Ann Althouse links to a George Will piece on Gov. Burgum, who is running for the Republican nomination for president. I'm not sure I regard George Will as a source of wisdom anymore, but I admit I do like what I am reading here.
Discussing governance with Burgum is like conversing with a Gatling gun. It involves a rapid-fire fusillade of his achievements (e.g., cutting $1.7 billion from his state’s $6 billion general fund) and aspirations (e.g., ending irrational immigration policies that enable Canada to poach high-skilled immigrants whose U.S. visas have expired).
The 2024 presidential election will, he thinks, be decided in 20 counties in seven swing states. Rural areas are red, metropolitan areas are blue, and the decisive demographic will be college-educated suburban women.
Dare I like anyone? I am weary.
2 comments:
College-indoctrinated suburban women are addicted to the Politics of Nice, and no amount of coaxing will get them to vote for a Republican, whether it's a green-eye-shade type like Burgum or a culture warrior like DeSantis. The people moving the GOP direction are working-class non-whites. The GOP will struggle until it gets comfortable with that situation.
Youth is not interested in the wisdom of old guys like you and I, supposing we have any, so we may be excused for not worrying overmuch about evils we will not live to see. We naturally fear for our children and their posterity, but we must have faith that they will cope at least as well as we have. I began worrying about the Federal debt more than forty years ago. I now know that we will never restrain ourselves. Someday, external factors will restrain us, and that will be a day of extreme and bewildering pain. I began worrying about twenty years ago. I now strongly suspect we are incapable of bringing it under control. I don't respect politicians who promise to favor skilled immigrants, since their time horizon is far too short. Skills last only a lifetime, intelligence and drive a few generations. What you have in the long term is a diverse population riven by even more lines of division than a homogenous population (which can find plenty to divide).
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