Like you, I bet, I have strong views about politics and policy — very, very strong. About economics, abortion, defense, and a thousand other things. But stronger than my views is my desire to keep our democracy going — to maintain our constitutional order.
In a sense, what I want most out of an election . . . is another election.
• Elections in America matter a lot, or seem to. Every two years — and especially every four — there is great heartburn. I have experienced plenty of heartburn myself, over the years. In 1992, when Governor Bill Clinton beat President George Bush — well, I thought that was lights-out.
Ideally, America should be on a kind of constitutional auto-pilot. Our elections should not matter so much, should not be the cause of so much heartburn. “A nation of laws, not men,” we once learned. But . . .
To many people, a game “between the 40-yard lines” sounds intolerably boring. We want to throw the long ball! To others, however, a game between the 40-yard lines sounds like political and national heaven.
• Some people are complaining about bad candidates, bad nominees. “Who gave us these bozos?” We did, or “we” did. Our nominees are selected through primaries. The People nominate them. “Party bosses” have nothing, or little, to do with it.
Frankly, I’d give two cheers for the back room, whether smoke-filled or not.
• The midterm results will embolden President Biden to run again, some say. If he does — I think some Democrat, or Democrats, should challenge him for the nomination. Biden can be beaten. But how would you run against him? Would you stress some policy difference? Would you confront the issue of age and competence? Would you cast doubt on Biden’s electability, or re-electability?
That would be a tricky thing.
• Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, has decided not to try for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination. I think of what Thomas Brackett Reed said (he was a Republican Speaker of the House in the 1890s, and is a legend). Said TBR, “The Republican Party could do worse, and probably will.”
(I learned that line from Bob Novak, moons ago.)
• When House Republicans booted Liz Cheney from their leadership, they elected to replace her with Elise Stefanik — who has tweeted,
I am proud to endorse my friend Donald J. Trump for President in 2024. President Trump has always put America First, and I look forward to supporting him so we can save America.
Tells you a lot.
• Last month, the House Judiciary Republicans — led by Jim Jordan (and formerly led by Henry J. Hyde) — tweeted out a trinity:
Kanye. Elon. Trump.
That tells you a lot too. A lot.
• Here is a Republican congressman from Arizona, Andy Biggs, joking about Nancy Pelosi and a hammer. (Her husband, Paul, age 82, was recently attacked by an intruder with a hammer. Paul Pelosi underwent brain surgery.)
So many things tell you a lot.
• In a column, George F. Will offers,
The immediate future can be won by a party prudent enough to offer a “deep breath, everybody” presidential candidate. One who says that to the nation, and adds, from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”
• In 2016, many Republicans were against Donald Trump. Some of them opposed him because they thought he was unfit to be president, in mind and character. Others opposed him, it transpired, because they thought he couldn’t win — because they thought that his nomination would hand the White House to Hillary Clinton.
Then he did win.
This time ’round, the situation is much the same. Some Republicans are against Trump because they think he is unfit — spectacularly, grotesquely so. Others, however, think simply: He can’t win. He blew it in ’20. He blew it in ’22. He’ll blow it again in ’24. And that can’t happen.
In other words, their opposition is strictly, or primarily, pragmatic.
• “It was always a lie. The whole thing was always a lie. And it was a lie meant to rile people up.”
That is Dan Crenshaw, talking about the Trumpian claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Crenshaw is a Republican congressman from Texas.
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, we know that, but we just, you know, people just need their last hurrah. Like, they just need to feel like we fought one last time. Trust me, it’ll be fine.’ And I was like, ‘No, it won’t.’”
That was correct. It would not be fine. Least of all on January 6.
I heard the same things Crenshaw did — in political and journalistic circles. (Sometimes the lines are blurry.) “They need time to heal,” said Republican partisans, referring to disappointed Republican voters. “They can’t handle the truth right now. It needs to be broken to them gently and gradually.”
Beware politicians and others who treat you like a fragile child (even if you are).
• “The GOP is a working-class party now.” Republicans keep saying that. I hope they will remember that workers need employers. And that employers need workers. This is not a zero-sum game. Vitality and growth benefit all.
Remember, too: A free economy has done more for workers — and more for the poor — than all the central planning and collectivism in the world.
On Twitter, Kim Holmes — late of the Heritage Foundation — wrote, “Conservatism has never been about ‘class.’ This is a Marxist concept. We should be about all Americans.”
Kim’s is the voice of a dinosaur. We need as many such creatures as we can get.
For the last 150 years or so, various parties, factions, and politicians have brayed about “the workers.” (There used to be a newspaper: The Daily Worker.) These parties, factions, and pols have done relatively little for workers. Free markets, and other components of ordered liberty, have done wonders.
Maybe people will grasp this one day. (They probably won’t. The demagoguery of populism and progressivism is like witchcraft.)
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, has been tweeting about “the priorities & values” of “working Americans.”
Some questions: What are the “priorities & values” of “working Americans”? How do they differ from those of other Americans? Who qualifies as a “working American,” anyway? How can you be sure what the priorities and values of other people are? Isn’t it enough to know your own?
Finally: Don’t people in general want prosperity, peace, and freedom?
Above, I used the word “beware.” Here it comes again: Beware politicians, and others, who want to divide you by class. Rarely does any good come of it.
• Give the last word to Churchill? Hard to go wrong with that. “Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.” But is it damn good and better than all the rest? Churchill thought so, and I think so. Long may she wave.
(“She”? Sure. The students in Tiananmen Square erected a goddess, not a god . . .)