Can Biden break his presidential bubble?

+ Trump assassination attempt latest US Edition - Today's top story: Biden isn't the first to struggle to pop the presidential bubble that divides him from the public [View in browser]( US Edition | 15 July 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [The history behind Trump’s clenched fist salute]( - [What it would take to turn Mars into a livable planet]( - [The spiritual side of Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’]( Lead story The Conversation’s editors are continuing to cover the [assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump](. Check [TheConversation.com]( for the latest stories, which will be included in tomorrow’s morning newsletter. The twists and turns of the U.S. election season have been dizzying, difficult to pin down with a single news story to help us better understand what is happening in American politics at this particular moment. Until this weekend’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life, our focus was squarely on President Joe Biden insisting that he will run for reelection, despite a growing number of Democratic voters, donors and politicians saying that he should step aside. Is Biden really listening to people’s concerns, or is he only hearing the echoes of his supporters in a small bubble of advisers, friends and family? Biden would [not be the first president to get stuck in a bubble](, writes Shannon Bow O'Brien, a scholar of the presidency. “When former President Bill Clinton was first in office, he appointed Mack McLarty, his buddy since kindergarten, as chief of staff, because he knew he would be brutally honest if necessary. Others, like Reagan, were misled toward disaster, while George H.W. Bush was savvy enough to mitigate the isolation. Some, like Trump, revel in the bubble because it provides a distorted but perceived happy reality,” Bow O'Brien writes. This election narrative shifted in a few quick, violent moments on Saturday evening. Suddenly, an unprecedented election season became even more complicated by political violence and threats of other unknown factors that could further complicate the race. [ [Understand what’s going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter.]( ] Amy Lieberman Politics + Society Editor President Joe Biden makes his way to Marine One, flanked by aides and staff, in May 2024. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images [Biden isn’t the first to struggle to pop the presidential bubble that divides him from the public]( Shannon Bow O'Brien, The University of Texas at Austin Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and other presidents showed that getting limited information as president can have some benefits – but also risks. Politics + Society - [‘One inch from a potential civil war’ – near miss in Trump shooting is also a close call for American democracy]( Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell A scholar of political assassinations says the US just narrowly avoided plunging into wholesale violence and potential civil war when Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. - [Trump’s raised fist is a go-to gesture with a long history of different meanings]( Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis The raised fist – used by Donald Trump as he was rushed off a stage after an assassination attempt – has been used by fascists, communists, Black Power advocates and even golfer Tiger Woods. - [How Smithsonian curators scavenge political conventions to explain the present to the future and save everything from hats to buttons to umbrellas to soap]( Naomi Schalit, The Conversation Curators from the Smithsonian will be at the GOP convention collecting items from buttons to banners. Their goal: to add objects to the museum’s collection that will ‘make sense of our moment.’ Ethics + Religion - [Decades after Billie Holiday’s death, ‘Strange Fruit’ is still a searing testament to injustice – and of faithful solidarity with suffering]( Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University Christian and Jewish themes influenced the world of art around one of jazz’s greatest singers. - [Electing a virtuous president would make immunity irrelevant, writes a political philosopher]( Michael Blake, University of Washington Presidential immunity can bring with it many risks. So how can we think about the nature and limits of such immunity? Economy + Business - [Michigan’s thousands of farmworkers are unprotected, poorly paid, uncounted and often exploited]( Lisbeth Iglesias-Ríos, University of Michigan; Alexis J. Handal, University of Michigan Michigan’s migrant farmworkers are the backbone of the country’s second-most diverse agricultural economy. Social and labor protections for them fall short. Science + Technology - [Flying in helicopters is safer than you might think – an aerospace engineer explains the technology and training that make it so]( Edward C. Smith, Penn State Advances in technology, training and maintenance have helped make an inherently challenging vehicle – rotorcraft – safe. - [Could people turn Mars into another Earth? Here’s what it would take to transform its barren landscape into a life-friendly world]( Sven Bilén, Penn State Liquid water, breathable air and a sustainable food supply are three of the essentials Mars would need for people to live comfortably there. International - [AI propaganda campaign in Rwanda has been pushing pro-Kagame messages – a dangerous new trend in Africa]( Morgan Wack, Clemson University The methods used to manipulate perceptions and hold on to power in Africa are getting increasingly sophisticated. Trending on site - [Flirting with disaster: When endangered wild animals try to mate with domestic relatives, both wildlife and people lose]( - [Donald Trump wants to reinstate a spoils system in federal government by hiring political loyalists regardless of competence]( - [Odds are that gambling on the Biden/Trump competition will further reduce the presidential campaign to a horse race]( Author Comment 💬 "You are correct that reaching a conclusion solely based on a single example would be a logical fallacy of a hasty generalization … but I advocate that we can incorporate storytelling elements into science communication as more of an additive rather than a replacement. In other words, we can highlight, emphasize, and deepen scientific information with storytelling without losing the scientific piece." – Author Emma Frances Bloomfield on the story [Storytelling strategies make communication about science more compelling]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? 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