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Sen. Lindsey Graham Dies at 71, Leaving a Complex Political Legacy

Sen. Lindsey Graham Dies at 71, Leaving a Complex Political Legacy

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A War We Cannot Win — And a Lesson America Should Have Learned Long Ago

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Artists reflect the times they live in

Artists reflect the times they live inplay icon
Hozier - Nina Cried Power ft. Mavis Staples
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David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsSep 20, 2021
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
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Nina Simone, an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger and civil rights activist, passed away in 2013.

In speaking about the role of artists in society, Simone said:

"An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. As far as I'm concerned, it's their choice, but I CHOOSE to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That, to me, is my duty. And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when everyday is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved. Young people, black and white, know this. That's why they're so involved in politics. We will shape and mold this country or it will not be molded and shaped at all anymore. So I don't think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist."

Now, almost 20 years after Simone's death, our country faces great challenges and divisions. The Fulcrum will turn to artists to help us think about who we are as a people and what We the People can do ... or must do.

We believe music, theatre, film and the arts in general can serve a valuable role in expressing the feelings and emotions around the news that we report on, in a manner that heightens one's interest in becoming involved and working toward a stronger and more vibrant democracy.

As so we present to you a song that hopefully will move you to consider the possibilities … to think outside the box … to dream big and to work hard.

Join us in listening to "Nina Cried for Power."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2YgDua2gpk

Please let us know if this song resonates for you, and why or why not. Who knows, perhaps we will find a song that ignites a movement that brings us together in new ways that shape and mold us as a nation. And if not we'll at least enjoy some great music.

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This nonpartisan policy brief, written by an ACE fellow, is republished by The Fulcrum as part of our partnership with the Alliance for Civic Engagement and our NextGen initiative — elevating student voices, strengthening civic education, and helping readers better understand democracy and public policy.

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Who Told You You Weren’t Already Free?

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Who Told You You Weren’t Already Free?

As part of a collaboration between The Fulcrum's NextGen initiative and Made By Us, The Fulcrum is publishing Letters to America, a series created through the Youth250 project that invites Gen Z to reflect on the nation’s past, present, and future as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary.

Juneteenth. The nation’s 250th anniversary. Two celebrations of freedom, arriving in a season where many of us are quietly wondering whether we feel “free” at all. Our citizens are living through conditions that resemble the very terms that nearly caused our divorce. Economic freedom wanes. Our own citizens are somehow being terrorized. Elites and their technocratic allies advance their priorities while ordinary Americans absorb the fallout. Candidly, an anniversary only means something if the relationship has been maintained. No one gets credit for 250 years of marriage when the work stopped decades ago. So before these milestones arrive, we must ask ourselves: how committed are we to actualized democracy?

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Graham’s legacy & his failure over Trump

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, listens to President Donald Trump unveiling the Kennedy Center Honors nominees on Aug. 13, 2025, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/TCA)

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I met the late Sen. Lindsey Graham about 20 years ago, when I was coming up in conservative politics.

I had been part of the neoconservative wing that believed in the “benevolent hegemon” version of America, and the idea that “history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will,” as Francis Fukuyama once described it.

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Luke Hales/Getty Images

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Scan the faces on this summer’s European World Cup squads: France, England, Germany, the Netherlands. The jerseys hang on shoulders brown, black, olive, fair. These are not the sanitized, single-story teams that once stood for “nation.” They’re unruly, multicolored, undeniably global. And for once, the United States—so often an outlier—seems less exceptional and more like a willing participant in this reimagining of who “belongs” on the field.

Football—let’s call it what it is, the world’s game—has always reflected the societies that shape it, sometimes as a mirror, sometimes as a funhouse. For decades, European countries clung to self-mythologies, their national teams meant to be pure expressions of heritage: the most French of Frenchmen, the most English of the English. But the game, like the world, refused to stand still. The children and grandchildren of immigrants kept arriving, first in club academies and then on national teams, until no one could deny what was already on the field.

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