The Voting Rights Act. Title IX sex discrimination legislation. The Americans with Disabilities Act. Supreme Court rulings overturning state bans on contraception and interracial marriage, and legalizing abortion and gay marriage.

In general, over the past 60 years Americans have experienced a sweeping expansion of federally guaranteed personal rights. During this “rights revolution” era, the United States government established a foundation of laws that apply to every state in the land.

But that era now appears to be over. If anything, the tide may be running in the other direction, as conservative justices and Republican-controlled states look to roll back aspects of this revolution that they believe constitute legal overreach.

The Voting Rights Act was trimmed in 2013, when the Supreme Court overturned a provision that required states with a history of discrimination to submit proposed voting changes to the Department of Justice. The landmark abortion ruling of Roe v. Wade may be next, as the court appeared to be leaning toward limiting abortion rights during oral arguments in December.

If abortion is limited, other personal rights guaranteed by the federal government could also be in question, from same-sex marriage and sexual activity to access to birth control and some fertility treatments. 

That is because the logic critics use against Roe could weaken the legal foundations of other rights based on similar principles, including some Americans may take for granted. All are based on a “right to privacy,” which is not written in the Constitution but which past Supreme Courts have inferred from the Bill of Rights’ other guarantees of citizen liberties.

Meanwhile, GOP-controlled states are already passing a flurry of bills that place new restrictions on voting, medical care and sports participation for transgender children, the teaching of history, gender education, and other sensitive rights issues. Some are enforced with vigilante provisions that empower citizens to take enforcement into their own hands.

John Hanna/AP

Kansas Republican state Reps. Kristey Williams (left) and Clarke Sanders (right) support a proposal to make it easier for parents to challenge materials in public school classrooms and libraries, April 1, 2022, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas.

The bottom line: The long-standing common American approach to many personal rights may be fracturing. The rights you enjoy may soon depend on where you live, with blue and red states diverging on abortion, marriage, gender, and other contentious issues.

“This is a big deal,” says Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. “In the context of American democracy, it would be hard for it to be a bigger deal.”

Rights “retained by the people”

In 1787, when the founders were debating the Constitution, a number of states said they couldn’t possibly ratify it without basic guarantees of personal rights. James Madison and fellows produced the Bill of Rights – eventually the first 10 constitutional amendments – to address this problem.

These rights applied to the federal government and, as every U.S. schoolchild should know, include freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and the press. They guarantee the right to bear arms, freedom from unreasonable searches, the right to a jury trial, and so forth.

Crucially, the Ninth Amendment states that the Constitution’s naming of rights “shall not be construed to deny ... others retained by the people.” This was Madison’s way of ensuring that Americans weren’t limited to only the specific rights that the Bill of Rights mentioned.

Since then the U.S. has added a number of federal rights to the list. Some were passed by Congress and the states and written in the Constitution, such as the 14th Amendment, which following the Civil War granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to Black formerly enslaved people. Some were unwritten, or “unenumerated,” rights stemming from Supreme Court decisions.

From the beginning of the nation, even prior to the passage of the Bill of Rights, there has always been a fierce debate in America over what the country’s basic rights should be, says Professor Kettl, author of “The Divided States of America.”

That’s true even if the right seems established. Think of the arguments that swirl around freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms today.

Sometimes rights are ignored. During Reconstruction, Southern states fiercely resisted the political rights of Black citizens, effectively negating the 14th Amendment in the former Confederacy.

But effectively dismantling them at the national level and returning them to states for enforcement would be unprecedented.

“At this point, slamming on the brakes is truly historic and runs against the long arc of history,” says Professor Kettl.

What comes after Roe?

Abortion is one national right that could be rolled back soon. Pending on the Supreme Court docket is a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks. 

Given the high court’s 6-3 conservative majority, and the questions that conservative justices asked during Dobbs oral argument, it appears likely this ruling will at the least make large changes in abortion law.

Ross D. Franklin/AP/File

Arizona reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates protest an abortion bill at the Arizona Capitol April 26, 2021, in Phoenix. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed a series of laws March 30 that target abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states pursuing a conservative social agenda.

If Roe is overturned or curtailed, at least 21 states would be certain to ban abortion as soon as possible, due to laws or state constitution amendments already on the books, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which favors abortion rights. 

Many of these states are already moving to update their abortion restrictions, anticipating a post-Roe world. Some are moving forward on legislation that would ban or limit pills that induce abortion, a method that now accounts for more than half of abortions in the U.S.

While abortion-rights groups consider access to the procedure a fundamental human right, many anti-abortion activists see it as murder, and an overwhelming moral issue. This divergence is reflected in the opposite ways some states are responding to Roe’s possible demise.

Oregon has created a $15 million fund to support women who must travel to receive abortions, including from other states. In Missouri, a prominent anti-abortion state legislator has introduced a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident travel out of state for abortion care.

“This is federalism flipped upside down, with a national conflict played out in subnational institutions,” says Jacob Grumbach, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington and author of the upcoming “Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics.”

What about a “right to privacy”?

Depending on how the Supreme Court rules, the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson could also reverberate beyond the issue of abortion. The 1973 Roe decision was famously based on a “right to privacy” that the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 protected a pregnant woman’s right to choose. And it’s not just abortion – other big high court rulings have invoked a privacy right as well. 

The right to privacy is an unenumerated right that the Supreme Court first made explicit in a 1965 ruling, Griswold v. Connecticut. In that case the high court held that a Connecticut law banning the sale of contraceptives, even to married couples, was unconstitutional. 

Writing for the majority, Justice William O. Douglas said this was so because various guarantees in the Bill of Rights create “penumbras,” or zones, of privacy. These zones can be inferred through a reading and understanding of existing rights, Douglas said.

Many conservatives have long opposed the logic behind the right to privacy. They see it as judge-made policy that is based nowhere in the Constitution’s actual language.

In his 2012 presidential run, GOP candidate Mitt Romney said of Griswold, “I don’t believe they decided that correctly.” Current Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican and Judiciary Committee member, said during last month’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson that Griswold was “constitutionally unsound.”

Most experts don’t think the GOP would support returning to the states the issue of controlling contraceptives, given their ubiquity today. Bashing Griswold has been a way to undermine Roe, they say.

But there is another ruling involving a privacy-based unenumerated right that might be a GOP target: Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that established a same-sex right to marriage.

Most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support gay marriage today. And in fact Obergefell was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee. But some religious groups continue to see it as an infringement on their First Amendment religious rights. And the 2020 GOP platform called for overturning Obergefell.

GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas talked about this issue at length in his own Judiciary Committee questioning of Judge Jackson. Among other things, he said Obergefell struck down the laws of 32 states that had decided to maintain what he called the “traditional definition” of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

“One of the things that concerns me is here is an example of the court finding a new fundamental ‘right’ that is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, that is the product of court-made law, that we’re all supposed to salute smartly and follow because of nine people who are unelected. ... Five of them decide that this is the way the world should be,” Senator Cornyn said.

Red and blue states diverge as culture wars heat up

One way in which American states are already diverging from each other in their treatment of rights is in their handling of culture war issues.

In reaction to former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, many Republican-controlled states have passed voting laws containing such restrictions as curtailing mail-in ballots and establishing new voter identification requirements. Other states have passed laws expanding same-day registration and access to absentee ballots.

Texas, Utah, and some other red states have passed laws barring transgender young people from participating in sports or receiving medical treatment for gender-affirming care. At least one blue state – California – is considering making itself a legal refuge for transgender children and their families.

Florida and some fellow GOP-controlled states have enacted laws that restrict how history and gender studies are taught in schools.

Why are these bills popping up in a coordinated manner today in GOP states? Several reasons, says Professor Grumbach of the University of Washington.

One is that they are more confident the laws may withstand judicial scrutiny given the increase in right-leaning judges at lower levels, and the expanded conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Another is that governors and state legislators are more integrated into the national Republican Party at a time when it is leaning into a more aggressive approach to hot social issues. National groups such as Heritage Action are coordinating state-level legislation. 

That nationalization of local politics is happening on the Democratic side as well, amid a decline in local news and the rise of social media, Professor Grumbach says.

“Red and blue states are going to pass increasingly different policies in that context,” he says.

The rise of “vigilante federalism”

A final aspect of the widening rights gulf between red and blue states is the privatization of legal enforcement – a phenomenon that Jon Michaels of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and David Noll of Rutgers Law School have dubbed “vigilante federalism.”

This refers to laws that empower private citizens to sue to enforce compliance. For instance, SB 8, the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, gives private actors the right to file civil lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets the performance of an abortion ... or intends to do so.”

This approach is already changing the legal and political landscape, says Professor Michaels. It is part of a number of the red-state rights bills passed in recent years. Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation – which critics dub the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – allows parents to bring lawsuits against any school district that they believe has violated its ban on age-inappropriate instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity, for one. 

Some blue states have discussed using the “vigilante federalism” approach for gun legislation and other purposes, but so far the practice is primarily used in Republican-controlled states.

“It’s in keeping with this populist movement that is driving the right wing in this country that individuals should be empowered to take the law into their own hands, and not be deferential to government officials,” says Professor Michaels.

The approach will also keep blue cities located within red states from ignoring bills that local prosecutors might find objectionable. If citizens can bring action, potential enforcement agents are everywhere.

Professor Michaels says he has already seen news stories of parents of transgender children in Texas traveling to California to explore whether a move to escape Texas law is feasible.

“We could imagine a world in which there is a mass exodus,” he says. “We’re heading into a space where your state identity is going to matter a whole lot more than we’ve ordinarily thought in modern America.”

Michael Probst/AP/File

Wind turbines stand on a hill, surrounded by fog and clouds, in the Taunus region near Frankfurt, Germany, Jan. 6, 2020. Germany will need to boost its clean energy supply if it is to wean itself off Russian coal and gas.

The need to confront climate change is growing more urgent by the month, the latest warning from leading scientists has made clear. But a new front is opening in the battle that offers new hope of success.

Those are the twin messages of a landmark report last week by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

And the even more immediate crisis that pushed the IPCC report out of the headlines, Vladimir Putin’s assault on the civilian population of Ukraine, could ultimately turn out to reinforce this new direction of travel on climate policy.

The climate challenge itself is as daunting as ever.

The increasingly visible effects – melting glaciers, record heat waves, and other “extreme” events such as storms and floods, droughts and wildfires – underline how global carbon emissions are still growing.

And time for effective action is running out, the report warns. To keep temperatures at or around 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, greenhouse gas emissions would have to level out by 2025.

Government action to cut back on fossil fuels will probably not be sufficient to meet that target date. So the new IPCC report puts unprecedented emphasis on other ways of helping to get there; specifically, how each of us, as individuals, can limit our use of carbon-heavy energy.

The report focuses on how governments can help individual citizens make green decisions that don’t burden them financially, and in fact make their lives better. That could mean paying people to insulate their homes better, for example, or expanding carbon-free public transport networks, or establishing more bike lanes and green spaces in towns and cities.

Stefan Rousseau/PA/AP/File

Cyclists commute in London, April 21, 2020. A growing number of Europeans appear ready to do what is needed to reduce their carbon footprint.

All that would still cost governments money. And even a “demand-assisted” transition from reliance on fossil fuels would almost certainly mean a hit to short-term economic growth. That’s not an easy ask as the world emerges from the economic shock of the pandemic.

Yet with alternative sources of green energy – like wind and solar – already providing the cheapest electricity in many countries, the IPCC is keen to emphasize that the battle against the worst effects of climate change remains winnable.

And potentially, that’s where the horrors being visited on Ukraine by Mr. Putin could prove relevant.

Like so much else about the Ukraine war, the ultimate outcome on the climate change front remains uncertain.

But Western economies, especially major European importers of Russian natural gas such as Germany, have suddenly put energy security at the top of their agendas.

In the short term, that’s not going to mean less fossil fuel use. On the contrary, a move to eliminate, or significantly cut, imports of Russian gas would mean a scramble for pretty much any other energy source to minimize economic disruption.

In Germany, even though Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition includes the Green Party, the government is ready to revive the use of the worst carbon offender, coal, and to reconsider former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shutdown of carbon-free, but politically controversial, nuclear power plants.

In the United States, similarly, the Biden administration has been trying to convince improbable political bedfellows like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to pump more oil to compensate for any reduction in Russian energy supplies.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File

Karin van der Steen (left) and Melanie Way, both of Falls Church, Virginia, board the Relay, an autonomous electric vehicle, in Fairfax, Virginia, Oct. 22, 2020. The future of transportation looks like a big blue toaster on wheels.

Still, the longer-term picture may look greener if the current mood in Germany proves to be a signpost.

Chancellor Scholz has so far resisted international pressure for an immediate end to Russian gas imports, arguing that the price for German industry and homes would be too steep.

But polls suggest that most German citizens believe the price is worth paying if it provides their country with greater energy independence and at the same time denies Mr. Putin’s military machine its key financial lifeline.

Like most people in most European countries, they support European Union moves to accelerate the transition to greener energy. And they also recognize that consuming less energy is part of what it will mean to go green.

All of which sounds very much in tune with the new tone of the IPCC, best described at the launch of its report by one of its scientific co-chairs, Priyadarshi Shukla.

The right mix of government policies, infrastructure, and technology to encourage “changes to our lifestyles” could mean a whopping 40% to 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury. “Untapped potential,” he called it.

All that, and rosy cheeks, too. The same lifestyle changes that would combat climate change, Professor Shukla said, would also bring improvements to “our health and well-being.”

For Fadhila Khalfawi, it has been a Ramadan full of surprises.

On the first day of the holy month, the Tunis resident spent an hour and a half waiting in a bakery line to grab the last baguette. On the second day, there was no bread to be found.

Unable to find semolina pastry dough or afford eggs, she had to cut out brik – the fried pastry that has long been a staple on every Tunisian iftar table.

She now breaks her daylong fast with a solitary soup and salad.

“I don’t really know a lot about war, but from what I can see, this war is taking place in Ukraine, but its impacts are being felt in Tunisia,” Ms. Khalfawi says.

“Suddenly there are a lot of dishes that we can no longer cook because they need eggs and cheese,” she says. “To be honest, I just can’t do it this year.”

As the Russian war in Ukraine wreaks havoc on global food and energy prices, its pains are being acutely felt in the Middle East and North Africa, a region that relies on wheat, grains, and cooking oil from Black Sea countries.

Soaring prices and food shortages are hitting Arab countries all at once at the onset of Ramadan, a holy month of daylong fasting marked by festive nighttime meals, gatherings, and peak consumption.

Muslims across the Arab world who had hoped to be emerging from a pandemic-fueled economic and social downturn this spring and celebrate are instead spending this Ramadan finding ways to cut corners, pay bills, and do more with less.

Ahmed Ellali

Fadhila Khalfawi cuts vegetables for her fast-breaking iftar salad in Tunis, Tunisia, April 7, 2022. “I don’t really know a lot about war, but from what I can see, this war is taking place in Ukraine, but its impacts are being felt in Tunisia,” she says.

Food price index

United Nations officials have warned that the Middle East, where millions were already spending more than a third of their income on food, would be the region hit the hardest by the war’s impact on the global food supply.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says its food price index rose 12.6% in March, reaching the highest-ever levels since its inception, with global wheat prices rising 19.7%, vegetable oil by 23.2%, and grains 20.4%.

The World Food Program warned in a statement at the start of Ramadan that “this crisis is creating shock waves in the food markets that touch every home in this region. No one is spared.”

Tunisia, which receives half its wheat from Ukraine, is feeling the shock.

Cooking oil, semolina, and rice have all but disappeared from grocery stores, and flour shortages have led to a run on bakeries – dramatically altering the iftar table.

Along with brik, also disappearing is tabouna, the thick semolina flatbread that is a Ramadan staple and is baked in the oven at home or in clay earthen ovens and sold at local markets. Another casualty is mlawi, a doughy chapati-like semolina flatbread Tunisians serve with iftar or use as a sandwich wrap for a sohour pre-dawn meal.

Ferjani Hergli, a father of two, is one of many Tunisians facing soaring prices since late February. His food bill is up 50% from February – what was once a $33 grocery run now costs $50 – and soaring meat and vegetable prices are forcing his family to make hard choices on what to serve.

Instead of a multiple-course meal with meat-stuffed peppers or lamb couscous, this year they are eating vegetarian couscous or pasta.

“Even during the peak of coronavirus outbreaks, bakeries worked as normal and everything was available,” Mr. Hergli says. “We have never seen bread, meat, and vegetables disappear from the market like this.”

Hamada Elrasam

Mohamed Shemies (center) distributes juice packs to children at the daily Ramadan charity iftar he runs in the Abideen neighborhood of downtown Cairo, April 7, 2022. “We are finding ways to share joy for the sake of God,” he says.

Freezing prices in Egypt

Egypt – with 110 million citizens, the Arab world’s most populous country – relies on Ukraine and Russia for a combined 80% of its wheat imports.

Egypt saw inflation hit 12% and its currency devalued in March; war-caused shortages and rising energy costs led to a jump in commodity prices across the board.

With bread prices alone up 25%, Cairo fixed the price of both subsidized and unsubsidized bread to limit the fallout. But this Ramadan, price hikes are being felt by middle-class and working-class Egyptians who rely so much on bread that it is simply known as aysh, or “life.”

Egyptian bakers buying wheat at a 40% higher price say they are baking lighter loaves to keep prices steady.

Um Zenhom, age 72, lives with her two sons who work as day laborers. Although they would be classified as economically vulnerable, and were recently relocated into government housing, they had never faced food shortages before.

“This is the first Ramadan we can’t get everything we need,” Um Zenhom says.

Her family has given up their staple iftar of four rice-stuffed chickens and meat pasta; now they share a single chicken – when possible. Many of her family’s iftar meals consist of meatless pasta and tomato sauce. She can no longer afford crushed chili peppers, cardamom, or black pepper.

“The days of the coronavirus pandemic were much easier; things were cheaper and we had more money,” she says.

This Ramadan’s economics are hitting businesses as well as families.

Sweet shops selling kunafa in Cairo are largely empty, the orange-crusted custardy dessert now a luxury many Egyptians are willing to cut. In Amman, several restaurants are canceling their iftar buffets after a poor turnout.

Butcher Hajj Mahmoud Elroby sits at his empty poultry stand in Cairo. With poultry prices up as much as 50% in the last month, his is a hard sell.

“Customers won’t buy chicken because it’s too expensive; there is no demand,” Mr. Elroby says. “During Ramadan we should be at home having finished selling our stock by midday. But now we stay until night without selling anything.”

Hamada Elrasam

Hajj Mahmoud Elroby, a poultry butcher, awaits customers at his stand in the Sayeda Zainab neighborhood of Cairo, April 5, 2022. Poultry prices have risen as much as 50% in the last month.

In Tunisia, the shortage of semolina has led to a run on white baguette bread, leaving bakeries empty by noon.

“We have been able to keep up production for now, but the high demand and anxiety of people makes us run out early,” says baker Mohamed Allagui, noting that Tunisia’s wheat shortage will be fully felt only next month.

Silver lining

The rising prices have also changed the way many Muslims meet.

In Jordan, many families mark the first two weeks with large iftar banquets with aunts, uncles, in-laws, and grandparents, with extended families rotating hosting duties daily.

With food costs compounding an economic crisis, many Jordanians say they are breaking fast with their nuclear families – a habit that began during the pandemic.

“The prospect of hosting is such a burden. Many people are too shy to discuss it or accept an invitation because they know the impact on a household that is already facing so many costs,” says Hishem Saeid, an Amman barber who has iftar with his nuclear family and his parents. “Expectations for Ramadan are changing. We are changing with the economic times.”

But there are silver linings in a holy month known for charity.

One is Mohamed Shemies’ charity kitchen, where volunteers serve up chicken, rice, dates, and sweet Ramadan hibiscus juice to underprivileged people, workers on the job, or simply anyone in need of a meal in Cairo’s Abideen neighborhood.

Recent inflation has raised the kitchen’s costs from $1.2 to $2 per meal.

But private donations of meat, rice, and poultry have increased, allowing Mr. Shemies to serve up 350 free meals a day.

“People’s charity has increased more this Ramadan, and there are a lot of volunteers,” he says, adding that despite rising prices, “we are finding ways to share joy for the sake of God.”

Ahmed Ellali reported from Tunis, Hamada Elrasam from Cairo, and Taylor Luck from Amman.

Scott Siff/Courtesy of Kinney Zalesne

Kinney Zalesne (left) and Adina Siff in Washington, D.C., on April 7, 2022. The mother-daughter pair hosted a virtual event in December that transformed their relationship.

In December, the two of us – a former corporate executive and her 16-year-old daughter – hosted an extraordinary virtual relationship-building session in our living room. It featured three speakers: Teresa Leger Fernández, a Latina with Native American ancestry who is a Democratic United States representative of New Mexico and chair of the House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples; Michal Sella, a Jewish Israeli and the executive director of Givat Haviva, an organization that builds “shared society” between Israeli Arabs and Jews; and Mohammad Darawshe, a Palestinian Israeli who serves as that organization’s director of strategy.

What made the conversation so extraordinary was not that Palestinian, Jewish Israeli, and American leaders came together to talk about our path forward. That was special, but it happens, if not often enough.

Nor was it groundbreaking that the conversation touched on different kinds of indigeneity – Native American, Jewish, and Palestinian – although all three speakers did note the exquisite care it takes to navigate competing claims to holy ground. And Ms. Leger Fernández and Mr. Darawshe were both visibly moved to discover that they are each 17th-generation residents of their regions.

What was so unusual, especially for a Washington-based event featuring a member of Congress, was the humility and vulnerability each speaker brought to the conversation. Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are very used to arguing with one another. American officials are very used to lecturing both. But on that evening in our living room, all three leaders seemed remarkably determined to listen more than they spoke. Nobody heckled, lectured, or poked. Rather, each of them said, in their own way: My own people have been quite imperfect at sharing society. My country regularly stumbles. But despite the slow, uneven progress, I’ve devoted my life to moving my society forward, and tomorrow I’ll get up and do it again.

And what got transformed by that approach ... was us. 

Jonathan Kessler/Courtesy of Kinney Zalesne

View of the large Zoom screen on Dec. 7, 2021. The top left box shows Michal Sella and the bottom left box, Mohammad Darawshe, both in Israel. The bottom right box shows Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández on Capitol Hill. The square above her shows the 30 or so people gathered in the writers' living room in Washington to participate in the conversation.

We should pause here to mention that we are both board members of Heart of a Nation, a nonprofit that brings together progressive Israelis, progressive Palestinians, and progressive Americans to make all three societies better. We should also mention that right before the gathering, we engaged in some fairly typical, low-level, mother-daughter bickering. One of us didn’t like the other’s shoes; the other was annoyed at not having enough time to prepare her intro. But beneath that night’s nitpicking was another, more substantial concern. What if the discussion further exposed our different political views? One of us is a moderate incrementalist. The other believes in radical social change. We generally share goals, but not tactics. What if this discussion pushed us, personally, further apart?

To our immense relief, the opposite happened. As each leader spoke about the strengths and the flaws in their own societies, while still demonstrating deep care for the others, we witnessed healing connections being built that we longed to see mirrored in our own relationship. 

Of course, we were relieved to have pulled off the event successfully, bringing disparate leaders together around shared work. But it was more pivotal than that.

The next morning, we didn’t have our customary fight about who was late coming downstairs for the drive to school and who had set an unreasonably early departure time. That evening, we didn’t bicker about who was eating what (if anything) for dinner. Something in the way Ms. Leger Fernández, Ms. Sella, and Mr. Darawshe had come together, humbly and productively acknowledging their own societies’ shortcomings instead of zeroing in on others’, inspired a quiet resolution on both our parts to try to see things more often through each other’s eyes. In the “shared society” of our own household, we had work to do. And with that quiet resolve, we began to rebuild our own foundation, one in which we were on the same side, working together. Shoulder to shoulder.

Too much dialogue in the world – whether between nations, political parties, or parents and their teenagers – is focused on changing other people’s behavior. “Stop your bickering. Prioritize what I prioritize. Treat me with respect.” Human beings never tire of telling one another how to act.

To be sure, sometimes other people’s behaviors do need to change. Ms. Leger Fernández, Ms. Sella, and Mr. Darawshe must work tirelessly to advance justice and peace because too many other players have set those aspirations back. But in our living room, they showed us that when people share humility and curiosity, they can not only mitigate conflict and ease tension, but also draw energy and strength from new connections.

“It’s fragile work,” Congresswoman Leger Fernández said, reflecting on the surprising similarities between her work representing northern New Mexico and Givat Haviva’s work advancing Israeli shared society. Dignity, democracy, mutual respect – these things must be nurtured with fierce sensitivity. “Because everything we love is fragile, and everything we love must be fought for,” she said.

This mother and daughter felt less fragile after that night, and readier to fight for our own connection.

Everyone is taught to share in kindergarten, but after the early years – for both individuals and nations – the hard, holy task of sharing comes down to what a U.S. congresswoman and two foreign social entrepreneurs showed us in our living room: honor yourself, honor the other, and never give up the work. 

Kinney Zalesne is a former Microsoft executive. Adina Siff is an 11th grader at Georgetown Day School in Washington and a former intern with Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández. Mother and daughter are both founding committee members of Heart of a Nation.

Staff

Spring is a time of fresh starts, and many of the books recommended this month amplify that message. From Anna Quindlen’s advice about “Writing for Your Life” to James Crews’ collection of poems, “The Path to Kindness,” these titles will put a little bounce in your step.   

1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

“Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.” It’s 1961, and these brisk, bold words close “Supper at Six,” America’s hit TV cooking show hosted by Elizabeth Zott. Brilliant and determined, the 30-something chemist would rather work in a research lab; the story of why she doesn’t, her efforts to return there, and the social toll of the era’s noxious sexism roils and rivets in this potent debut novel. (Full review here.)

2. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Gaspery Roberts travels through time, hunting for answers to a mysterious anomaly. Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel, intertwined with, but not dependent upon, her previous one, “The Glass Hotel,” transports readers from British Columbia to New York to the farthest planets. The precariousness of civilization, plus the impact of today’s decisions on tomorrow, receive thoughtful, lyrical treatment.

3. The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon

The self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy, needs to secretly raise tourist dollars to save the village. So he starts a rumor that a famous actor is filming his next movie there. Excitement spreads through the town, even reaching the ears of the actor’s agent, who makes the rumor true. This charming comedy, filled with devoted and lovable characters, is a breath of fresh air.

4. Hope and Glory by Jendella Benson

A British Nigerian woman returns to London to try to mend her fractured family after the death of her father. Jendella Benson shows both the racist stereotypes under which the family labors and the hidden strength and goodness of her characters. 

5. Theatre of Marvels by Lianne Dillsworth

Zillah, a young biracial woman performs as The Great Amazonia at Crillick’s Variety Theatre in the late 1840s. An encounter, plus a glimpse of a horrifying new stage act, sets Zillah on a path out of complacency. The novel considers the costs of pretending – and the challenges of choosing only parts of one’s identity.

6. The Path to Kindness edited by James Crews

This anthology, a follow-up to James Crews’ bestselling collection “How to Love the World,” features more than 100 poems that highlight the importance of finding joy and connection in small moments. 

7. Writing for Your Life by Anna Quindlen

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anna Quindlen turns a spotlight on her own craft. In passionate and often soaring prose, she urges her readers to take up a pen or keyboard and try writing for themselves. 

8. The King’s Shadow by Edmund Richardson

In the 1830s, a private in the army of the East India Company wandered into Afghanistan and made a series of breathtaking archaeological discoveries. When the Anglo-Afghan wars broke out, he is imprisoned and his notes are lost. In this thriller-like nonfiction account, author Edmund Richardson reclaims the legacy of Charles Masson.

9. Learning America by Luma Mufleh

In her riveting debut, Jordanian-born Luma Mufleh describes how her encounter with a group of refugee boys playing soccer in a Georgia parking lot led to her founding of the Fugees Academy schools, which serve refugee children who’ve been resettled in the United States.  

10. The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black

A familiar topic is transformed into a gripping tale of chaos, destruction, and resilience. Riley Black helps us understand the planetwide catastrophe on a comprehensible scale, while explaining why it matters.

AP

French President and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron gestures at his election headquarters April 10 in Paris and French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen speaks during a March 14 TV show.

Two elections in Europe this month have raised concerns about the European Union’s unifying values at a challenging moment for security and economic stability. Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, won a second term on April 3. A week later French nationalist Marine Le Pen won her place in a run-off against President Emmanuel Macron to be held on April 24. Polls put her within striking distance of the presidency.

Mr. Orbán and Ms. Le Pen exemplify the kind of politics that gained momentum following the 2008 global financial crisis and the influx of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa a few years later: identity-based nationalism, inward-looking economic policies, and creeping authoritarianism. Both are longtime admirers of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They oppose boycotting Russian oil and gas. Were Ms. Le Pen to win, her victory could disrupt European resolve against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

But their recent gains at the ballot box – the election in Hungary was seriously flawed, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – have added resolve by EU leaders to reassert the bloc’s democratic principles in member states seen as erring toward illiberal practices. Using a new measure endorsed by the European Court of Justice this year, EU officials last week decided to suspend special pandemic-related funding to Hungary and Poland pending reforms.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said last week that EU money for Hungary would be withheld because of corruption and public financing concerns. She said a similar action would be taken against Poland pending a restoration of judicial independence.

“You can’t be part of a club, not play by its rules, but keep all the money,” Daniel Freund, one of the European Parliament negotiators, told The Atlantic. “That just doesn’t work.”

The EU’s actions come at a time when the populist politics may be in retreat around the world. A study by The Centre for the Future of Democracy at Cambridge University found that, on average across 109 countries, support for populist leaders fell by 10% from early 2020 to the end of 2021. Among European countries, support for populist leaders or populist opposition parties has fallen about 5%, the study found. Furthermore, “support for key populist attitudes – such as belief in the ‘will of the people’ or that society is divided between ordinary people and a ‘corrupt elite’ – has declined in almost every country.”

The reasons for this change relate to the pandemic. The study found that by and large countries run by populist leaders fared worse during the COVID-19 crisis than better-run democracies.

A similar conclusion was reached in a study by the European Economic Advisory Group on the effects of the coronavirus crisis. “If there is a change in what is expected from governments, there may be a shift towards demand for competence,” the study found. “At the same time, populist politicians have not been very successful in this crisis. Whether this will reduce support for populism in the coming years remains to be seen.”

Germany’s recent chancellor, Angela Merkel, argues that populist leaders in Europe raise an existential question for the EU. Will the bloc move closer together in its policies or will it revert to being a common economic union where each country decides its own social and political path?

French voters may help answer that question in the days ahead. But in Hungary and Poland, European officials have already spoken. Their insistence on democratic principles sends a message that integrity in government is the best assurance of unity and equality.