‘FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn Tea Party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down.” So begins an article from Politico. Some of my colleagues have written requiems for the Tea Party. I’ll do a little requiem myself.

Back in the heyday of the Tea Party — 2010 or so — Lou Cannon told me something arresting. He had been covering American politics for many, many years. He was one of the top political reporters in the United States. And he said that the Tea Party was pretty much the first genuine grassroots movement he had seen. The Nixon people used to organize things, he said, and call them “grassroots” — but this was the real thing.

I will now quote the Politico article (and “Brandon” refers to Adam Brandon, the president of the late FreedomWorks):

After Trump took control of the conservative movement, Brandon said, a “huge gap” opened up between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members. FreedomWorks leaders, for example, still believed in free trade, small government, and a robust merit-based immigration system. Increasingly, however, those positions clashed with a Trump-aligned membership who called for tariffs on imported goods and a wall to keep immigrants out but were willing, in Brandon’s view, to remain silent as Trump’s administration added $8 trillion to the national debt.

This is a familiar story in our politics. It applies to organizations, such as FreedomWorks. To publications. To think tanks. To the Republican Party! The “old” conservatism has been swamped by right-wing populism. The Libertarian Party has succumbed too (as Jeff Jacoby has written).

The constituency for limited government, the rule of law, free enterprise, personal responsibility, etc., is very small. Voters, readers, listeners, viewers — they want something else (trust me). But I like to quote the Motel 6 slogan: “We’ll leave the light on for you.” Ideas and principles don’t become less true or less good when they are unpopular.

• When I was growing up, demagogues talked about the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Conference — the dark “global elites.” Lyndon LaRouche and his followers, for example, were big on the Trilateral Commission and the “Bilderbergers.” I would see them on street corners. (We had street corners before we had social media.) Today, the talk is of the World Economic Forum. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, talked of WEF when he imposed his lab-meat ban.

The bogeys change, but the style perdures.

• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the strongman of Turkey, held a joint press conference with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece. Let me stop right there and say: What a relief, if the Turkish and Greek leaders are holding a joint press conference. Has there ever been more enmity between two countries than between Turkey and Greece?

(This is a good parlor question. Dark, however.)

Anyway, Erdoğan said that wounded Hamas fighters were being treated in Turkey. He also said that he regretted the position of Greece on Hamas: that it is a terrorist organization. Said the Greek PM, “Let’s agree to disagree.”

Erdoğan has long been a defender of Hamas. An enthusiast for Hamas. I remember a tremendous clash between him and Shimon Peres, who was then the president of Israel, in 2009. This was at the World Economic Forum. It was one of the most dramatic political confrontations I have ever witnessed. I recalled it last year, after the October 7 attack.

There is a pattern: the savagery of Hamas; the response of Israel; the backers on either side. When will it end? Perhaps when Hamas does. Coexistence with that group is impossible.

• I would like to make a point about Europe — but first, a quick video:

Obviously, “Europe” is a joke to many — especially to those who think of themselves as nationalists. And I understand them. To a degree, I share the sentiment. But Europe is not a joke to many millions — including Georgians and Ukrainians. Europe is very meaningful to them. They wish to express their nationhood within Europe, and to be free of Moscow’s yoke.

I understand them. I hope they succeed.

• Freedom House has a Mark Palmer Prize, which this year it has given to a group called “Operation Nica Welcome.” Let me quote from Freedom House’s press release:

On February 9, 2023, 222 political prisoners — including journalists, politicians, clergy, and students — were released from Nicaragua to the United States. This was the culmination of Operation Nica Welcome, led by public servants and diplomats at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The effort involved more than 350 officials from the U.S. government, the state of Virginia, and nongovernmental organizations who worked around the clock to reunite political prisoners with their loved ones.

What a glorious effort. And Mark Palmer, after whom the prize was named, was a great figure. I wrote about him in 2019 (here).

He was born in 1941, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (my hometown, though this has nothing to do with my admiration for him). He died in 2013, in Washington, D.C. Palmer went to Yale, then worked in journalism, for a while, then joined the Foreign Service. He became the top Kremlinologist in the State Department.

I then quoted a passage from his obit in the Washington Post:

Throughout his career, Mr. Palmer was known for his advocacy of democratic principles of government. His notions were considered a bit quixotic in the 1970s, when U.S. foreign policy was geared more toward containment of the Soviet threat and monitoring human-rights abuses. But his ideals were vindicated over time, as democracy movements spread from one country to the next.

I proceeded to say,

Palmer was a co-drafter of President Reagan’s famous speech to the British Parliament in 1982. (Sample: “What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term — the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom of the people.”) In his second term, Reagan made Palmer his ambassador to Hungary. Palmer marched in the streets with such democratic leaders as Viktor Orbán.

But as Orbán, now in charge, consolidated his power, Palmer was dismayed. He saw the Hungarian leader patterning himself on Putin, a long way from a liberal-democratic revolution.

• I want to say something about Bill Buckley — but first, a word from Colin Grabow, of the Cato Institute:

You see that Mr. Grabow has quoted Henry George. George was a political economist and journalist (American) who lived from 1839 to 1897. His big book was Progress and Poverty, published in 1879. It was a huge seller. George advocated a land tax: a single tax on land values.

Years ago, when I was in the New York real-estate market, and a little discouraged, Bill (Buckley) said to me, “I’m a closet Georgist.”

I have long intended to read Progress and Poverty. I have long intended to read a great many books . . .

• Which reminds me: A few months ago, Zachary Woolfe, the classical-music critic of the New York Times, wrote a wonderful piece about Ursula Oppens, the pianist, who is 80. “. . . while Oppens has made some compromises with age — she has retired the ‘Hammerklavier,’ and made peace with never learning Ravel’s challenging ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ — she has no intention of retiring.”

I have made my peace with never persevering through Bleak House. (I wrote about this issue in a 2020 essay, here.) Well, “peace” is not the word. I am disturbed by my inability to read Bleak House. But I ain’t gonna do it.

• Listen to Senator Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican:

I will repeat my pledge to the American people: If you elect me president, I will insist, when I am out of office, that I not be called “Mr. President.”

I keep offering the people this deal; they don’t bite.

• “Bernard Pivot, Host of Influential French TV Show on Books, Dies at 89.” Very interesting man. For that obit, in the New York Times, go here. I’d like to quote something: “In 1992, Mr. Pivot refused the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civilian honor, from the French government, saying that working journalists should not accept such an award.”

In Britain, Paul Johnson rejected a knighthood for just this reason.

• A long, long time ago, I heard, or read, that Mama Cass had died by chocking on a ham sandwich (in 1974). People guffawed at this, because she was overweight. Do you know it’s not true? I was interested in this article, by Lindsay Zoladz: “Cass Elliot’s Death Spawned a Horrible Myth. She Deserves Better.”

• You ever seen a more American place? Than Carl’s Frozen Custard?

• Let Lee Trevino tell you about his day: here. Such a wonderful day.

Hope you have one, too.

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