Impromptus

To be a ‘Trumpocrat,’ &c.

By
Rod Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois, waves as he exits his home after President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence, Chicago, February 19, 2020. (Joshua Lott / Reuters)
On political labels, the mullahs, Bible-peddling, Michelangelo’s David, Flaco the Owl, and more

A reader writes to tell me that he finds political labels confusing these days. Many of us have found the same. What’s a “conservative,” what’s a “liberal”? What’s a “Republican,” what’s a “Democrat”? What’s “left” and what’s “right”?

I have written many, many articles on this general subject. I have a whole speech — maybe 45 minutes — titled “What Is Conservatism?” Anyway, I think of Rod Blagojevich, familiarly known as “Blago.”

You remember him. He was governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat. Corrupt to the gills. After he was removed from office, he appeared on Donald Trump’s TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice. Then he went to prison. Later, Trump, now president, sprang him, commuting his sentence.

Blago said, “If you’re asking what my party affiliation is, I’m a Trumpocrat.” I thought that was perfect. There are millions of Trumpocrats in America. But they tend to call themselves “conservatives” and “Republicans.”


More in Donald Trump

Above, I mentioned a reader and his note to me. He says essentially this: “What do you call a person who believes in limited government, the rule of law, a free economy, international trade, character in office, societal virtue, U.S. leadership in a dangerous world, and so on?”

Good question. I think “conservative” should do — but maybe you have to modify the word. “Pre-Trump conservative”? “Old-fashioned conservative”?

In 2016, Senator Marco Rubio said, “We are not going to turn over the conservative movement, or the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to someone whose positions are not conservative.” But that is exactly what happened. And Rubio may be Trump’s running mate this year, as Republicans nominate Trump for president for a third time.

• The below is interesting, and instructive:

For most of my life, it was Republicans who investigated and inveighed against tariffs and the costs they impose — the costs they impose on all of us. Now it is Democrats who do the investigating and inveighing? This is so weird (to my mind).

• Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist and activist, exiled in America. An irrepressible spirit. I wrote about her in 2021 (here). She has been targeted for kidnapping and murder by the rulers in Tehran. Earlier this week, she had this to say:

The Iranian dictatorship is the primary sponsor of Hamas. It has pledged the destruction of Israel. And it is, of course, a curse on the Iranian people.

In recent days, I have criticized the new trade deal with Iran inked by Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary. Some of my critics have said, “So what?” One answer is this: I am on a side. I am against the regimes in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. I am against Hamas.

The world’s worst actors have allied with one another. The Free World should be as determined.

• Every once in a while, you read an article that makes your blood boil. (Every day? Every hour?) This one had that effect on me: “Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign.” That is the headline over this article, which I will excerpt:

. . . [staffers] have become the targets of right-leaning media personalities, conspiracy theorists and even members of Congress. The smear campaign is rooted in opposition to offering aid to immigrants, which critics frame as incentivizing illegal immigration, while sometimes accusing faith groups of breaking the law or working with drug cartels.

The result has been a series of unsettling incidents that have transpired near or even inside Catholic Charities facilities in what officials say is a rapidly growing threat to their safety.

I know the type of people who work at Catholic Charities. I know the type of people who menace them. I know which I prefer.

• The huckster is a familiar type in American life. So is the televangelist. Usually, such people don’t become president. Have you seen this?

A year ago, another Trump, Donald Trump Jr., hawked something called the “We the People Bible.” Now Sr. is hawking another Bible. Last December, he sold pieces of the suit he wore when his mugshot was taken — like pieces of the True Cross.

Americans seem to like this kind of thing — or at least about half of them do.

• On this same theme:

My feeling is, there are many, many people in our country who would buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe it has ever been thus.

• One innocent afternoon, this popped up on my phone. My reaction: “I what?”

• The Associated Press begins a report this way:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution under a deal to end criminal securities fraud charges that have shadowed the Republican for nearly a decade.

The report goes on to say,

Under the 18-month agreement, the special prosecutors would drop three felony counts against Paxton as long as he pays full restitution to his victims, and completes 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics education.

Huh. Those 15 hours of legal-ethics education. I wonder what effect they will have on Mr. Paxton — who has been the attorney general of our second-most-populous state for almost a decade.

• Did you happen to see this?

Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David’s genitalia.

This is the kind of story that makes you chuckle. Maybe even guffaw. But it is also very interesting. I recommend reading the article, for it explores an issue that raises myriad philosophical, legal, political, and economic questions.

Seriously.

• Flaco the Owl has met his end. He thrilled many of us in Central Park and elsewhere in New York. It was a pleasure to be in the presence of this beast, who became a folk hero, even a symbol: of liberation, of adventure, of self-reliance.

I wrote about him once, in April ’23:

It is thrilling to see Flaco wake up. He stretches and, more thrillingly, hoots. That hooting — deep, resonant (you can almost feel physical vibrations) — is one of the most memorable things I have experienced in nature.

Anyway, Flaco has met his end — and he has been eulogized by Manuela V. Hoelterhoff, the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic, in a post: Here she is.

So long, Flaco. Was really good knowing you.

• Leave you with a touch of music? For a review of La rondine (Puccini) at the Metropolitan Opera, go here.

At the end of that review, I have a series of what I call “footnotes” — just some miscellaneous, or stray, points, or observations. Let me quote one:

In this production, a man sits reading a newspaper. I was kind of startled to see this. I had a jolt of memory. Yes, we once sat and read newspapers. It seems oddly long ago now. You might as well show a man using a spittoon.

Do you ever read a paper? I mean, do you ever hold one in your hands? I read a paper maybe three times a year. It comes about in two different ways. Papers will be offered on an airplane — especially when the flight is transoceanic. Or a paper will be left at your hotel-room door. When I pick up a paper and read it, I enjoy it, very much, as of old. And I think, “Why don’t I do this more regularly? I think I’ll start.” And I never do.

Well, maybe tomorrow, or next week. My very best to you, everyone. Catch you soon.

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