Legal Insurrection is 8 years old

Legal Insurrection is 8 years old

How time flies when you’re having fun.

Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008. The first post was Obama is Door No. 2:

As in Let’s Make a Deal, choosing Door No. 2 carries great risks. So does choosing Obama.

Obama may be a post-racial healer, or he may be someone who carefully uses race and false accusations of racism to advance his political career. Obama may not have known about Jeremiah Wright’s political race-baiting, or he may have known but not cared. Obama may be someone who views this country as inherently good, or he may secretly share the views of his political enabler, William Ayers, that this country is inherently bad. We may know Obama better than Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers know Obama, or we may not know Obama at all.

The history of how we started and grew, as well as some early screenshots, were in last year’s anniversary post.

In so many ways, this has been the most difficult year.

Starting right around this time last year I’ve been dealing continuously with multiple serious immediate family health issues that have sapped my strength and attention not just to the website but also other aspects of life. If not for the help of our great team of authors and editors, I’m not sure we could have kept going as well as we have been. Added to that was the stress of this highly unusual presidential election season, including unprecedented problems managing the comments section.

But, contrary to what you may think, I’m actually an optimist.

I also have an unnatural ability to compartmentalize, mostly as a result of having been a contingency fee lawyer prior to moving to academia. I learned to put losses behind me and move forward. Every minute I spent moaning and groaning about lost cases was a minute I didn’t spend winning the next one.

So, I’m hopeful that in the new calendar year I’ll be able to put this all behind me, and focus on moving forward.

That moving forward is going to be a challenge in itself because of this presidential election. Long ago I said that both Hillary and Trump represent threats to our liberty, but in different ways. Hillary is a systemic threat while Trump is an episodic threat. It seems that as a website we are destined to be in perpetual opposition without regard to party affiliation. For us it’s not about party, but about country, and that is not going to change.

The coming year is likely to present the stark reality of living in a society of corrupted institutions. I hope that as a website we can explore how we survive collectively and individually.

I expect there will be a fairly vicious falling out in the Republican Party and (the once) conservative media. I don’t know if we’ll be in the middle of that or not. It’s just Sad!

Some of the changes we made this year were for the better. I’m very happy with how the Quick Takes section is working. It really has enabled us to post some shorter, more time sensitive posts, as well as some more fun posts we might not have posted otherwise. I’m also happy with the decision to consolidate our higher education coverage at Legal Insurrection, bringing college-related coverage to a broader audience.

Much of the coming year will be driven by the result of the presidential election, but I also have some priorities. We’re going to focus on higher education, which in my estimation is the source of so many of our problems. Also, I expect to continue focusing my own time on Israel and BDS/antisemitism issues both because those issues are important in their own right, but also because they are part of the larger war on our own liberty and way of life.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 8 years. I cherish so many of the relationships I’ve made with authors and readers.

Thank you for everything you do for me.

[Featured Image: Frank Shorter, 1972 Munich Olympics Marathon Gold Medal Winner]

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