Iraq War

The Iraq War serves as the historical pivot against which the Claremont-Diaz family's improbable rise is measured. Fifteen years before the novel's present, when Ellen Claremont first ran for the House, the Austin newspaper gave her the nickname "the Lometa Longshot." She had escaped her tiny hometown in the shadow of Fort Hood, pulled night shifts at diners to put herself through law school, and was arguing discrimination cases before the Supreme Court by thirty. In the midst of the Iraq War, she was the last thing anybody expected to rise up out of Texas: a strawberry-blond, whip-smart Democrat with high heels, an unapologetic drawl, and a little biracial family. The war thus frames her candidacy as a radical departure from the political expectations of her time and place, marking her as an outsider whose victory defied the prevailing national mood.

The War as a Marker of Class and Origin

For Alex, the Iraq War is inseparable from his family's material history. He was born in the hill country of Texas to the daughter of a single mother and the son of Mexican immigrants, all of them dirt-poor. The war years coincide with his mother's transformation from a small-town escapee into a national political figure, and the contrast between that impoverished origin and his present circumstances—cruising over the Atlantic in a private jet, snacking on pistachios in a high-backed leather chair with his feet up—is never far from his mind. The war functions as a temporal anchor for how far the family has come, and for the strangeness of his current life as the First Son.

The War and Alex's Sense of Duty

Alex's awareness of the Iraq War and its political context feeds into his restless sense of purpose. He carries with him the Texas Binder, a collection of materials about other states like Texas and millions of other people who need someone to fight for them. The feeling at the base of his spine tells him there is a lot of fight in him that could be honed down to a more productive point. The war is part of the political landscape that makes him feel the weight of that fight, and it contributes to his internal debate about whether to dive headfirst into politics or to take a different path. Every time he looks at the Texas Binder, he knows it is a big fat case for him to go take the LSAT like he knows both his parents wish he would. He has always, always said no, refusing to wait for things or put in the time like that. The war, as a historical touchstone, is part of the world he feels called to change.

The War as a Contrast to an Imagined Future

Alex's vision of a post-election future with Henry is explicitly set against the backdrop of a world shaped by conflicts like the Iraq War. After the inauguration, he imagines taking Henry back out to the lake house, just the two of them, sitting under the moon and not stressing about anything. He pictures cooking migas in the mornings, swimming all day, never putting clothes on, and making out on the pier without caring if the neighbors see. This idyllic, private, peaceful future is the direct opposite of the public, conflict-ridden world of wars and elections. The war thus serves as the unspoken contrast to the life Alex hopes to build—a life defined by intimacy and rest rather than by national crisis and political struggle.

The War and the Weight of Legacy

Henry's own sense of legacy is also framed against the backdrop of a world marked by historical conflicts. When he tells Alex that he wants his legacy to be true, so he can offer Alex all of himself and the chance of a life, he is speaking against the weight of centuries of royal blood and the expectations of a public life. The Iraq War, as a recent and defining national event, is part of the historical continuum that makes both men's choices feel consequential. Alex, holding the Bible at his mother's inauguration with the same hand he uses to touch Henry's face, feels the full weight of how completely neither of them will ever be able to undo what they are choosing. The war is one of the historical forces that has shaped the world they are trying to live in and change.

The War as a Quiet Prelude to New Beginnings

The Iraq War ultimately recedes into the background as Alex's own story moves toward its resolution. When Nora learns that Alex snuck off and took the LSAT that summer, she responds with the simple recognition that law school is where he has been unknowingly headed all along. She immediately begins planning their futures together—she will go to grad school, June will become a speechwriter-slash-author, and Alex will go to law school. The war, which once defined the political landscape of his mother's rise, is now part of a past that Alex is ready to move beyond, trading the immediate fight of politics for the longer, more patient work of building a life and a career. The historical moment that made his family's story possible gives way to the quieter, more personal future he is now choosing.