This is a really well-written piece. Congratulations to Mr. Klein for writing it and for his refreshing perspective on the events of our strange times.
For me, there are far more differences within any generation than between any two generations of the same general era.
Clinton was a wholly self-made man, brilliant, exceptionally well-informed, and able to explain complicated topics in a way that everyone could understand. He also had wit. Yes, he had personal weaknesses, but they did not affect his work until his political adversaries exploited them against him ruthlessly for their own political gain. Ken Starr will live in infamy as a prurient, wicked, overzealous prosecutor, bent on inflicting public disgrace upon our country's President.
Since then, woke progressives have drawn from the same playbook to harm their own preferred targets.
George W. Bush was likely a decent, good-natured, and hearty man, but he allowed his disdain (hatred?) of Hussein to overwhelm his better judgment. I did not vote for him, but I rallied to him right after September 11, 2001. His immediate response to that event was inspired and radiated dignified strength. I never understood his Administration's subsequent rush to bring a war against Hussein, who at the time was a sitting-duck tyrant and demonstrably had no connection to Al Queda, nor any ability or intent to harm the US. That much I understood back then, as did many others.
That war undermined G.W. Bush's Presidency and diminished Mr. Bush personally. Since then, he has shown a strong character and made good sense when he has spoken from time to time. Putin never would have marched on Ukraine, nor Netanyahu against all of Israel's neighbors, if our country had a President like G.W. Bush to prevent them by acts, not words or threats. (PS: Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, who is a moderate, Jewish economist, recently wrote that the US and Israel have emerged as "rogue states." The most fanatical, irrational enemies of Israel never did so much harm to that country as has Mr. Netanyahu. If Israel had used targeted, proportional tactics against Hamas and others who attacked it, the world would have supported it. Instead, Mr. Netanyahu came along and succeeded at transforming Israel into a pariah state directly after it suffered the worst atrocity in its history. It takes a special kind of talent to be such a ruinously poor, immoral leader.)
Donald Trump is refreshingly candid, but hopelessly ignorant and fading fast during his dotage. Above all, he is a glutton for power and riches, who apparently cannot be sated. But he seems to grasp when he has gone too far and has an admirable ability to reverse course without batting an eye, as he appears to have done with ICE, the slush fund for his cronies, and now the utterly misguided war against Iran. If that is TACO politics, it is better than staying the course when the course is ruinous.
I, for one, do not want a nicer version of Trump's politics, nor wish to have JD Vance serve as President, no matter how impressive he might have seemed on past occasion.
Instead, I would prefer an American version of Peter Magyar, who recently defeated the autocrat Victor Orban in Hungary: emphatically and openly, Prime Minister Magyar is not woke, and he is resolved to restore rule of law, the balance of powers, an independent judiciary, and the essential civil liberties. He also favors free trade, free markets, and closer integration of Hungary with a reformed EU that chooses which immigrants to admit according to their ability to contribute to its various economies. I want someone with that mindset to serve as our chief executive, and I want a bipartisan congress or a blocked one that, if nothing else, re-asserts Congress's preeminent role in our constitutional republic.
I do not want any one man, President or otherwise, declaring and starting wars or threatening them in every direction without public support, sufficient cause, or Congress's informed consent and approval. That is a core part of Congress's duties, not a Presidential prerogative. May Mike Johnson, John Thune, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries likewise be remembered as stammering cowards who lacked mettle or good sense during a time of constitutional crisis.
Nor do I want what the Democrats seem to be offering: some offer poll-tested fluff, and others dangerous populist nonsense, such as unreasonably hindering the development of AI, scapegoating "the rich" and taxing them punitively while continuing to subvert our schools and universities with a pernicious, idiotic ideology. In the bargain, they exude an infuriating Puritanical disdain for those who oppose their nonsense.
Lastly, our modern Democrats have a remarkable talent for sounding the wrong notes at the worst time, such as proposing (passing?) a law in New York State that obliges laws and regulations to be re-written to replace the terms "father" and "mother" with "gestating people" and "non-gestating people." Those kinds of laws are noxious and augur horrible policies and choices. Nor could those proposing them possibly be more tone-deaf to most people pretty much everywhere in the world. What is wrong with them?
If I must choose between Democrats or Trumpists, I will vote only to check them both.
I still believe that most Americans yearn to have opportunities to succeed by their work and talents. Alas, our system of gerrymandering and campaign contributions has yielded us mediocre crackpots of the worst variety. What kind of country offers these kinds of politicians to its people as their only meaningful choices?
Maybe Progressive puritans and ruthless Republican operatives like Ken Starr have chased away all talented people from seeking or holding public office. If Al Franken can be run out of the Senate for a mirthful joke taken in a photo, then Lord help us recruit the best and brightest to apply their talents to public offices.
Even so, America and the world will continue on. Let's hope our various "leaders" do not ruin us all.
Both parties face the challenge of how to properly corral the dynamics of resentment and fear. The Democrats have their obsessions about climate (legit, to be sure), Gaza and equity, the Republicans continue to hate everyone except their core tribe. Everyone is nervous about AI and social media and the war between the sexes and this growing miasma of pessimism. Myself, I blame the decline of magazines.
For the Democrats, the key is to slowly let go of their obsession with identity, becoming the kind of broad based coalition they were in the '70s when Democrats could credibly represent people in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Nebraska, the Dakotas and the hills of Pennsylvania. The easy thing is to convince people that Trump doesn't care about them; the harder challenge is to convince them that the other party does. I think the party has made some encouraging steps toward moderating in places like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and, yes, Virginia - the question remains whether the Big Blue mayors that the media is so determined to turn into rock stars will undermine the brand to such an extent that the Slotkins and Spanburgers of the country cannot get lift off.
The Republicans face a much bigger challenge: they have embraced so much corruption, cruelty and lawlessness -not to mention economic insanity- that they are going to have to have their butts handed to them in numerous election cycles before they begin to rebuild a party that can embrace the likes of Adam Kinzinger and the Bulwark crowd. In this, as in so many things, their great salvation will likely be some other dumb idea generated by the leftist intelligentsia that will be embraced by the elite and rejected by the masses. The problem for the Republicans is they have all the preachers, the problem for the Democrats is they have most of the academics.
As for our generation, the story is still not over. We can still play a role in explaining to the younger generation that they need to be more tolerant, by voting enthusiastically against this emerging generation of abrasive voices (looking at you, Jamaal Bowman), finding and electing leaders who are, well, sane. Like Barney Frank, I hope we can stay in the mix and speaking truth until we, too, are informed "the gentlemens' time has expired."
Joe I love you to pieces, but Trumpism without Trump might have been a real triumph—no Iran war, no ICE raids. no thugs at FBI, Defense or DHS, no Bobby Kennedy, no vengeance, no gleeful evil….Where would we be now?
Hence the key word this week is perspective.
First, what Iran War? A war is when 58,000 US solders die in Vietnam. Ice Raid? Two protestors getting smack in the way of an Ice Operation? What thugs at the FBI? What thugs at the Defence Dept? What thugs at the DHS? Whats Bobby Kennedy done to derserve that snide remark? I can find some well derserved vengence on people like Comey, Lititia James and John Bolton.
Gleeful evil???? You've got me there. I had no idea that the word perspective had been taken out of the dictionary. Or maybe Joe missed it. So lets all chip in this week for Joes new dictionary complete with the word perspective, so the above will never happen again.
Jeez, Gerard. Trump announced a war with great fanfare. His and Israel's bombings were responsible for thousands of deaths--or is only war when WE suffer great losses. He declared victory numerous times. He lost because he had absolutely no sense of history, strategy or tactics. We will feel the impacts of his failure for years to come, in our dealings with the rest of the world--the countries we need that no longer respect us, no longer fear us, may no longer trust us. And in the disastrous effects Trump's tariffs and inflation has had on the economy. To say nothing of the decline in morale and preparedness in the military. But of course you know so much more than I do...it's a wonder that you waste your time reading me.
Joe, another insightful post. I’m September 15. I had forgotten that you were older. Many of us thought we would bring forth a kinder, gentler and more just world. We have failed to leave our country as much better off for our children and grandchildren as we had hoped. But as we have learned over the past 80 years, the pendulum continues to swing and we may yet see better times.
Happy upcoming b’day! Given your wont for radical centrism — and its implicit values — I’m not surprised you’d fancy a kinder, gentler form of Trumpism. This Adminstration did swing the pendulum when it comes to immigration and “identarian” politics. However, Trumpism has been so draconian, so shambolic, so corrupt that it’ll be discredited in any of its forms by 2028. (Yes, I’ll save you the time, Joe, of reminding me that Trump 1.0 was still Trump in 2024 — and won.) Plus, these tiresome culture wars issues will subside to the more potent matter of income inequality.
Clinton did a fair amount of good, but made sure he had no one around him who might be smarter, he had to be the smartest man there. To a fair extent he was smarter than most, and better at using language to get out of difficulties, but he misread the moment where our defense was concerned, and assumed everything was over. Bush, was elected on getting taxes lowered and once that was achieved, he lacked a program or a reason to do much of anything, had 911 not happened, he might well have been a one term president. Trump, for better or worse, gets things done, in a Broadway stage manner. It is too early to judge his second term, alas.
Clinton was a terrific president. He had brilliant economic advisers like Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Roger Altman and Bo Cutter who helped him steer us to--absolutely amazing--a balanced budget! His foreign policy team was less adept, except for one small thing: They kept us out of war. Clinton had personal flaws aplenty, but he was one of the smartest people I've ever met.
It's obvious who grew up to be Alpha males and who grew up to be Beta's. President Trump is definitively an Alpha and we can thank God that is so. And Joe you are definitively a Beta (maybe a Delta) and we can thank God that you have no participation in the governance of our great United States of America other than your worthless and extensively ignored uninformed opinion.
A tally by Reuters reveals the scale: At least 470 people, organizations and institutions have been targeted for retribution since Trump took office – an average of more than one a day. Some were singled out for punishment; others swept up in broader purges of perceived enemies. The count excludes foreign individuals, institutions and governments, as well as federal employees dismissed as part of force reductions.
Explore the list of people and entities singled out for retribution by President Trump and his appointees
The Trump vengeance campaign fuses personal vendettas with a drive for cultural and political dominance, Reuters found. His administration has wielded executive power to punish perceived foes – firing prosecutors who investigated his bid to overturn the 2020 election, ordering punishments of media organizations seen as hostile, penalizing law firms tied to opponents, and sidelining civil servants who question his policies. Many of those actions face legal challenges.
I didn't read Reuters, but only 470? I was expecting that there would be more than that by now.
The big lie was that there wasn’t widespread election fraud in 2020. Jan. 6 was not a riot or an insurrection. It was a government false flag operation choreographed by government agent provocateurs and their Pravda media to paint their false narrative that Trump was trying to overthrow the results of the election
The corrupt Biden DOJ persecuted about 1,500 honest citizens and ruined a lot of lives. I’m glad we were able to re-elect President Trump to pardon them. Now Trump is forgoing his $1.8billion settlement with Biden’s corrupt IRS for leaking his tax returns to seed the anti-weaponization fund to compensate Jan. 6 defendants who were unjustly persecuted by Biden’s corrupt DOJ. It isn’t enough.
President Trump’s DOJ leadership is cleaning house and I hope presses charges against the corrupt Comey, Bannon and Clapper and others before the statute of limitations expire.
For all the idealism and hope we had during the 60s and early 70s, you would think we would have forged a far better legacy. We didn’t. Being now a seventy something, I have to claim complicity. How did we wrought something so low as UFC fight at the White House? Sigh.
Oh, I may not agree wholly with you at times, but I DO read — and learn. Thank you for continuing to grace us wth your intelligence, experience, and prose.
This is a really well-written piece. Congratulations to Mr. Klein for writing it and for his refreshing perspective on the events of our strange times.
For me, there are far more differences within any generation than between any two generations of the same general era.
Clinton was a wholly self-made man, brilliant, exceptionally well-informed, and able to explain complicated topics in a way that everyone could understand. He also had wit. Yes, he had personal weaknesses, but they did not affect his work until his political adversaries exploited them against him ruthlessly for their own political gain. Ken Starr will live in infamy as a prurient, wicked, overzealous prosecutor, bent on inflicting public disgrace upon our country's President.
Since then, woke progressives have drawn from the same playbook to harm their own preferred targets.
George W. Bush was likely a decent, good-natured, and hearty man, but he allowed his disdain (hatred?) of Hussein to overwhelm his better judgment. I did not vote for him, but I rallied to him right after September 11, 2001. His immediate response to that event was inspired and radiated dignified strength. I never understood his Administration's subsequent rush to bring a war against Hussein, who at the time was a sitting-duck tyrant and demonstrably had no connection to Al Queda, nor any ability or intent to harm the US. That much I understood back then, as did many others.
That war undermined G.W. Bush's Presidency and diminished Mr. Bush personally. Since then, he has shown a strong character and made good sense when he has spoken from time to time. Putin never would have marched on Ukraine, nor Netanyahu against all of Israel's neighbors, if our country had a President like G.W. Bush to prevent them by acts, not words or threats. (PS: Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, who is a moderate, Jewish economist, recently wrote that the US and Israel have emerged as "rogue states." The most fanatical, irrational enemies of Israel never did so much harm to that country as has Mr. Netanyahu. If Israel had used targeted, proportional tactics against Hamas and others who attacked it, the world would have supported it. Instead, Mr. Netanyahu came along and succeeded at transforming Israel into a pariah state directly after it suffered the worst atrocity in its history. It takes a special kind of talent to be such a ruinously poor, immoral leader.)
Donald Trump is refreshingly candid, but hopelessly ignorant and fading fast during his dotage. Above all, he is a glutton for power and riches, who apparently cannot be sated. But he seems to grasp when he has gone too far and has an admirable ability to reverse course without batting an eye, as he appears to have done with ICE, the slush fund for his cronies, and now the utterly misguided war against Iran. If that is TACO politics, it is better than staying the course when the course is ruinous.
I, for one, do not want a nicer version of Trump's politics, nor wish to have JD Vance serve as President, no matter how impressive he might have seemed on past occasion.
Instead, I would prefer an American version of Peter Magyar, who recently defeated the autocrat Victor Orban in Hungary: emphatically and openly, Prime Minister Magyar is not woke, and he is resolved to restore rule of law, the balance of powers, an independent judiciary, and the essential civil liberties. He also favors free trade, free markets, and closer integration of Hungary with a reformed EU that chooses which immigrants to admit according to their ability to contribute to its various economies. I want someone with that mindset to serve as our chief executive, and I want a bipartisan congress or a blocked one that, if nothing else, re-asserts Congress's preeminent role in our constitutional republic.
I do not want any one man, President or otherwise, declaring and starting wars or threatening them in every direction without public support, sufficient cause, or Congress's informed consent and approval. That is a core part of Congress's duties, not a Presidential prerogative. May Mike Johnson, John Thune, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries likewise be remembered as stammering cowards who lacked mettle or good sense during a time of constitutional crisis.
Nor do I want what the Democrats seem to be offering: some offer poll-tested fluff, and others dangerous populist nonsense, such as unreasonably hindering the development of AI, scapegoating "the rich" and taxing them punitively while continuing to subvert our schools and universities with a pernicious, idiotic ideology. In the bargain, they exude an infuriating Puritanical disdain for those who oppose their nonsense.
Lastly, our modern Democrats have a remarkable talent for sounding the wrong notes at the worst time, such as proposing (passing?) a law in New York State that obliges laws and regulations to be re-written to replace the terms "father" and "mother" with "gestating people" and "non-gestating people." Those kinds of laws are noxious and augur horrible policies and choices. Nor could those proposing them possibly be more tone-deaf to most people pretty much everywhere in the world. What is wrong with them?
If I must choose between Democrats or Trumpists, I will vote only to check them both.
I still believe that most Americans yearn to have opportunities to succeed by their work and talents. Alas, our system of gerrymandering and campaign contributions has yielded us mediocre crackpots of the worst variety. What kind of country offers these kinds of politicians to its people as their only meaningful choices?
Maybe Progressive puritans and ruthless Republican operatives like Ken Starr have chased away all talented people from seeking or holding public office. If Al Franken can be run out of the Senate for a mirthful joke taken in a photo, then Lord help us recruit the best and brightest to apply their talents to public offices.
Even so, America and the world will continue on. Let's hope our various "leaders" do not ruin us all.
Both parties face the challenge of how to properly corral the dynamics of resentment and fear. The Democrats have their obsessions about climate (legit, to be sure), Gaza and equity, the Republicans continue to hate everyone except their core tribe. Everyone is nervous about AI and social media and the war between the sexes and this growing miasma of pessimism. Myself, I blame the decline of magazines.
For the Democrats, the key is to slowly let go of their obsession with identity, becoming the kind of broad based coalition they were in the '70s when Democrats could credibly represent people in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Nebraska, the Dakotas and the hills of Pennsylvania. The easy thing is to convince people that Trump doesn't care about them; the harder challenge is to convince them that the other party does. I think the party has made some encouraging steps toward moderating in places like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and, yes, Virginia - the question remains whether the Big Blue mayors that the media is so determined to turn into rock stars will undermine the brand to such an extent that the Slotkins and Spanburgers of the country cannot get lift off.
The Republicans face a much bigger challenge: they have embraced so much corruption, cruelty and lawlessness -not to mention economic insanity- that they are going to have to have their butts handed to them in numerous election cycles before they begin to rebuild a party that can embrace the likes of Adam Kinzinger and the Bulwark crowd. In this, as in so many things, their great salvation will likely be some other dumb idea generated by the leftist intelligentsia that will be embraced by the elite and rejected by the masses. The problem for the Republicans is they have all the preachers, the problem for the Democrats is they have most of the academics.
As for our generation, the story is still not over. We can still play a role in explaining to the younger generation that they need to be more tolerant, by voting enthusiastically against this emerging generation of abrasive voices (looking at you, Jamaal Bowman), finding and electing leaders who are, well, sane. Like Barney Frank, I hope we can stay in the mix and speaking truth until we, too, are informed "the gentlemens' time has expired."
@ Curtis Chase. Wonderful commentary. Thank you.
Joe I love you to pieces, but Trumpism without Trump might have been a real triumph—no Iran war, no ICE raids. no thugs at FBI, Defense or DHS, no Bobby Kennedy, no vengeance, no gleeful evil….Where would we be now?
Hence the key word this week is perspective.
First, what Iran War? A war is when 58,000 US solders die in Vietnam. Ice Raid? Two protestors getting smack in the way of an Ice Operation? What thugs at the FBI? What thugs at the Defence Dept? What thugs at the DHS? Whats Bobby Kennedy done to derserve that snide remark? I can find some well derserved vengence on people like Comey, Lititia James and John Bolton.
Gleeful evil???? You've got me there. I had no idea that the word perspective had been taken out of the dictionary. Or maybe Joe missed it. So lets all chip in this week for Joes new dictionary complete with the word perspective, so the above will never happen again.
Jeez, Gerard. Trump announced a war with great fanfare. His and Israel's bombings were responsible for thousands of deaths--or is only war when WE suffer great losses. He declared victory numerous times. He lost because he had absolutely no sense of history, strategy or tactics. We will feel the impacts of his failure for years to come, in our dealings with the rest of the world--the countries we need that no longer respect us, no longer fear us, may no longer trust us. And in the disastrous effects Trump's tariffs and inflation has had on the economy. To say nothing of the decline in morale and preparedness in the military. But of course you know so much more than I do...it's a wonder that you waste your time reading me.
Wouldn't miss it for quids.
Joe, another insightful post. I’m September 15. I had forgotten that you were older. Many of us thought we would bring forth a kinder, gentler and more just world. We have failed to leave our country as much better off for our children and grandchildren as we had hoped. But as we have learned over the past 80 years, the pendulum continues to swing and we may yet see better times.
Happy upcoming b’day! Given your wont for radical centrism — and its implicit values — I’m not surprised you’d fancy a kinder, gentler form of Trumpism. This Adminstration did swing the pendulum when it comes to immigration and “identarian” politics. However, Trumpism has been so draconian, so shambolic, so corrupt that it’ll be discredited in any of its forms by 2028. (Yes, I’ll save you the time, Joe, of reminding me that Trump 1.0 was still Trump in 2024 — and won.) Plus, these tiresome culture wars issues will subside to the more potent matter of income inequality.
How exactly is the greatest President and political movement in our lifetime corrupt?
Clinton did a fair amount of good, but made sure he had no one around him who might be smarter, he had to be the smartest man there. To a fair extent he was smarter than most, and better at using language to get out of difficulties, but he misread the moment where our defense was concerned, and assumed everything was over. Bush, was elected on getting taxes lowered and once that was achieved, he lacked a program or a reason to do much of anything, had 911 not happened, he might well have been a one term president. Trump, for better or worse, gets things done, in a Broadway stage manner. It is too early to judge his second term, alas.
Clinton was a terrific president. He had brilliant economic advisers like Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Roger Altman and Bo Cutter who helped him steer us to--absolutely amazing--a balanced budget! His foreign policy team was less adept, except for one small thing: They kept us out of war. Clinton had personal flaws aplenty, but he was one of the smartest people I've ever met.
Bill Clinton was the only Democrat presidential candidate for whom I ever voted. It just goes to show that I've been 100% correct in my choices.
It's obvious who grew up to be Alpha males and who grew up to be Beta's. President Trump is definitively an Alpha and we can thank God that is so. And Joe you are definitively a Beta (maybe a Delta) and we can thank God that you have no participation in the governance of our great United States of America other than your worthless and extensively ignored uninformed opinion.
Mean spirited and sad comment, bless your heart.
Trump was never an Alpha, and his anger about that fact fuels his revenge.
That's stupid. What revenge and against whom?
The list is long, and getting longer. If you have to ask that question, you are not paying attention.
That is even more stupid. Name one.
A tally by Reuters reveals the scale: At least 470 people, organizations and institutions have been targeted for retribution since Trump took office – an average of more than one a day. Some were singled out for punishment; others swept up in broader purges of perceived enemies. The count excludes foreign individuals, institutions and governments, as well as federal employees dismissed as part of force reductions.
Explore the list of people and entities singled out for retribution by President Trump and his appointees
The Trump vengeance campaign fuses personal vendettas with a drive for cultural and political dominance, Reuters found. His administration has wielded executive power to punish perceived foes – firing prosecutors who investigated his bid to overturn the 2020 election, ordering punishments of media organizations seen as hostile, penalizing law firms tied to opponents, and sidelining civil servants who question his policies. Many of those actions face legal challenges.
I didn't read Reuters, but only 470? I was expecting that there would be more than that by now.
The big lie was that there wasn’t widespread election fraud in 2020. Jan. 6 was not a riot or an insurrection. It was a government false flag operation choreographed by government agent provocateurs and their Pravda media to paint their false narrative that Trump was trying to overthrow the results of the election
The corrupt Biden DOJ persecuted about 1,500 honest citizens and ruined a lot of lives. I’m glad we were able to re-elect President Trump to pardon them. Now Trump is forgoing his $1.8billion settlement with Biden’s corrupt IRS for leaking his tax returns to seed the anti-weaponization fund to compensate Jan. 6 defendants who were unjustly persecuted by Biden’s corrupt DOJ. It isn’t enough.
President Trump’s DOJ leadership is cleaning house and I hope presses charges against the corrupt Comey, Bannon and Clapper and others before the statute of limitations expire.
So you don’t think that the country will turn hard left, huh? God, I hope you’re right, Joe! And “Happy 80!” come September. 😎
For all the idealism and hope we had during the 60s and early 70s, you would think we would have forged a far better legacy. We didn’t. Being now a seventy something, I have to claim complicity. How did we wrought something so low as UFC fight at the White House? Sigh.
Oh, I may not agree wholly with you at times, but I DO read — and learn. Thank you for continuing to grace us wth your intelligence, experience, and prose.
I'm a-comin'.