On December 26, 1933, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull sat in a conference room in Montevideo, Uruguay, chain-smoking— as usual.

It was just months into Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term as president. In the midst of the Great Depression, the new administration was trying to turn the page from America’s imperialist era and become (what FDR called) “a good neighbor” in the region.

So Roosevelt sent Cordell Hull— a tall, austere Tennessean to build relationships in Latin America.

Hull was was polite, unshakably formal, and most importantly—stone cold sober in a room full of diplomats who treated every negotiation session like a vineyard tour.

It was perhaps because Hull might have been the only delegate who wasn’t falling-down-drunk that, by the end of the conference, a series of landmark agreements had been signed— everything from women’s rights to non-intervention—including the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States.

Born out of border disputes in South America, this document established the modern legal definition of statehood, with four main pillars:

Permanent Population – A stable group of people living in the territory.
Defined Territory – Clearly recognized borders, even if not fully settled.
Government – An organized central political authority that exercises control.
Capacity to Enter into Relations with Other States – The ability to engage diplomatically and sign treaties.

I found this interesting this week as the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, and other countries formally recognized Palestine as a sovereign state during the UN General Assembly.

At a minimum, Palestine doesn’t meet the definition of having an effective central authority—one part of the West Bank is run by the Palestinian Authority, while the other is run by the Israeli military, and Gaza is run by Hamas— a terrorist group that openly targets civilians and uses its own people as human shields.

In the end, this recognition was just more destructive derangement from the Left.

It’s ironic that countries like Britain are so concerned about Palestine when they have already utterly destroyed themselves with immigration. So much so, that they now have to cover their mistakes by arresting people for posting online, threatening to arrest others simply for being openly Jewish, or even just looking at the wrong meme.

Despite this endless track record of failure, the Leftists in charge change nothing.

Even while holding near-total power in many countries, and dominating single-party cities and states in the US, their policies and ideas are proven failures.

Yet they still blame the other side while refusing to make a single adjustment or course correction.

And if you call them out, they won’t argue on the merits of ideas. Instead, they’ll label you a racist, a fascist, or “far-right”.

If that doesn’t work, they’ll resort to outright violence.

Today we dive into a number of these failures—from Palestine to Jimmy Kimmel to Iryna Zarutska—and come away with a conclusion.

To be frank, I’m not sure the UK and Europe are going to recover.

But America is going to get past this deep ideological divide.

America has been through worse.

Back in the early 1900s, anarchists, Bolsheviks, and socialists were blowing up buildings, assassinating politicians, and planting bombs in public squares.

You might remember the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti from history class—two anarchists convicted of murder in 1920. That wasn’t some isolated case. The left-wing violence of the era was widespread and organized.

And yet, the country pulled through.

As crazy as the world seems today, there’s still a lot of reason for optimism.

That’s what we talk about in today’s podcast episode.

You can listen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AflS4Y1GEIE

You can find the podcast transcript here.

Podcast: Why—Bizarrely—This is a Good Time to be Optimistic