Simi Valley, Calif. — It was fascinating being at the Reagan Library for the National Review Institute dinner last night. Larry Kudlow, who has worked for NR and also for Donald Trump, was honored. As was Ron Robinson and Scott Walker of the Young America’s Foundation. My words first appeared in National Review, as it happens, long before I worked at NR — in a Young America’s Foundation ad. Before YAF had a high-school program, I participated in their college program as a high-school student. I confess that now I tell kids to make sure they have a hobby that isn’t politics, but I think I said the opening prayer or offered the introduction for Congressman Bob Dornan back then, and was quite geekily grateful.
I say all this because, for a moment, with Air Force One for a backdrop, it felt like we’d all gone back in time for a bit, talking about Bill Buckley. If only he would take the stage and say something wise about our rootedness in eternity.
But before he finished his remarks, Larry Kudlow talked about the most recent president he served, Donald J. Trump. He presented him as a different vessel of the same principles Buckley and Reagan treasured.
He wasn’t saying Trump was Buckley or Reagan. But even putting them in the same category left me weary. Except if he was acknowledging something I’m not ready to: that our politics has changed. That we will never be a people who respect one another again, who see the image of God in that person we disagree with. I know Larry doesn’t want that to be the case — he said as much. Maybe that’s where conservatives can meet again? We don’t want bullies. Right? We don’t want presidents who overuse executive orders. We want presidents whose character young people can look up to, drawing them to public service for noble, not spiteful or otherwise angry reasons. Right?
I love Larry Kudlow and especially his conversion story and constant desire for goodness and being good to others. We love the United States of America. We pray that God guide us to our better angels. And I prayed at Ronald Reagan’s tomb last evening as if we have in him — and WFB — an intercessor in Heaven to help us with the task of recovering some sanity and goodness in our politics.