I’m a free subscriber to Andrew Sullivan’s Substack, and this week The Weekly Dish is “Wanted: an American Starmer.”
Because? Because it is so refreshing for Sullivan to read defeated Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s words as he leaves No. 10 Downing Street: “I wish [Sir Keir Starmer] and his family well.” And in return Starmer says:
I want to thank the outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, his achievement as the first British-Asian prime minister of our country.
Says Sullivan:
That’s what it takes to put a toxically divided country back on track toward liberal democracy, after a woundingly divisive period centered on Brexit.
But Wait! I thought that the big story of the Brit election was that the Reform Party came from nowhere to win 4 million votes.
Then there is Trump.
There is one reason and one reason only why this kind of conciliatory exchange cannot happen any time soon in America, and that is Donald J. Trump. With a mind warped by pathological and malignant narcissism, incapable of generosity or grace or fairness, Trump has dominated this country’s politics for almost a decade now. He has systematically corroded every democratic norm and institution: the rule of law, the process of elections, the integrity of the Supreme Court, the independence of the Justice Department, the peaceful nature of the transfer of power, and the reliability of our alliances around the world. And none of this damage has been done to advance any broad policy or meaningful agenda, but merely and solely to advance the narcissism and corruption of the president himself.
I guess I live in a different universe, because I would write that paragraph substituting “Joseph R. Biden” for “Donald J. Trump.” As in corroding elections, the Justice Department, lawfare, etc.
Then Sullivan goes on to say that nothing Trump has done has advanced “any broad policy or meaningful agenda.” Really? My vague impression is that Trump has been trying to help the ordinary middle class get back on track, by limiting imports and by limiting immigration.
Let me explain what is going on here. We start with the saying of far-white political philosopher Curtis Yarvin: “there is no politics without an enemy.”
In other words, between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer there is no mortal fight to the death. They are pals on the same Uniparty team. So it makes complete sense that, under the Tories, wokism flourished and people got arrested for using the wrong pronoun. Now, I wonder what they would say about Nigel Farage, head of Reform UK?
In the US we have a real politics. Democrats like Andrew Sullivan really believe that Trump is the enemy and that he intends to demolish everything that Democrats have built with loving hands over the last century. And Democrats like Andrew Sullivan completely overlook the illegal and unjust actions taken by Democrats in trying to keep Trump and populist nationalism down.
And we far-white deplorables are all coming to think: wow, the Democrats hate us; they really hate us. I have to admit that I don’t really think of Democrats as the enemy. I think of them as fools and knaves that are experiencing the disintegration of the Old Regime and they “cain’t stand it,” in the immortal words of American political philosopher Lina Lamont. But maybe I am naïve.
In France they have a real politics. In the late great elections for parliament, everybody ganged up on the Rassemblement National. Because it’s “far-right” and Literally Hitler. In other words, the lefties, the Commies, the Greens, and the globalist centrists all agree that Marine Le Pen is the enemy.
And if anyone thinks this is a Bad Thing, I can only repeat the words of Alistair MacIntyre that politics is civil war by other means. And he got it from Clausewitz.
But what is to be done? Sullivan says Democrats should nominate a moderate to run against Trump!
And the way to win against Trump is, it seems to me, similar: get a generic centrist Dem from a critical swing state, make sure he or she is competent and can make a good case and seems normal, and make them 20 years younger than Trump.
Excuse my French, but I thought that the whole idea of inserting Joe Biden into the 2020 election was that he was a moderate. And look how that turned out, with immigration and climate change going Full Speed Ahead.
A nice moderate Democrat does nothing for the ordinary middle-class deplorables that have rallied to Trump. What ordinary people want is a “return to normalcy.” That’s all they have ever wanted, going back to Warren G. Harding in 1920. And have Democrats ever offered it, Andrew? Because what Democrats believe in is “Change,” which means, when reduced to its essentials, that educated class people get to do exciting things with other peoples’ money.
And behind any Democratic presidential candidate is the vast array of NGOs and activists and culture warriors and peaceful protesters and lefty billionaires that add up to the Democratic Party. What do they want? They want Change.