While Tuesday's elections will understandably consume Wednesday's attention, it's also worth looking at two November holidays that are eerily relevant to current American politics and the war in Ukraine.
Guy Fawkes Day and its slogan, "Remember, remember the 5th of November: gunpowder, treason and plot" are not celebrated here. In 1605, outraged with James I's refusal to grant greater tolerance to their religion, radical English Catholics concocted "the gunpowder plot" to blow up Parliament. The plot was discovered and the conspirators arrested. One of the main conspirators was Guy Fawkes, who was captured, tried and executed. Parliament would declare Nov. 5 a British holiday.
Consider some parallels with Guy Fawkes Day, modified by the passage of four centuries. Misinformation and disinformation, fired across social media and not gunpowder, are the explosive ingredients today. The targets are not Parliament but the other political party and whatever cohesion remains across American society. Unlike 17th-century England, plotters are not limited to a single radical faction.
