Kamala Speaks, and Nixon Returns

The DNC happened, RFK Jr. endorsed Trump, and Ukraine went on the offensive.

The biggest political news event last week was, of course, the DNC. Unlike the Republican Party, the Democrats respect their former presidents and presidential nominees, which meant that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all got warm welcomes.

Perhaps some of us will live to see a day when the Republican Party once again celebrates George W. Bush (whose approval ratings hit a higher number during his tenure than any other president in most Americans’ lifetimes) and John McCain (who, unlike Donald Trump, literally knew what it meant to fight for his country). But the current Republican Party would rather be defined by the cringe-inducing spectacle of Kid Rock.

Where the RNC was gauche and silly, the DNC was slick and professional. (Although, as Haley Strack reported, the Republican National Convention did not have a monopoly on cringy influencers.) One of the best moments came during Bill Clinton’s speech, when he admonished his own party to treat their Republican neighbors with respect. He emphasized proud but civil disagreement, and insisted that demonizing one half of the country was not going to win the Democrats any elections. For his willingness not to engage in fan service – such as jokes about the size of opponents’ body parts – Clinton should be applauded by both sides. It is also notable that the man elected president in 1992 is younger, fitter, more capable, and sharper than both the current occupant of the White House and Donald Trump.

The Party of Freedom?

I will admit, I enjoyed seeing all the USA signs in the convention hall. The Democrats have had a patriotism problem for a long time, and it certainly feels like they are trying to take this head on. With Donald Trump complaining that America is in decline, and his supporters complaining that only one half of America is “real,” some Democrats sense an opportunity. Key figures within the party seem to understand just how wildly unpopular the Marcuse-esque “America is radically evil” talk from woke activists is. Not a single “pro-Palestine” speaker was allowed to hector the convention, and the 1968-style riots we were told to expect never materialized.

Some of it may have been cynical. Some of it may have been a façade. Some of it is meant in a different way than I would mean it. But conservatives should take a bit of a victory lap when Democrats are forced to spend their convention talking about tax cuts, freedom, the military, heartland values, cutting regulations which impede new housing construction, border security, and the greatest country on Earth, instead of transgender ideology, Black Lives Matter, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and abolishing the border. When Democrats must moderate and make nods towards the right, it indicates that the right is getting somewhere in the hearts and minds of voters.

Still, I’m with Rich Lowry. I will believe the Democrats are the party of freedom when they start handing out copies of The Road to Serfdom at the DNC. Or Capitalism and Freedom. Someday I will write a piece about the low-hanging fruit of freedom. It is easy for America to get more libertarian on issues like weed. It is much harder to get more libertarian on serious issues like housing and pharmaceutical regulation.

For the Democratic Party, abortion is the low-hanging fruit of libertarianism.[1]It is easy for them to be in favor of the libertarian position. When the Democratic Party wants to be libertarian on guns, healthcare, Social Security, corporate taxes, and education, I will have a lot more faith in their talk of freedom.

There was a lot of talk about abortion. We should expect nothing less at the first Democratic National Convention since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. In other news, the erstwhile Republican nominee appears to be turning towards his pro-choice roots, giving conservatives even more reason to believe that neither party represents them in 2024.

Kamala’s Speech

By most accounts, it was a good speech. She celebrated America, our culture, our military, our police. She said she supported Israel’s right to defend itself. She said she will not hesitate to take action to defend American interests against Iran. A lot of folks on the right want me to tell them it was a bad speech, under the theory that no Democrat can give a good speech, but it was not a bad speech. I am still not voting for her, but it was better than Trump’s 90-minute ramble.[2] I did not expect her to talk tough on Iran. I did not expect her to stand with Israel. But the fact that she was willing to disappoint the Hamas wing of her party made it a good speech.

There are warning signs that she may not be as strong in office on Israel and Iran as she sounded in her speech. For that matter, I am skeptical Donald Trump will be strong on Israel or Iran. But she beat my low expectations. I thought antisemitism anti-Zionism would have figured more heavily in the Democratic National Convention. However, the organizers kept a tight lid on the pro-Palestinian protestors, who did not turn out in nearly the numbers they had been expecting. Even AOC hugged Ruby Chen, the father of one of the hostages held by Hamas.

Harris’ speech sounded much better than the fare we are used to seeing from her in interviews. Gone were the vague, rambling sentences which end without ever becoming intelligible. It remains to be seen whether she can continue this trend, but if the rest of her campaign is like her acceptance speech she will do well in November.

Price Controls

In other news, Kamala Harris proposed an economically-inane solution to inflation which has been tried in every society for thousands of years and, despite failing every single time, remains popular: price controls. This news is two weeks old, but it is worth dwelling on for a moment for a couple of reasons.

First, it annoys me. I find this sort of economic demagoguery (including Biden’s “greedflation” and “shrinkflation”) personally offensive, perhaps because I am more bothered by economic issues than culture war battles. Given that almost no serious economist endorses them (Austan Goolsbee, of the Obama administration, said, “How are we back on this again?” and “Just stop. Seriously,” when asked whether the government should reconsider price controls),[3] that Harris has introduced this proposal suggests two possibilities.

1.       She genuinely believes they will work to curb inflation without causing shortages. In which case, we should seriously question the judgement and understanding of the woman running at the top of the Democratic ticket.

2.       She thinks Americans are, by and large, economically illiterate and will love this proposal because we think it will actually solve inflation without any terrible side effects. Sadly, that bet might pay off.

Which brings me to the second reason it is worth spending time on the price control proposal. Richard Nixon knew that the price controls he implemented would backfire in economically disastrous ways. He said so in his own words. But he also knew they would help him win the 1972 election, because voters would think that price controls would help the economy. In both cases, he was right. The resulting nearly economic mess managed to curb Americans’ appetite for price controls, but Milton Friedman said that when the majority of voters could no longer remember the 1970s, price controls would come back. Sadly, he may be right.

The party of price controls is not the party of freedom.

Ukraine Went into Kursk

After a period in which Russia had the upper hand, Ukraine advanced into Russia and captured Russian territory. If this gambit pays off for Ukraine, it will be seen as having turned the tide in the war. If it fails, it will be like Lee’s failed attempts to bring the fight to the North at Antietam and Gettysburg.

As a hawk, I proudly root for Ukraine. A lot of folks on the right don’t want to root for Ukraine these days, because they’ve been told by shameless pundits that Russia – a nation with lower church attendance than Portland, Oregon – is a champion of traditional Christian values. But the main reason parts of the right like to hate Ukraine these days is a gut-level “enemy of my enemy is my friend” fallacy. Zelensky did not come through for Trump in that perfect call in 2019, while Putin rarely has a harsh word for Trump. This is the same fallacy that causes some leftists to root for Hamas. Russia and Iran are engaged in heavy propaganda efforts to influence Americans to root against their own side. But the sad truth is that these efforts do not have to be all that good. Some people on both sides just want an excuse to believe that America and the West are the bad guys.

It is worth noting that Putin recently opened the Russian border to immigrants fleeing the West in search of “traditional values,” and many who loathe the porousness of America’s border cheered him.

RFK Jr. Endorsed Trump

RFK Jr. is a kook who has been anti-establishment his entire life. The fact that so many on the right are willing to overlook his climate activism is a sign of just how much Trump has broken any sense of consistency or coherence to right-wing politics. I was utterly unsurprised that RFK Jr. endorsed Trump, because the former is just rooting for chaos, and Trump is the craziest guy in the race other than him. Given that Trump (as far as we know) never set up a dead bear cub in Central Park on a bicycle, RFK Jr.’s exit makes the race mildly saner. His endorsement may help Trump at the margins, which could be important in swing states. But it is too soon to tell.

Until Next Week

This summer has been one of the most eventful periods in American politics in decades. Perhaps events will slow this coming fall. Depending on who wins and how they govern, America may finally have the return to normalcy a majority of the public has been craving for years. But we have ten weeks until the election, and a lot could happen between now and then.

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[1] Setting aside the argument (which I favor) that abortion curtails the freedom of the unborn child by terminating his or her life and therefore the pro-choice position isn’t “pro-freedom,” most libertarians are pro-choice and the pro-choice position is commonly understood to be more libertarian.

[2] That’s a low bar. I didn’t watch all of Trump’s speech, but I watched the “good part” where he talked about the assassination attempt. It wasn’t that good. Most people just wanted to believe it was good, because they were hoping he’d turned a corner. He hadn’t.

[3] In case anyone thought it was just “free market fundamentalists” at the Cato Institute who objected to price controls.