#WTH The moral rot of American politics

And a little silver lining

Two weeks ago, the Right erupted in controversy over The Heritage Foundation’s president refusing to distance himself from Tucker Carlson, and Tucker’s new best mate, White supremacist Nick Fuentes. It was heartening to see people like Ted Cruz lay it on the line, and explain that conservative values don’t extend to antisemitism and bigotry. Nor was he alone.

Then again, there was Vice President JD Vance seeking, like Heritage President Kevin Roberts, to split the difference — embrace Tucker (instrumental in securing JD the Veep job) while denouncing Fuentes. And tossing in a little antisemitism of his own, because… apparently the public demands it, or something.

Lest you think I’m taking off on my team alone, read on. Because among the other disgraces roiling like sewage in a septic tank, there was Congressman Chuy Garcia, who rigged the announcement of his retirement so as to advantage his own chief of staff, excluding any other comers for his seat. And when this bit of anti-democratic sleaze was denounced by a fellow Democrat, fell to accusing the one honest D in the room of disloyalty to the party.

Not enough? How about New York Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani making his first endorsement? Who? “Palestine” fanboy Aber Awas, for a local assemblyman position. In addition to the requisite antisemitic bona fides that elevated Mamdani to new heights, Awas has also hinted that the US was asking for the 9/11 attacks.

What else? Trump henchmen making side deals with Russia? Democrats getting governing advice from Jeffrey Epstein? Journalists advising the Democratic Party? Journalists conniving with Jeffrey Epstein? How about Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Ahhh, MJT. She is the poster child for everything that is wrong with American politics today. I’d say that MJT is a conspiracist, an antisemite, a bigot, and a troll. But that elevates a simple truth: She is an idiot. And when someone is an idiot — they’re not unknown in DC — the right call is to let them idiot on their own. But noooo, first Donald Trump had to abandon her publicly, and in his own signature fashion. But then the Left had to embrace her. The dingbats of The View,CNN, the Leftist industrial media machine fell in love. And if that’s not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is.

Wasn’t it always so, but just without X and TikTok? The answer is no. There were people with integrity, who didn’t leave office richer than when they entered. Of course there were partisans, and thieves, bigots, and haters. But there were more people like Dick Cheney.

At the Cheney funeral, to which I was genuinely honored to be invited, we heard tribute after tribute to the fundamental patriotism, honor, and decency of the man. He served because that’s what patriotic Americans do. He loved his family without reservation, because that’s what good men do. And while there are many who despise whom they believe to be the man, that is largely because the media that is now celebrating Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t much like him. But he didn’t care.

We need more Cheneys, fewer Greenes. And if you want to know why I haven’t been writing much recently, it’s because I am genuinely at a loss to figure out how we get back to something better.

American democracy is deeply imperfect, but it remains the best thing on offer. So too are the American people, Mamdani and Tucker notwithstanding. But we are at a perilous moment in our Republic, moving to our second 250 years with some confusion about what matters and why we matter. I’m not sure that I found all the answers to what I was looking for in the speech I’m about to share, but AEI’s annual Kristol Award winner and speaker this year was the great historian of the American Revolution Gordon S. Wood.

Wood is no spring chicken, but you’d never know it from his soaring lecture or the freshness of his ideas. Read it here. Watch it here. And here’s a taste:

In Jefferson’s Declaration Lincoln found a solution to the great problem of American identity: how the great variety of individuals in America with all their diverse ethnicities, races, and religions could be brought together into a single nation. As Lincoln grasped better than anyone ever has, the Revolution and its Declaration of Independence offered us a set of beliefs that through the generations has supplied a bond that holds together the most diverse nation that history has ever known.

Since now the whole world is in the United States, nothing but the ideals coming out of the Revolution and their subsequent rich and contentious history can turn such an assortment of different individuals into the “one people” that the Declaration says we are. To be an American is not to be someone, but to believe in something. That is why we are at heart a credo nation, and that is why the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration next year is so important.