Mailbag

    I tend to share emails that are laughably hateful or oblivious, out of hey-look-at-this amazement more than anything else. A typical specimen is:

Neil. Fascinating In the same article that you referred to the “Staff of 100 fact fixated news hounds["], you also engage in ridiculous hyperbole, to wit: “Did I mention the real chance of democracy dying in America next year?” Makes it difficult to buy the whole “fact” assertion.  Bob Johnson.

    It probably deserved no answer, but I answered anyway:

     You do know that Donald Trump is running for president? I hate to be the one to tell you. His election could mean the death of democracy in this country. That isn't an opinion. It's just a fact, one that remains true whether you realize it or not. Thanks for writing.     NS

     That said, I don't want to give the impression that ALL my correspondence consists of trolls sniping. I do receive deeply thoughtful letters, such as this:

Dear Neil Steinberg:
     Last August, you wrote a column about how you are prohibited from making political endorsements, under the Sun-Times new legal status as a not-for-profit financial entity. You finished by saying that your column, in any case, was no more than, “…a twig snapping in a bonfire the size of a barn. The entirety of responsible professional journalism has been blazing away at Donald Trump.”
     Your modesty is endearing, but it obscures the fact that your column actually is a mighty big twig in the regional and syndicated news bonfire. I’m saying this now, because I’m convinced that we each need to do whatever we can, and as often as we can, to keep a would-be dictator from becoming President.  There will be plenty of time for fatalism later
     What prompted me to write you today, is that I have just read Robert Kagan’s two recent opinion pieces in the Washington Post about the likelihood of a second Trump term. Kagan counters the current arguments used to assuage fears, and focuses on the enormous political and financial power that will accrue to Trump after he wins the Super Tuesday Republican primary on March 5. I trust that you have read Kagan’s piece.
     As for the possible fate of my beloved Sun-Times, what is at stake If Trump wins the presidency is not only its nonprofit status, but its Constitutional freedom of speech. The mainstream media, in Trump’s own words (as borrowed from Stalin) is “the Enemy of the People.” And he has announced his plans to use the justice department to go after his critics in the media.
     Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that you and your colleagues already haven’t had conversations about how far you might push the envelope in order to prevent this catastrophe. I only write today to lend encouragement to you and your coworkers to take whatever risks you think you can to stop Trump, before it’s too late.
     Finally, I want you to know that I am incredibly impressed and encouraged by how the Sun-Times has become a great paper again. And I trust you will do all you can to rouse us readers from our complacency and so prevent our democracy from becoming yet another dictatorship.
     Respectfully yours,
     Tom Golz

     An honest concern deserves an honest reply, and I thought hard, and did my best to respond as candidly as I could:

Dear Tom Golz:
     Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I too read Robert Kagan's columns, and felt they were spot-on, if lengthy, summations of the peril our nation is facing right now. The really scary part is that his proposed solution — newfound courage among Republicans — is exactly the quality whose general lack has brought us to this crisis. GOP timidity isn't a bug, but a feature, as the techies say, and I can't see that changing, certainly not before March 5. To me, the whole game is Biden winning re-election; alas, and as Kagan points out, that can be easily torpedoed by a third-party candidate like Jill Stein. Or a stroke.
     To address your thoughts on the Sun-Times leading the charge to save democracy, I brought up that very subject at an open meeting last Thursday, explaining to the powers-that-be that this is a moment of grave national peril, and did they really want to look back at it, years from now, and know they sat on the sidelines because they're worried about their 501(c)3 status? I wish I could say their answer was encouraging, but it wasn't really an answer at all. More of a we'll-get-back-to-you-on-that murmur. I'm not holding my breath.
     My plan is, as always, to say what I think needs to be said, when it needs to be said, and if the paper won't print it, despite my best arguments, well, then that is their right. As I sometimes tell readers who demand to know how I can permit some top level misstep or another: I just work there; I don't run the place. I do have my blog, which draws a respectable number of eyeballs. I've already been writing columns about the Israel-Hamas war there, not bothering to turn them into the paper because doing so causes such a quivering bolus of alarm, hand-wringing and nit-picking that it's hardly worth it. Were the Middle East waiting breathlessly for insight from me, I might feel worse about that, but — spoiler alert — they're not. That might be one reason I'm writing a two-part series on baking bread this week.
     Recognizing that I am not the greased hub on which politics twirls is not humility, it's just true. In 2016, I knew Trump was going to win, after Brexit, and said so, repeatedly. No matter. I do take comfort in knowing that Illinois went for Biden by 17 points over Trump in 2020. They don't need me telling them what to do.
     I hope that isn't timidity. I've turned in my resignation in the past, and will do so again, if need be. While you don't rack up 36 years on staff by stalking off in a huff over editorial disagreements, no writer worth his salt flaps in the wind of whoever is signing the checks. If I get sacked in the process of fighting for democracy, then I couldn't hope for a better exit. "I would not lose so great an honor," as Henry V says.
     Finally, I thank you for your closing observation about the Sun-Times ascendancy. That is, to me, very encouraging. Even with our fraught charitable status, there is much to be optimistic about. We are bringing on fresh, enthusiastic talent faster than I ever remember it being hired, and they're writing excellent stuff, covering Chicago as it deserves to be covered. As for me, I am confident that I'll be able to provide assistance to the good guys when the time comes. There are many ways to skin a cat — I suppose I'll have to write a chain of historical columns about the rise of Hitler and count on my audience to read between the lines. One aspect that Kagan dismisses that I think about a lot lately: America has always had extraordinary luck. Not at all times in all things — were that true, Trump wouldn't be the front-runner. But at key moments we caught a lucky break — we elected FDR in 1932 while Germany elected Hitler. It could have just as easily been the other way around. I like to think fate won't desert us now.
      Don't get me wrong — I don't intend to count on chance. I plan to oppose Trump with every fibre of my being up to and — if need be — after his re-election. Terrifying as our time is, it is also the rarest of things — a moment of true historic importance. I compliment you for the letter you sent — nobody else has written anything close — and hope you continue to do what you can, when you can. As will I.
     Neil Steinberg