’s now up to China to decide on further confrontation.
In both the U.S. and the U.K., the mighty were in the process of falling. The British Parliament made history when it forced out Boris Johnson, a former prime minister, who had arrived with a strong electoral mandate but left in disgrace. He even lost his special pass into the building.
The action, which included his own party, was an impressive example of the strength of democracy. The government continued to function without facing either a Capitol-style insurrection or mutiny à la Russe. The prevailing calm almost obscured the political history.
Donald Trump, who tried too hard to hold onto the presidency and its powers, could not miss that justice was beginning to close in on him. The public could listen to the tape of him describing papers he held on Iran policy options as laid out by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He admitted that he was no longer president and the papers were classified.
He had led “lock her up” chants about Hillary Clinton, his 2016 presidential rival and the missing emails on her private computer. How could he distinguish between the two of them? His presidential campaign coffers became the source of funding for his legal defense, revealing that the legal case was his true campaign.
Finally, the Supreme Court’s conservative solidarity began to show cracks. Finding itself increasingly at odds with the public and with its members subject to ethics challenges, the court began to show some signs of change.
The court turned a corner in congressional redistricting cases. Alabama had laid out districts that distributed African Americans so they could win no more than one U.S. House seat. The state argued that, no matter its effect, discrimination had not been the intent of the districting law.
Previously, the justices had insisted on openly racist intent before they would overrule state districting. That was virtually impossible to prove. Now the court majority has found that the Voting Rights Act allowed them to look into effect, so long as it did not impose strict proportionality. Alabama was sent back for a redo.
But there was more. After allowing Louisiana to create only one Black House district in 2022, the court opened the way for two such districts in 2024. Finally, it rejected conservative claims that state legislatures could ignore state court rulings that block political gerrymandering.
Any of these June events was big news. Together that made major history that almost got lost as one story piled on the other and other events, from abortion to immigration, captured public and political attention.
But, to paraphrase a long ago television comedy show: “That was the month that was.”
