The end is nigh, again?
Make room for a little optimism
FOR MEMBERS of whatever it is that now constitutes the American right—Reaganites, neocons, populists, election deniers—doomsday placards have been in vogue for years.
Same for the political left, whose placards decry the establishment of The Handmaid’s Tale-on-Earth via Dobbs.
But despite its current Jell-O-like state, the American right, sans Donald Trump, has a chance to coalesce and prove a powerful alternative to the left’s cultural hegemony and further reduce the influences of each parties’ extremes.
Charles Lipson, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago, sees reason for optimism following a two-year run that left many Americans wondering what hit ’em.
“Why the optimism amid the gloom? The most important reason is that our country and its constitutional arrangements have survived the shocks and ideological battering of the past few years and that the trouble now seems to be receding,” he writes for The Spectator. “Second, voters are telling both parties they don’t support the most extreme candidates, those whose platforms stress grievance, revenge, and dramatic change.”
Professor Lipson notes the impact of 2020 election deniers’ recent congressional defeats and the vulnerability of their “tribune,” Mr. Trump, who now has cost the GOP winnable seats and a Senate majority in consecutive cycles.
Fact is, rank-and-file Republicans and independents are beginning to understand what it means, long-term, to align with Trump.
And the left’s overplayed hands on issues like education, immigration and crime portend opportunity. If only the GOP can grasp it.
For its part, Democratic leadership has managed to quell the party’s far-left fringe and is no longer advocating for ridiculous ideas like defunding the police. That’s a net gain, even as the Biden White House seems intent on continuing its cycle of spend and regulate, spend and regulate.
But optimism abounds, the professor notes, in the Supreme Court’s reining in of excessive executive rulemaking “untethered to duly passed laws,” as well as the American-led West’s slow and measured response to Putin’s War, which could have (and could still) fly off the rails.
Wiser heads are prevailing, the professor says. For now.
“There is no guarantee they will continue to do so. The pressures would surely grow if there were a sharp economic downturn. But America’s future is far brighter than its critics on the left and right say. That is the message voters are sending both parties. They know there is much ruin in a nation, but they are not eager to find out just how much.”
Like Rome, American critics have long believed our institution would crumble from within. But it may yet prove more resilient than even its own current practitioners expect.