Debate Week Wednesday

And Sanity for Democrats

You’ve got to wonder about the Supreme Court. Are they holding off on their Trump decision until after tomorrow’s debate? Did they decide in favor of the Biden Administration’s right to pressure social networks today…so they can convey “balance” before ruling in favor of Trump (relatively; I can’t imagine them totally buying his immunity claim)? How are these decision days choreographed? Inquiring minds want to know. Am I overthinking this? Undoubtedly. Or maybe not.

All this on a day that was mostly good news for the Sanity Caucus. The best news, of course, is that Jamaal Bowman lost. It was also good news that John Avlon, a moderate, won his primary on Long Island. There was also good news from Utah, where Trumpers lost in the Republican primaries. And, apparently, we’ll still have Lauren Boebert to kick around—which is good news only in the sense that she’s a constant reminder how crude and demented so many Trump cultists are…But an Election Day like this may be a tiny sign that the left-right extremist fever is ebbing, that sanity may regain its rightful place in American politics. Or maybe not.

Jamaal Bowman was militantly terrible, but not all bad. I like the fact that he confronted Republican arms-fetishists like Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massie on gun control—and did so passionately. The Second Amendment fanatics fundamentally misread the intent of the founders, who wanted to enshrine the right of states to create militias, not the right of individuals to own semi-automatics. There is a corollary on the left, though: The founders opposed the establishment of a state religion, but not the violent separation of church and state. The posting of the 10 Commandments may be offensive to some, but it’s a reach to call unconstitutional. Teaching the Bible—arguably the most important book ever written—as philosophical tract or as literature shouldn’t be illegal, either. (Teaching it as science or actual history is ridiculous). Sanity dictates soft edges to hard disputes. But I digress.

Democratic Party voters did Joe Biden a real favor last night. He won’t have to field questions from the CNN moderators, or attacks from Trump, about whether he supports Jamaal Bowman in tomorrow’s debate. The rest of The Squad still exists, though, and remains an embarrassment to the majority of Democrats. It would be nice if several more of them lose, especially Cori Bush in St. Louis. But you have to wonder if Tuesday’s results will have an impact on Democratic Party politics in general—and especially on the assumption that you have to cater to the left if you want to win a presidential nomination. (Biden’s victory over Bernie et al in 2020 should have settled that for now, but the left is extremely pesky in its unreality.) The fire-up-the-base fallacy just doesn’t work for Dems, especially now that the people-of-color fallacy is collapsing: the black and Latino working class is slipping away. Identity politics can’t succeed when people no longer want to be identified—that is, defined by their ethnicity rather than merely celebrating it.

There is a super-highway in the middle of the American electorate waiting to be exploited by a non-extremist political party. The question is, are the Democrats that party? They are, by a process of elimination: The Republicans have decided that they’re not. But to be a true party of moderation, they have to shed some baggage:

1. They can be environmental advocates, but not extremists. They can’t mandate electric cars. They can favor drilling for oil and gas, for the moment.

2. They can be in favor of immigration, but not illegal immigration.

3. They can be egalitarians, but not equitarians. Equality of opportunity, not results.

4. They can favor abortion, but not the termination of viable fetuses unless the life of the mother is threatened.

5. They can be advocates for peace, but have to learn to love the military—and the discipline and spirit of service that the military embodies.

6. They can favor a cease fire in Gaza, but they can’t oppose Israel’s right to exist.

7. They have to care less about passing new government programs and care more about how existing programs are run.

8. They can support police reform—especially more training—but not defunding.

9. They can be in favor of higher salaries for teachers, especially merit pay for good ones, but teachers also have to be made accountable for their performance.

10. They have to respect the market, but maintain the safety net.

11. They have to stop thinking in terms of identity, and start celebrating individuality.

12. They can’t go around saying, as Bowman did last night, that America is a “sick society.” If it is, every society is.

13. They have to pledge allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands.

14. They have to renew the American spirit of optimism.

That’s not too much to ask. Or maybe not.

Random TV Thoughts

—I’m really glad there’s a fourth season of Babylon Berlin and a third of The Bear.

—Sort of disappointed in Presumed Innocent, not sure why…maybe I’m just uncomfortable seeing Peter Skaarsgard playing a jerk.

—Watch out for the new version of Rebus (though I did love Ken Stott in the role), currently showing on BBC.

—David E. Kelly is a genius…except, maybe, for Presumed Innocent…but maybe that series will come alive in court, as the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer did.

—Kenneth Branagh is brilliant as Boris Johnson in This England.

—Sanity Goddess is disappointed there won’t be a third season of Tokyo Vice.

Pitch

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