Abraham Lincoln
People keep saying how unusual this year’s presidential race is. They’re wrong. It’s an absolutely normal Third World election.
We have three candidates still standing: a self-righteous socialist who’s learned nothing in 50 years except how to rally the economically illiterate and uninformed; an heir to wealth who’s done nothing impressive in 50 years except to hone his skills as a self-promoter and demagogue; and an insider who’s climbed the greasy pole alongside her husband, enriching herself and her family through 50 years of «public service.» Welcome to the United States of Argentina.
What is to be done?
Resist. Resist the decline of America. Resist an Argentinian future. Resistance can mean lots of things over the next few years. But in the here and now, resistance means finding a serious and credible independent candidate.
Thus David French of National Review wrote eloquently this week urging Mitt Romney to take up the gauntlet. French points out that «at this moment, American voters face a choice between two historically corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent politicians. . . . Given the stakes of the election, to simply leave the race to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is to guarantee a terrible presidency marked by incompetence and cronyism.» And so, «There is just hope—however slim—of avoiding this national disaster: America needs a third option.»
It would be great if Romney chose to run to provide that third option. It would be great if former vice-presidential candidates Joe Lieberman or Paul Ryan, or former cabinet officials like Mitch Daniels or Condoleezza Rice, or former presidential hopefuls like Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush, or current governors like Nikki Haley or Susana Martinez chose to run. They would all start from positions of relative strength.
But even as polls show an amazing level of public receptivity to such an independent effort, even as Donald Trump makes his unfitness for office more manifest every time he speaks, even as Hillary Clinton’s unfitness for office is made more obvious by a report from the Obama administration’s State Department inspector general, even as all this happens . . . major public figures may choose not to run.
Yet the fact of Trump’s and Clinton’s unfitness for the Oval Office has become so self-evident that it’s no longer clear one needs a famous figure to provide an alternative.
So the alternative to Trump and Clinton could be a not-terribly-well-known but capable congressman like Mike Pompeo or Adam Kinzinger. It could be a respected former senator like Judd Gregg or Mel Martinez. Or the leader of the resistance could turn out to be someone who hasn’t yet held elective office.
People keep saying how unusual this year’s presidential race is. They’re wrong. It’s an absolutely normal Third World election.
We have three candidates still standing: a self-righteous socialist who’s learned nothing in 50 years except how to rally the economically illiterate and uninformed; an heir to wealth who’s done nothing impressive in 50 years except to hone his skills as a self-promoter and demagogue; and an insider who’s climbed the greasy pole alongside her husband, enriching herself and her family through 50 years of «public service.» Welcome to the United States of Argentina.
What is to be done?
Resist. Resist the decline of America. Resist an Argentinian future. Resistance can mean lots of things over the next few years. But in the here and now, resistance means finding a serious and credible independent candidate.
Thus David French of National Review wrote eloquently this week urging Mitt Romney to take up the gauntlet. French points out that «at this moment, American voters face a choice between two historically corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent politicians. . . . Given the stakes of the election, to simply leave the race to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is to guarantee a terrible presidency marked by incompetence and cronyism.» And so, «There is just hope—however slim—of avoiding this national disaster: America needs a third option.»
It would be great if Romney chose to run to provide that third option. It would be great if former vice-presidential candidates Joe Lieberman or Paul Ryan, or former cabinet officials like Mitch Daniels or Condoleezza Rice, or former presidential hopefuls like Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush, or current governors like Nikki Haley or Susana Martinez chose to run. They would all start from positions of relative strength.
But even as polls show an amazing level of public receptivity to such an independent effort, even as Donald Trump makes his unfitness for office more manifest every time he speaks, even as Hillary Clinton’s unfitness for office is made more obvious by a report from the Obama administration’s State Department inspector general, even as all this happens . . . major public figures may choose not to run.
Yet the fact of Trump’s and Clinton’s unfitness for the Oval Office has become so self-evident that it’s no longer clear one needs a famous figure to provide an alternative.
So the alternative to Trump and Clinton could be a not-terribly-well-known but capable congressman like Mike Pompeo or Adam Kinzinger. It could be a respected former senator like Judd Gregg or Mel Martinez. Or the leader of the resistance could turn out to be someone who hasn’t yet held elective office.
