On the wrecking of a tradition; CPAC now and before; the fetishization of guns; a ferret named Elizabeth Ann; and more.
On the wrecking of a tradition; CPAC now and before; the fetishization of guns; a ferret named Elizabeth Ann; and more
I n the late 1990s, I was mad at George Bush (the first one). Why? I wanted him to speak out against President Clinton and his depredations (as I saw them). His silence irked me. I thought he was gentlemanly to a fault.
“I’m tempted to go off the reservation,” he said at one point. In other words, he was tempted to go ahead and criticize his successor, publicly. But he held his peace. Probably, he was right.
There is a tradition — not deeply entrenched, but existent — that an ex-president does not criticize his successor. At least in public. At a minimum, he gives his successor some breathing space.
Last year, Barack Obama criticized the Trump administration. He did so in a private talk to alumni of his administration. The criticism leaked to the press.
Said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, “I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut.” He also said, “I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. You had your shot.”
I knew, of course, that Donald Trump would criticize his successor immediately — whether the successor was a Democrat or a Republican; whether the succession occurred in 2021 or 2025.
Of course, Trump has now done so. (He did so before February was out.)
Will McConnell and other Republicans object? You know, there is an old saying: If it weren’t for double standards, there would be no standards at all.
• At CPAC, Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican, called for a “new nationalism.” Frankly, what he is calling for is not new; it is old. Will Hawley respect the American system? Will he try to overturn election results, when those results go against him?
He uses the phrase “in the name of the people.” So does Marine Le Pen in France. Indeed, it is her slogan: “Au nom du peuple.” Populists of Left and Right always claim to be speaking and acting in the name of the people. Think of “people’s republics,” “people’s commissariats,” and so on.
When politicians and demagogues tell you they’re doing their thang in the name of the people: beware.
• The difference between CPAC today and CPAC yesterday? Well, CPAC was once a place where Mitch Daniels could speak, introduced by George Will. There was conservatism at CPAC. You know what Daniels’s subject was? The danger of national debt (the “new red menace”).
In 2012, CPAC gave David French a “Ronald Reagan Award.” Less than ten years ago — but in a galaxy long ago and far away.
• It was in 2015 that Boris Nemtsov was killed — murdered within sight of the Kremlin. He was the leader of the opposition to Vladimir Putin. (In that role, your life expectancy is not great.) He was smart, patriotic, and incredibly brave.
With the anniversary of his death approaching, on February 27, supporters erected an impromptu memorial at the spot where Nemtsov was murdered. Eight people were arrested when they attempted to lay flowers there. Police quickly dismantled the memorial.
What is Putin so afraid of? A few flower-layers? I’m always told — by his sympathizers and apologists in America — that Putin is very, very popular with the Russian people. If that’s so, why can’t he allow a little memorial? Or a free press? Or multiple parties? Or free and fair elections?
On February 27, our new secretary of state, Antony Blinken, tweeted the following:
Today, on the sixth anniversary of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov’s murder, we reaffirm our unwavering support for human rights. Boris dedicated his life to building a free and democratic Russia. His memory lives on.
An American statement. Well done.
• Recent stories have gotten me to thinking about guns (not for the first time). There are people who support the Second Amendment and argue intelligently, or matter-of-factly, for gun rights. There are people who support gun control, of course.
Then there are people who fetishize guns. They have almost a paganistic relationship to them. For them, the gun is almost a carnal object. I have seen it over and over, especially in the last several years.
This is a little creepy.
In a video attacking the teachers’ unions, Donald Trump Jr. posed in front of a bunch of guns.
Attending an online committee hearing of the House, Lauren Boebert, one of the GOP’s new QAnon congresswomen, sat in front of guns.
Here was just one little story in the news — from one of my old necks of the woods, Traverse City, Mich.: During a livestreamed meeting of the county board, a commissioner “briefly disappeared from view and returned holding a rifle. He brandished it for the webcam, then set it aside.”
Whatever. No big deal. My point is: Something is in the air, or in the water.
When I was growing up, I knew men — dads and granddads — with guns. Many of them were war veterans. They didn’t preen about their guns. They didn’t thump their chest about them. They didn’t brandish them or strut about with them. They would have thought that was very strange. They just — had them, the way they had boats and lawn mowers. It was a tool, an instrument.
I brought this up on Twitter. And I got a response from Thomas Mills of North Carolina, who said,
I grew up in the rural South. I didn’t know anybody who didn’t own a gun, but it was never worship. It was just a fact of life.
Yes.
There was also a response from Benjamin Kerstein, an Israeli journalist:
Practically everyone in Israel has handled a gun and knows how to use one. No one I know of worships them. I think many Americans do because they’ve never actually had to use one against a human being. You lose your romanticism when you see what they can actually do.
Sounds right.
• President Biden was talking about unions — tweeting about unions — saying,
Workers in Alabama — and all across America — are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice — one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers.
Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union.
“Without intimidation or threats by employers”? Sure. How about without intimidation or threats by unions, too? A leader, particularly a U.S. president, should cover all of that ground, I think.
Our history is loaded with intimidation and threats from both sides. (Have you seen On the Waterfront, for heaven’s sake?!)
• Lately, I’ve been quoting Peggy Noonan. I mean, I’ve been doing so for more than 30 years, but I’ve been doing it an unusual amount lately. Here I go again:
In the short term, New York needs to hold on to the wealthy — the top 5% percent in New York pay 62% of state income taxes — and force down crime. If you tax the rich a little higher, most will stay: There’s a lot of loyalty to New York, a lot of psychic and financial investment in it. But if you tax them higher for the privilege of being attacked on the street by a homeless man in a psychotic episode, they will leave. Because, you know, they’re human.
Yes, yes, yes — perfectly expressed. (For the column I’ve quoted, go here.)
• It’s not every day I offer science news, is it? Well, check out the following:
U.S. scientists have successfully cloned an endangered black-footed ferret using frozen cells from a long-dead wild animal, the first time any native endangered species has been cloned in the United States.
This new ferret is named Elizabeth Ann. To read the full story, go here.
I’m not sure the bioethicists among us would put it exactly this way, but cloning has always given me the heebie-jeebies. Still, this seems like unequivocal good news, doesn’t it? Equivocal?
• Let’s have a little culture. Over the weekend, a Saturday Night Live sketch had a character from Michigan. She is wearing a University of Michigan sweatshirt. She says, “Go Wolverines.” (Catch it here, at about 3:10.)
No way, José. No one says “Go Wolverines.” Supporters of the U of M Wolverines say “Go Blue.”
Cripe, SNL! Do your research!
• Maybe we can end on some music. For my new “livestream chronicle,” in The New Criterion, go here. For a post on Berlioz, and the late critic Peter G. Davis, go here. For my latest Music for a While (a podcast), go here. This new episode is not bad, I must say.
Enough bragging. Thanks for joining me. See you soon.
If you’d like to receive Impromptus by e-mail — links to new columns — write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.