The Vision Thing

In the late 1970s, German chancellor Helmut Schmidt was asked about his “vision” for Germany. Schmidt scoffed at the question: “People who have visions should go see a doctor.”

Germany has just elected a new chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Like Schmidt, he is a member of the Social Democratic Party but is not the kind of social democrat given to the utopian reveries that afflict Americans of that persuasion. “Sell the world a BMW” — that’s the German ideology in our time. Germany has had worse ideas.