The Year of Accountability
After years of fooling around, in 2022 we found out.
What you’re looking at below is the sun setting on 2022. Astute readers will note that we’re now in a different city. After living 26 of the last 27 years in Austin, I’ve moved to Dallas with S to go to work for Dr. Ellis All Day. This transition has not been without pain — leaving my friends and coworkers in Austin hurt, and badly — but the new year gave me an excuse to tally up the good things that happened in 2022.
Let’s get to it. In 2022, I:
Saw my oldest son captain a college quidditch team and, a few months later, graduate cum laude a semester early on, coincidentally, Jason Stanford Day in Austin. (The Mayor gave each of his current and former staffers a proclamation declaring December 16 their own official day. My mom was there, and she got a kick out of it.)
Attended three different Orioles games, all wins, in three different cities: in Anaheim with my best friend from high school and his son, in Chicago at Wrigley Field when the Orioles reached .500 by extending their winning streak to 10 games, and in Houston with my oldest son. Marie Kondo would not throw this Orioles season away.
Saw Ann for the second time, this time at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I got to hug my friend backstage.
Took trips to Miami Beach (where I learned that the ramshackle apartment building where my dad used to live became the Versace mansion), New Orleans, Guadalajara (where I needed my Selena Spanish to navigate an immigration problem).
Maintained, relatedly, a 520 day-long streak on Duolingo.
Enjoyed the paperback release of Forget the Alamo, which earned back its advance, and was named Best Banned Book by the Dallas Observer and Best New Book by an Austin Writer from the Austin Chronicle.
Substitute taught at a middle school and ran into the teacher I subbed for at a SXSW party.
Helped Dr. Ellis All Day stand up to the Attorney General in celebrating Pride at Austin ISD.
Blurbed a book for the first time, this one written by my first boss in Texas.
Roadtripped with Henry from Fargo to Texas.
Saw St. Vincent at the Moody Center and Ezra Furman at Hotel San Jose at SXSW. These were two of the best rock ‘n roll shows I have ever seen.
Helped pass a $2.44 billion school bond that will change Austin more than anyone realizes. About 80% of the investment goes to schools serving poor children, making this perhaps the biggest civil rights investment in the city’s history. I did exactly two smart things that made a difference, but the real credit belongs elsewhere.
Found a new job and a new apartment in a cool neighborhood in a huge city.
Said goodbye to the best friends I’ve ever had and a city where I arrived at 23 and left at 52.
Officiated my best friend’s wedding.
All of which is to say that I recognize I am inwardly focused at a time of year when we’re supposed to be giving to others. Were it not for the kindness and hospitality of my best friend and his new bride, I would not have eaten a holiday meal, and as I write this my two sons are making their way to Dallas so I can take them shopping for their Christmas presents. I barely remembered to call my parents on Christmas and reached only one. I have violated every cultural norm and am a very bad, quite terrible boy.
Normally this would put me in good stead with the rich and powerful in the world, who have f*cked around for years and never found out. For years, cause has not preceded effect. Crimes were committed, and punishment omitted.
But as a friend pointed out, 2022 was different. At the risk of abusing the listsicle format, let’s consider that 2022 was the Year of Accountability. Last year:
An insurrection resulted in the most bi-partisan impeachment in U.S. history as well as an under-appreciated series of fines, sanctions, possible disbarments, and a big, honking “red slime” lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems.
The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud.
Trump-backed candidates who denied the 2020 election results lost in 2022, keep the Senate in Democratic hands and giving Kevin McCarthy such a slim margin that he can’t yet count on becoming Speaker.
“Four dozen empty folders marked ‘CLASSIFIED’ found in Trump Mar-a-Lago raid, DOJ reveals”
“Oath Keepers Leader Convicted of Sedition in Landmark Jan. 6 Case”
The sedition convictions marked the first time in nearly 20 trials related to the Capitol attack that a jury had decided that the violence that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, was the product of an organized conspiracy.
“Ringleader in plot to kidnap Michigan governor sentenced to 16 years in prison”
“Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ bill author indicted for money laundering”
“FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Is Arrested in the Bahamas”
“Elon Musk has lost a bigger fortune than anyone in history”
“The Long Goodbye: Why Russia is losing the war”
“Russian oligarchs lose $95bn in 2022 amid sanctions after Ukraine war”
“Russell Wilson has lost the Broncos locker room, and there’s no going back”
What am I missing? Shoot me links, and I’ll include them in the Mid-Week Experiment.
The headlines bring us news of crime and punishment, but the effect made on us is more the former than the latter. With all these chickens coming home to roost, it’s too easy to focus on all the chicken shit, but hear this good news: the American experiment is undergoing an anti-democratic stress test, and the institutions are holding. As the last lights of 2022 lent a blue glow to the skyscrapers in my new city, we were still here. The bad guys not only haven’t won, but they’re on the run and calling their lawyers.
I don’t know if 2023 will build on 2022’s wave of accountability or if we will slumber in the nod of turning the page. But a lot of people have been messing about for a long time without even a hit of consequence. In 2022, they found out.
Jason Stanford is the co-author of NYT-best selling Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth. His bylines have appeared in the Washington Post, Time, and Texas Monthly, among others. Follow him on Twitter @JasStanford.
Thanks to Noom, I lost 40 pounds over 2020-21 and have kept it off since then. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works. No, this isn’t an ad. Yes, I really lost all that weight with Noom.
We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment.
We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some
Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. Out in paperback now!