A couple of readers have pinged me about my generally positive, almost un-MBD-like reception of new campaigns for the presidency. I think Christie might shake things up, and I welcomed RFK Jr. into the race as an injection of populism from the left.
Sometimes this is mistaken for admiration or a glossing over of their careers. Of course I know that RFK Jr. used to propose all sorts of mind-bendingly unconstitutional ideas about shutting down think tanks or businesses that don’t agree with him on climate change.
But, particularly when men are running for the presidency, I think it’s important to let them redefine themselves in their own speeches. Ronald Reagan had liberalized abortion laws in California as governor, back when there were a number of “individualists” on the right who thought this was a good move. But in his campaign for president in 1980, he sought rapprochement with the religious Right, an increasingly anti-abortion force. “Now, I know this is a non-partisan gathering, and so I know that you can’t endorse me,” Reagan said to a group of religious conservatives, “but I only brought that up because I want you to know that I endorse you and what you’re doing.”
Now, many politicians eventually return to type. But, if time, circumstance, or just pure ambition changes politicians for the better, I want to welcome those changes. I’m glad that RFK Jr., for his peculiar reasons, is denouncing the censoriousness of the progressive movement. He told the Free Press, of Biden, “I see him doing things that I know, at his core, he cannot possibly believe in—the censorship that’s coming out of the White House, it’s so contrary to everything that he’s stood for over his life.”
Good for him.