Non-Contradictory Angst

 

There are people I respect who believe that Trump is dangerously unfit to be president, that he probably would like to become our Duce, and that too many Republicans have wrongly abandoned their former beliefs in limited government, free trade, and America’s essential role in the world, making them unfit to govern. There are people I respect who believe that for all Trump’s personal failings, ignorance, and incompetence, he and the Republicans have done some needed and sometimes necessary things that have benefited the country.

There are people I respect who believe that too many Democrats’ embrace leftist dogmas, and favor radical identity politics and a general dangerously expansive statism, making them unfit to govern. There are people I respect who believe the Democrats are doing the necessary work of upholding norms, defending settled, law abiding illegal immigrants from mass deportations, and opposing Trump’s authoritarian tendencies.

These opinions are conflicting by not contradictory. All them can be true, and the saddening fact is that they are. Neither party is fit to govern or deserves the political allegiance of the citizens. People should accept political homelessness, favoring one party or the other on particular issues but not fully throwing in with either, and certainly not expecting too much from either. One would not want to encourage either bunch.

Elections This Week

 

Some people who dislike Trump are presenting the results from elections this week as a “wave” for the Democrats. I do not care for Trump either, but I do not think the elections were as significant or predictive politically as some are saying and hoping. In New York City a leftist Democrat defeated a less farther left Democrat for mayor. There was a Republican on the ballot, but it is fair to say the Republicans did not have a horse in that race. In New Jersey a Democrat won a race to succeed another Democrat against a Trumpist Republican who had tried once before and lost. Democrat voters in California voted the way their Democrat governor told them to. The main gain for the party was in Virginia where a Democrat will replace a term limited Repuiblican governor. That was no surprise since northern Virginia is home to many federal employees and others whose jobs depend on  the government who had reasons to be annoyed at Trump and the Republicans. It strikes me that all of this predicts very little about the elections next year and maybe nothing, and that Trump will ignore it. Trump needs to be taken down a peg, but it will have to happen in the courts, particularly the supreme court, rather than with the results from Tuesday.