This is Ron DeSantis Presidential Launch Infrastructure Week. The governor of Florida has a new book out, which like almost every presidential campaign book ever written reads like cement sneakers, according to The New York Times (which would probably say that even if it didn’t). There is a sudden effulgence of op-eds evaluating his character and prospects. He has been endorsed by Jeb Bush, one of the most thoughtful politicians I’ve known—it seems a sadly desperate, hey-folks-I’m-Still-Here sort of act, but anything to hurt Trump…Meanwhile DeSantis has begun a low-key barnstorming tour of the nation, cozying funders, trying to establish that he is not animatronic (apparently a difficult process) and rides the road like Trump, only in a minivan rather than a Harley. He is formidable on paper. He actually governs. His response to Hurricane Ian was solid. His Covid policies seem less wacky now than when he proposed them—especially keeping the schools open and not going mandate-crazy—with the foolish exception of vaccine mandates, which he refused to impose. His latter-day libertarianism is a dangerous precedent: some mandates—seat-belts, polio vaccine, traffic lights, taxes, entitlements and whatever the next awful pandemic may impose upon us—are necessary to keep a society coherent.
But that’s the point about DeSantis. He has a very finely honed sense of what the traffic will bear, especially when it comes to the culture wars. On a cosmic-political level, he is signaling bigotry—but when you get down to the details, he’s just this side of nasty. I celebrate the legalization of homosexuality, including gay marriage, which has eliminated thousands of years of needless human suffering. BUT, I’m not sure I want my granddaughters taught about “gender fluidity” in elementary school. At the same time, the history of American racism needs to be taught in all its vomitous horror, especially enslavement, reconstruction, redemption and Jim Crow. BUT, education doesn’t mean indoctrination, and John McWhorter makes a strong case that DeSantis may have been right to force a liberalization—in the classic sense—of the proposed Advanced Placement Black Studies curriculum. DeSantis’s most recent sally, Florida House Bill 999, seems to be an overreach, if Michelle Goldberg is right: Even though much of academia has become an intolerant left-wing fever swamp, there shouldn’t be bars to anything being taught, including gender studies and critical race theory, at the college level. (Although I’m with DeSantis when it comes to abolishing the campus Diversity Police; any racial or gender or ethnic nose-counting bureaucracy should be verboten.)
In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, Black Studies should be a required course in every American high school—a case study in how our country could, simultaneously, be a brilliant experiment in human freedom and a barbaric example of human cruelty. It is a great way to teach critical thinking. Teenagers need to work their way through the essential conundrum of Thomas Jefferson, our least admirable founder—a man who composed some of the greatest sentences ever written about democracy, but left instructions to sell his slaves, some of whom were his own children, to pay off debts after his death.
Back to DeSantis: He does overstep. Sending refugees to Martha’s Vineyard was slimy—and I loved how the Island’s residents welcomed the newcomers. I do not know how well he’ll do when the campaign begins. Trump will pummel him—DeSanctimonious is just an appetizer. DeSantis will have to show toughness; at the very least, that he doesn’t have a glass jaw. He also needs to demonstrate that he can connect with actual humans, and not just bigots who take his signaling to mean that he wants to tuck it to Blacks and gays and the Vineyard elites. His stump speech will need to sound less cardboard than his book. But he is an interesting test of our ability to assimilate nuance: to react as John McWhorter did to DeSantis’s criticism of the Black Studies curriculum. Call it: when good policies are proposed by bad people.
Here’s another example: Jim Jordan is a disgrace. I don’t like anything about him—not his disrespect for our democracy by refusing to wear a jacket, not his dissembling about the sexual abuse problem in wrestling and certainly not his attempts to “prove” that institutions like the FBI have been “politicized.” BUT, I do think it’s a good idea for Republicans—and an even better idea for Democrats—to take a look at the civil service system. This is another conundrum: You don’t want federal employees who are unaccountable, protected by the dual shackles of civil service and public employees unions. But you also don’t want, to coin a phrase, a politicized bureaucracy like the 19th century spoils system that created the need for civil service in the first place. I’m sure Abraham Lincoln appointed some very fine postmasters…and also more than a few duds. I’m also fairly certain that he hated every moment the spoils system took his attention away from the civil war. There must be a middle way!
A Couple of Other Things
Principles First
Speaking of middle ways, I’m a big fan of The Bulwark, the No Labels movement, the Third Way organization…and especially the bipartisan For Country caucus in the House, composed of post-9/11 veterans. (Caveat Lector: I’ve given time and money to With Honor, the political action committee that helps fund the military candidates who agree to join the caucus). And I wish I could attend the Principles First Summit being staged by some of those groups in Washington this weekend. Alas, I cannot. Key West beckons. But it will be interesting to see if this particular Sanity Caucus gains as much attention as the rancid clown-car stupidity of CPAC, which also will be held this weekend.
Jim Abourezk, RIP
He was a good man, an old-fashioned prairie populist from South Dakota, the first Arab-American to serve in the US Senate. Back in 1979, he inserted into the Congressional Record a piece I wrote about the Middle East for Rolling Stone. It was the beginning of my wayward lifetime stroll through the Holy Land; my attempt to believe passionately in the state of Israel while hoping for an accompanying state of Palestine. Talk about conundrums! For a long time, the Palestinians seemed the main roadblock to a two-state solution; more recently, it’s been the Israelis. I’d still like to see two-states. I suspect I’m pretty much a minority in that these days. But thank you, Senator Abourezk, for your patriotic service to our country.
Political Idea of the Day
All hail Greg Craig for this op-ed in the Times, proposing that Joe Biden do in 2024 what FDR did in 1944: If he runs again, he should turn the selection of his Vice President over to the Democratic National Convention. This won’t happen, but think of the fun if it did. It would provide the party with some necessary drama in a year when the Republicans will be getting all the attention. It would provide an escape hatch for the party from Kamala Harris—or perhaps not, if she could mount an inspiring campaign for continuity. Given that Biden is ancient and might not survive to age 86 with a full set of marbles—although he seems to be doing just fine right now—it would provide the party with a hand in selecting his successor. The show would probably remain under the surreptitious control of the Biden political operatives in any case. But beware: this is the sort of idea that political reporters love when they don’t have anything else to write about.
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I'd like to see a 2 state solution too. Surprised we're in the minority. Thank you for the info about FDR. Wow! would love to see that happen. Great newsletter.