The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
That Moment When 2016 Hits You
By Peggy Noonan
~~~
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Don't Underestimate liar-Trump's Support
Ever since Donald liar-Trump announced his candidacy, many observers have made the mistake of underestimating both him and his support. While we have consistently made the case that liar-Trump is a con artist and clown who is utterly unworthy and unfit for the office of the presidency, we saw (and share!) voter angst and completely understand liar-Trump's populist appeal. We always have understood it, and said so early on.
Such is the state of discontent among voters that liar-Trump is now all but the presumptive Republican nominee after trouncing Ted Cruz in Indiana Tuesday. Cruz quit the race, leaving liar-Trump with no opposition (John Kasich notwithstanding) and about 200 more delegates to win. That says a lot about the failed establishment and the state of our country after eight years of Barack nObama.
So, in one of the great ironies of our generation, a billionaire casino mogul and narcissistic philanderer will now head the party of social conservatism. And yet the lesson is clear: Don't underestimate liar-Trump's support in the general election.
Some in the commentariat are understandably angry that voters rejected principled conservatism in favor of a crass blowhard they believe will simply blow up Washington. For the record, writes National Review's Kevin Williamson, "Americans and Republicans, remember: You asked for this. Given the choice between a dozen solid conservatives and one Clinton-supporting con artist and game-show host, you chose the con artist. You chose him freely. Nobody made you do it."
Williamson isn't wrong and he's far from alone among conservative thinkers and writers, but bitterness isn't helpful, even if liar-Trump supporters can be extraordinarily nasty in chastising us nonbelievers. Bitterness won't convert a single liar-Trump supporter, nor, arguably, at this point should it. With the primary battle now effectively behind us, the focus turns to the general election and liar-Hilly Clinton. (Or Joe loose lips-Biden — more on that from Mark Alexander later today.) Like it or not, either a Democrat or a Republican will be our next president.
The more charitable way to view this election cycle is that liar-Trump established unshakeable support from those who looked at crowded field of more standard Republicans and essentially said:
Why would we want more of the same? We lost with moderate squishes like Dole, McCain and Romney, and Bush was a disaster, so why not try something completely different? Instead of rebuilding the rest of the world — or apologizing to it — why not make America great again?
liar-Trump benefited from three primary factors that we've outlined before: The nObama effect, the large fratricidal field of contenders (who spent most of their resources attacking not liar-Trump but each other), and unceasing Leftmedia attention. Mainly, liar-Trump's supporters (like the rest of us) are just tired of watching yahoos in Washington trash our country.
Having warned against underestimating liar-Trump's chances in the general election, he faces a daunting task. He trails badly in the polls, and is even more widely disliked than liar-Clinton (no small feat). As of today, the RealClearPolitics average shows liar-Clinton up by 6.5%. And the same Leftmedia that propelled him to the nomination will now eviscerate him in service to the Democrat National Committee, possibly driving his poll numbers even lower.
And if you think that's bad, liar-Trump will now face a multi-million dollar barrage of ads like this.
If he is caught flat-footed as Mitt Romney was in 2012, the polls are going to look even worse.
More important than national polls, however, there's this little thing the Founders created called the Electoral College. To reach the White House, a candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes. Unfortunately for Republicans, the current map gives a distinct advantage to Democrats.
Assuming liar-Clinton wins Florida given her large lead in the polls there, The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza breaks down the math: "If liar-Clinton wins the 19 states (and D.C.) that every Democratic nominee has won from 1992 to 2012, she has 242 electoral votes. Add Florida's 29 and you get 271. Game over."
For Republicans, the math isn't so good. Using the same time frame as his standard, Cillizza says, "There are 13 states that have gone for the GOP presidential nominee in each of the last six elections. But they only total 102 electorate votes. That means the eventual nominee has to find, at least, 168 more electoral votes to get to 270. Which is a hell of a lot harder than finding 28 electoral votes."
November is a political lifetime away, and a lot will happen between now and then. Will liar-Clinton be indicted for mishandling classified information? Will liar-Trump lose the lawsuit against liar-Trump University? Will two badly fractured parties unite behind their respective nominees?
Republican primary voters have made their choice. We think it was a poor one, but we also don't underestimate liar-Trump's ability to overcome all the negatives and, against all odds, win in November.
-The Patriot Post
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Sanders May Lose, but Socialism's Siren Song Continues liar-Hilly Clinton has a problem. A 75-year-old crank from Vermont keeps winning primaries. While Donald liar-Trump has risen to become the GOP's presumptive nominee, liar-Clinton cannot yet shake the socialist yammering on her coattails about her Wall Street ties and demanding she release the transcripts to the speeches she gave at Goldman Sachs. Bernie Sanders won the Indiana primary with 52.2% of the vote. As a result, he picked up 43 delegates to liar-Clinton's 37. liar-Clinton, though, far outpaces her challenger in overall delegate numbers. A Democrat candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination, and, including superdelegates, liar-Clinton sits less than 200 delegates away from becoming her party's nominee. If Sanders is still talking about a narrow path to victory, that path probably includes raising money from leprechauns and getting votes from unicorns.
While liar-Clinton would like to unite the party, join dissatisfied Millennials with her big corporate backers, Sanders isn't giving up the race. The ol' socialist's strategy is to run hard to the Democrat National Convention and ride into the room with a minority of delegates so large that it cannot be ignored. Before he will consent and drop from the race, he wants his ideas — like breaking up big banks — rolled into the Democrat Party's platform. "The ideas that we are fighting for are the ideas of the future of America," Sanders declared this week. But those ideas don't comport with Liberty. While some may think socialism died the day the Soviet Union fell, Sanders' young supporters show the man's ideas must be countered for years to come. -The Patriot Post
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What We Can Learn From Teddy Roosevelt About
Making America Exceptional
by Genevieve Wood
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{dailysignal.com} ~ One need look no further than the current presidential election to see how frustrated Americans are with both their government and the direction of the country. .. But many wonder what they, as average citizens, can do about it. Fox News analyst and military veteran Pete Hegseth says the answer to that question may lie in one of Teddy Roosevelt’s most famous speeches. Hegseth sat down with The Daily Signal to talk about that and his new book, “In the Arena: Good Citizens, a Great Republic, and How One Speech Can Reinvigorate America.”... http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/03/what-we-can-learn-from-teddy-roosevelt-about-making-america-exceptional/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRSaE56bGtaamMzWm1ZMSIsInQiOiJqVVNiMFdNVUkyeVpFUnlyXC96dkZMcFNGazBKZXc3M2ppK0pRNDJ0MjNlTUtTakhGOTlwRzhudng0OVdadkcxbHBqcWFteEJ2c1wvbW9iYzJodXpPTGhQZ21hbmEwQVNqVW1rZlZuT29JVXEwPSJ9
{dailysignal.com} ~ One need look no further than the current presidential election to see how frustrated Americans are with both their government and the direction of the country. .. But many wonder what they, as average citizens, can do about it. Fox News analyst and military veteran Pete Hegseth says the answer to that question may lie in one of Teddy Roosevelt’s most famous speeches. Hegseth sat down with The Daily Signal to talk about that and his new book, “In the Arena: Good Citizens, a Great Republic, and How One Speech Can Reinvigorate America.”... http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/03/what-we-can-learn-from-teddy-roosevelt-about-making-america-exceptional/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRSaE56bGtaamMzWm1ZMSIsInQiOiJqVVNiMFdNVUkyeVpFUnlyXC96dkZMcFNGazBKZXc3M2ppK0pRNDJ0MjNlTUtTakhGOTlwRzhudng0OVdadkcxbHBqcWFteEJ2c1wvbW9iYzJodXpPTGhQZ21hbmEwQVNqVW1rZlZuT29JVXEwPSJ9
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Liberal Climate Inquisition Can’t
Explain Past Temperature Changes
by David Kreutzer
.
.
{dailysignal.com} ~ In the week prior to the administration signing what should constitute an international climate treaty, one think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was subpoenaed for casting doubt on the agreement’s associated science of climate catastrophe... As disturbing as such thuggery from state attorneys general would be in any case, the premise of the subpoena is faulty. The Competitive Enterprise Institute did not cast doubt on the dubious climate science. The actual data cast the doubt. The think tank and others have simply pointed out what the data show. It looks like thought crime has now moved from George Orwell’s novel “1984” to the twisted reality of our judicial system. Pointing out facts should never be a real crime... http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/02/an-inconvenient-truth-liberal-climate-inquisition-cant-explain-past-temperature-changes/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRSaE56bGtaamMzWm1ZMSIsInQiOiJqVVNiMFdNVUkyeVpFUnlyXC96dkZMcFNGazBKZXc3M2ppK0pRNDJ0MjNlTUtTakhGOTlwRzhudng0OVdadkcxbHBqcWFteEJ2c1wvbW9iYzJodXpPTGhQZ21hbmEwQVNqVW1rZlZuT29JVXEwPSJ9
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The Great Western Retreat
by Giulio Meotti
.
.
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ On March 11, 2004, 192 people were killed and 1,400 wounded in a series of terrorist attacks in Madrid. Three days later, Spain's Socialist leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was elected prime minister... Just 24 hours after being sworn in, Zapatero ordered Spanish troops to leave Iraq "as soon as possible." The directive was a monumental political victory for extremist Islam. Since then, Europe's boots on the ground have not been dispatched outside Europe to fight jihadism; instead, they have been deployed inside the European countries to protect monuments and civilians. "Opération Sentinelle" is the first new large-scale military operation within France. The army is now protecting synagogues, art galleries, schools, newspapers, public offices and underground stations. Of all French soldiers currently engaged in military operations, half of them are deployed inside France. And half of those are assigned to protect 717 Jewish schools. Meanwhile, French paralysis before ISIS is immortalized by the image of police running away from the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during the massacre there... http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7938/western-retreat
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nObama’s Budget Gives More To Young Illegal
Immigrants Than SS Recipients
by Joe Newby
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{lidblog.com} ~ If Barack nObama has his way, minor-aged illegal immigrants in the U.S. will receive over $2,800 more this year than Social Security recipients... You read that right — People who have worked hard all their lives will get less in Social Security than the estimated 75,000 illegal minors expected to enter the country illegally this year. The budget also includes $2.1 billion for refugees, which, Bedard notes, can include the illegals from countries like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador... http://lidblog.com/obamas-budget-gives-more-to-young-illegal-immigrants-than-social-security-recipients/?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_campaign=93c11f1182-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-93c11f1182-291705165
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Goodnight Republican Party…
The Conservative Fight Continues
by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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{trevorloudon.com} ~ I have not seen a true constitutional conservative in politics since Ronald Reagan… Ted Cruz is cut from the very same cloth that Reagan was. It was with shock and great sadness last night as I watched Donald liar-Trump sweep Indiana and then Ted Cruz suspend his campaign. I have never wept over a political race, but I did so last night. I wept for the Republic and for the freedoms my grandchildren will never know now. But after I got over the sorrow, I got mad and decided the fight goes on. A special thank you here to those who have fought so hard in this battle with me. My thanks to Senator Ted Cruz and his family… I will always be thankful for your efforts here and I look forward to fighting for conservatism with you in the future. Ted Cruz is a man of faith and principles. A good man and one I deeply admire. To my friend and fellow patriot, Trevor Loudon, who never wavered and never quit fighting, thank you for being my battle buddy and friend. To Denise Simon, who is not only a friend and a patriot, but one of the most brilliant national security analysts I have ever known – you are someone who I lean on and trust implicitly. To Arlen Williams of Gulag Bound… a friend through thick and thin and someone who is far above my pay grade intellectually… I owe him more than I can ever repay. Lloyd Marcus was one of the hardest working patriots out there and a true man of faith and principle. I am also honored to call him my friend... http://www.trevorloudon.com/2016/05/goodnight-republican-party-the-conservative-fight-continues/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewZeal+%28New+Zeal+Blog%29
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liar-Hilly’s Campaign Caught RED HANDED
– Things Just Got Worse!
by Kosar
by Kosar
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{thepoliticalinsider.com} ~ This week it was confirmed: The general election will feature conservative businessman Donald J. liar-Trump against liar-Hilly Clinton... But liar-Hilly Clinton’s major obstacle is her record of criminal behavior. The FBI has a serious criminal investigation looking into her email usage and transmission of top secret documents. Now, a bombshell report reveals just how corrupt Team liar-Hilly is. Even as the investigation is ongoing, liar-Hilly Clinton’s campaign made multiple payments to a company that “specializes in hard drive and document destruction.” The transactions, captured on liar-Hilly’s campaign finance records, show that Team liar-Hilly is actively destroying files right now! What records? We may never know... http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/breaking-hillarys-campaign-caught-red-handed-things-just-got-worse/?utm_source=SailThru%26utm_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TPI%20Newsletter%2005-04-16%20Curated/Horizon%20Tier%201&utm_term=Tier%201
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Why North Korea Needs More Attention From Us Now
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{americanlibertyreport.com} ~ The year 2016 has been a busy one for North Korea and one that should be much more than a blip on the radar for U.S. leaders and citizens concerned about the very real threat a nuclear North Korea represents... In fact, since January of 2016, North Korea has made both subtle and overt threats against South Korea and the United States in addition to conducting several tests of nuclear weapons. Within the last month, however, the rhetoric has escalated with North Korea going so far as to warn citizens of an approaching famine on March 31. The same report goes on to mention Kim John Un’s desire to strike American soil with nuclear weapons. The current belief is that he is putting his money where his mouth is by redirecting funds to feed his people into nuclear weaponry, weapons’ testing, and warhead development in an attempt to build a nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States... http://www.americanlibertyreport.com/articles/why-north-korea-needs-more-attention-from-us-now/
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The Islamic State
Has It’s Hands In Our Government
by Alex Miller
.
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{absoluterights.com} ~ Yesterday a group of ISIS operatives, linked to Britain, released a list of U.S. military personnel and called for their murder by fellow Muslims. The military personnel are believed to have been involved in drone strikes, against ISIS, in Iraq... It was a full day of bearing gifts from the Islamic State, they also announced that they have a mole working inside the British military. Referring to him as their, “brother in the UK.” Of course, the Minister of Defense in Britain refused to make any comment. The hackers that released the information are believed to have been led by Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a drone strike last year. They have promised to get vengeance for his killing. The Islamic State warned that they have another list that contains “secret information” on the location of other U.S. personnel that they say was gathered by their mole inside Britain. To validate their threats, the terrorist organization boasted about their next leak of information on their website (according to the Express)... http://absoluterights.com/the-islamic-state-has-its-hands-in-our-government/
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nObama Admin Seeks to Curtail Gun Rights of
Those on Disability Benefits
by Raven Clabough
by Raven Clabough
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.
{thenewamerican.com} ~ The nObama administration is moving forward with plans to use the Social Security Administration to disarm American citizens deemed ineligible by government bureaucrats to possess a firearm... Earlier this year, President nObama signed an executive order that permits the Social Security Administration to report individuals to the FBI’s database used to determine an individual’s eligibility to purchase a firearm. On April 28, the rule was signed and posted to the Federal Register by Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin, guns.com reports. The White House released a fact sheet regarding the proposal on January 4, which states, “The reporting that SSA, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is expected to require will cover appropriate records of the approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment, or who have been found by a state or federal court to be legally incompetent.”... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/23109-obama-admin-seeks-to-curtail-gun-rights-of-those-on-disability-benefits
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Background Checks for
Ammo Buyers Coming in California
by Bob Adelmann
.
.
{thenewamerican.com} ~ Last Thursday California’s lt. governor, Gavin Newsom, announced that his ballot measure offered last fall — which includes background checks to buy ammunition, along with a host of other restrictions on gun owners... has already gathered 600,000 signatures, more than enough to put it on the ballot in November. Said Newsom, who is running for governor in 2018, “What makes guns dangerous is ammunition. Yet we don’t do background checks on ammo.” What he failed to mention is that a gun is an inanimate object, just like ammunition. If danger exists, it’s with the person holding it. But that doesn’t matter to Newsom, who added that background checks on ammunition would stop sales of ammunition to criminals and others who are prohibited from owning firearms. Such a claim also fails to recognize that — as Emanuel Kapelsohn, vice president of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors, expressed it — criminals aren’t likely to abide by the new law...
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That Moment When 2016 Hits You
By Peggy Noonan
.
.
{peggynoonan.com} ~ Have you had your 2016 Moment? I think you probably have, or will.
The Moment is that sliver of time in which you fully realize something epochal is happening in politics, that there has never been a presidential year like 2016, and suddenly you are aware of it in a new, true and personal way. It tends to involve a poignant sense of dislocation, a knowledge that our politics have changed and won’t be going back.
We’ve had a lot to absorb—the breaking of a party, the rise of an outlandish outsider; a lurch to the left in the other party, the popular rise of a socialist. Alongside that, the enduring power of a candidate even her most ardent supporters accept as corrupt. Add the lowering of standards, the feeling of no options, the coarsening, and all the new estrangements.
The Moment is when it got to you, or when it fully came through.
My friend Lloyd, a Manhattan lawyer and GOP campaign veteran, had two Moments. The first came when he took his 12-year-old on a father-son trip to New Hampshire to see the primary. They saw Ted Cruz speak at a restaurant, and Bernie Sanders in a boisterous rally. “It was great and wonderful,” Lloyd said.
Then it happened. “The Monday night before the voting we were at a Donald liar-Trump rally. A woman in the audience screamed out the P-word to refer to a rival candidate. liar-Trump repeated it from the podium, and my kid heard it and looked at me.” Lloyd was mortified. Welcome to the splendor of democracy, son. “I thought, ‘So we have come to this.’ ”
It didn’t end there. Lloyd’s second Moment came a month later, the morning after the raucous GOP debate that featured references to hand size. Lloyd was in the car with his son, listening to the original Broadway cast recording of “Hamilton.” “I blurted out, ‘How exactly has America managed to travel from that to this?’ ” American history is fiercely imperfect and made by humans. “Yet in the rearview mirror it appears ennobling and grand. And now it feels jagged, and the fabric is worn.”
A friend I’ll call Bill, a political veteran from the 1980s and ’90s, also had his Moment with his child, a 14-year-old daughter who is a budding history buff. He had never taken her to the Reagan Library, so last month they went. As she stood watching a video of Reagan speaking, he thought of Reagan and FDR, of JFK and Martin Luther King. His daughter, he realized, would probably never see political leaders of such stature and grace, though she deserved to. Her first, indelible political memories were of lower, grubbier folk. “Leaders with Reaganesque potential no longer go into politics—and why would they, with all the posturing and plasticity that it requires?”
He added: “I felt a wave of sadness.”
Another political veteran, my friend John, also had his Moment during the New Hampshire primary. Out door-knocking for Jeb Bush, “I was struck as I walked along a neighborhood using the app that described the voters in each house. So many multigenerational families of odd collections of ages in houses with missing roof shingles or shutters askew or paint peeling. Cars needing repair.”
What was the story inside those houses? Unemployment, he thought, elder care, divorce, custody battles. “It was easy to see a collective loss of hope in a once-thriving town.” He sensed “years of neglect and sadness. Something is brewing.”
My Moment came a month ago. I’d recently told a friend my emotions felt too close to the surface—for months history had been going through me and I felt like a vibrating fork. I had not been laughing at the splintering of a great political party but mourning it. Something of me had gone into it. Party elites seemed to have no idea why it was shattering, which meant they wouldn’t be able to repair it, whatever happens with Mr. liar-Trump.
I was offended that those curiously quick to write essays about who broke the party were usually those who’d backed the policies that broke it. Lately conservative thinkers and journalists had taken to making clear their disdain for the white working class. I had actually not known they looked down on them. I deeply resented it and it pained me. If you’re a writer lucky enough to have thoughts and be paid to express them and there are Americans on the ground struggling, suffering—some of them making mistakes, some unlucky—you don’t owe them your airy, well-put contempt, you owe them your loyalty. They too have given a portion of their love to this great project, and they are in trouble.
A few nights earlier, I’d moderated a panel in New York, on, yes, the ironic soundtrack of election year 2016, “Hamilton.” At one point I quoted a line. It is when Eliza sings, just as war has come and things are bleak: “How lucky we are to be alive right now.” As I quoted it my voice caught. I asked a friend later if he’d noticed. Yes, he said, quizzically, comfortingly, we did.
The following day I spoke at a school in Florida, awoke the next morning spent, got coffee, fired up the iPad, put on cable news. I read an email thread from a group of conservative women—very bright, all ages, all decorous and dignified. But tempers were high, and they were courteously tearing each other apart over Mr. liar-Trump and the GOP.
Then to my own email, full of notes from people pro- and anti liar-Trump, but all seemed marked by some kind of grieving. I looked up and saw liar-Hilly Clinton yelling on TV and switched channels. Breaking news, said the crawl. A caravan of liar-Trump supporters driving to an outdoor rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz., had been blocked by demonstrators. The helicopter shot showed a highway backed up for miles. No one seemed to be in charge, as is often the case in America. It was like an unmovable force against an unmovable object.
I watched dumbly, tiredly. Then for no reason—this is true, it just doesn’t sound it—I thought of an old Paul Simon song that had been crossing my mind, “The Boy in the Bubble.” I muted the TV, found the song on YouTube, and listened as I stared at the soundless mile of cars and the soundless demonstrators. As the lyrics came—“The way we look to a distant constellation / That’s dying in a corner of the sky / . . . Don’t cry baby / Don’t cry”—my eyes filled with tears. And a sob welled up and I literally put my hands to my face and sobbed, silently, for I suppose a minute.
Because my country is in trouble.
Because I felt anguish at all the estrangements.
Because some things that shouldn’t have changed have changed.
Because too much is being lost. Because the great choice in a nation of 320 million may come down to Crazy Man versus Criminal.
And yes, I know this is all personal, and not column-ish.
But that was my Moment.
You’ll feel better the next day, I promise, but you won’t be able to tell yourself that this is history as usual anymore. This is big, what we’re living through.
{peggynoonan.com} ~ Have you had your 2016 Moment? I think you probably have, or will.
The Moment is that sliver of time in which you fully realize something epochal is happening in politics, that there has never been a presidential year like 2016, and suddenly you are aware of it in a new, true and personal way. It tends to involve a poignant sense of dislocation, a knowledge that our politics have changed and won’t be going back.
We’ve had a lot to absorb—the breaking of a party, the rise of an outlandish outsider; a lurch to the left in the other party, the popular rise of a socialist. Alongside that, the enduring power of a candidate even her most ardent supporters accept as corrupt. Add the lowering of standards, the feeling of no options, the coarsening, and all the new estrangements.
The Moment is when it got to you, or when it fully came through.
My friend Lloyd, a Manhattan lawyer and GOP campaign veteran, had two Moments. The first came when he took his 12-year-old on a father-son trip to New Hampshire to see the primary. They saw Ted Cruz speak at a restaurant, and Bernie Sanders in a boisterous rally. “It was great and wonderful,” Lloyd said.
Then it happened. “The Monday night before the voting we were at a Donald liar-Trump rally. A woman in the audience screamed out the P-word to refer to a rival candidate. liar-Trump repeated it from the podium, and my kid heard it and looked at me.” Lloyd was mortified. Welcome to the splendor of democracy, son. “I thought, ‘So we have come to this.’ ”
It didn’t end there. Lloyd’s second Moment came a month later, the morning after the raucous GOP debate that featured references to hand size. Lloyd was in the car with his son, listening to the original Broadway cast recording of “Hamilton.” “I blurted out, ‘How exactly has America managed to travel from that to this?’ ” American history is fiercely imperfect and made by humans. “Yet in the rearview mirror it appears ennobling and grand. And now it feels jagged, and the fabric is worn.”
A friend I’ll call Bill, a political veteran from the 1980s and ’90s, also had his Moment with his child, a 14-year-old daughter who is a budding history buff. He had never taken her to the Reagan Library, so last month they went. As she stood watching a video of Reagan speaking, he thought of Reagan and FDR, of JFK and Martin Luther King. His daughter, he realized, would probably never see political leaders of such stature and grace, though she deserved to. Her first, indelible political memories were of lower, grubbier folk. “Leaders with Reaganesque potential no longer go into politics—and why would they, with all the posturing and plasticity that it requires?”
He added: “I felt a wave of sadness.”
Another political veteran, my friend John, also had his Moment during the New Hampshire primary. Out door-knocking for Jeb Bush, “I was struck as I walked along a neighborhood using the app that described the voters in each house. So many multigenerational families of odd collections of ages in houses with missing roof shingles or shutters askew or paint peeling. Cars needing repair.”
What was the story inside those houses? Unemployment, he thought, elder care, divorce, custody battles. “It was easy to see a collective loss of hope in a once-thriving town.” He sensed “years of neglect and sadness. Something is brewing.”
My Moment came a month ago. I’d recently told a friend my emotions felt too close to the surface—for months history had been going through me and I felt like a vibrating fork. I had not been laughing at the splintering of a great political party but mourning it. Something of me had gone into it. Party elites seemed to have no idea why it was shattering, which meant they wouldn’t be able to repair it, whatever happens with Mr. liar-Trump.
I was offended that those curiously quick to write essays about who broke the party were usually those who’d backed the policies that broke it. Lately conservative thinkers and journalists had taken to making clear their disdain for the white working class. I had actually not known they looked down on them. I deeply resented it and it pained me. If you’re a writer lucky enough to have thoughts and be paid to express them and there are Americans on the ground struggling, suffering—some of them making mistakes, some unlucky—you don’t owe them your airy, well-put contempt, you owe them your loyalty. They too have given a portion of their love to this great project, and they are in trouble.
A few nights earlier, I’d moderated a panel in New York, on, yes, the ironic soundtrack of election year 2016, “Hamilton.” At one point I quoted a line. It is when Eliza sings, just as war has come and things are bleak: “How lucky we are to be alive right now.” As I quoted it my voice caught. I asked a friend later if he’d noticed. Yes, he said, quizzically, comfortingly, we did.
The following day I spoke at a school in Florida, awoke the next morning spent, got coffee, fired up the iPad, put on cable news. I read an email thread from a group of conservative women—very bright, all ages, all decorous and dignified. But tempers were high, and they were courteously tearing each other apart over Mr. liar-Trump and the GOP.
Then to my own email, full of notes from people pro- and anti liar-Trump, but all seemed marked by some kind of grieving. I looked up and saw liar-Hilly Clinton yelling on TV and switched channels. Breaking news, said the crawl. A caravan of liar-Trump supporters driving to an outdoor rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz., had been blocked by demonstrators. The helicopter shot showed a highway backed up for miles. No one seemed to be in charge, as is often the case in America. It was like an unmovable force against an unmovable object.
I watched dumbly, tiredly. Then for no reason—this is true, it just doesn’t sound it—I thought of an old Paul Simon song that had been crossing my mind, “The Boy in the Bubble.” I muted the TV, found the song on YouTube, and listened as I stared at the soundless mile of cars and the soundless demonstrators. As the lyrics came—“The way we look to a distant constellation / That’s dying in a corner of the sky / . . . Don’t cry baby / Don’t cry”—my eyes filled with tears. And a sob welled up and I literally put my hands to my face and sobbed, silently, for I suppose a minute.
Because my country is in trouble.
Because I felt anguish at all the estrangements.
Because some things that shouldn’t have changed have changed.
Because too much is being lost. Because the great choice in a nation of 320 million may come down to Crazy Man versus Criminal.
And yes, I know this is all personal, and not column-ish.
But that was my Moment.
You’ll feel better the next day, I promise, but you won’t be able to tell yourself that this is history as usual anymore. This is big, what we’re living through.
