The campaign between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is interesting. Each one is accusing the other of being interested in reforming Social Security. In other words, each one is accusing the other of heresy. To read an article about this, go here. Last January, I wrote an article about entitlement reform in general: “‘Pennies from Heaven.’” As I see Trump and DeSantis trading charges, I admire George W. Bush all the more, for his courage in trying to tackle Social Security. He had damn few allies. The “third rail” remains the third rail.

Why are you running for office? Why do you want to hold office? Just to hold it? Just to “be somebody”? Or do you want to hold office in order to govern wisely and effect needed change? In 2000, Candidate Bush would say, “I’m runnin’ for a reason.” He usually said it when making a pitch for entitlement reform. He wanted to save the system from bankruptcy. He wanted to modernize it.

I think that entitlement reform — and the federal budget deficit, and the federal debt, and our national fiscal house — ought to be a conservative cause. I think that Ukraine, and the deterrence of Russia, ought to be a conservative cause. (I wrote about this last September, here.) I think the same of missile defense. And immigration reform. And other things.

Anyway, “my 2¢,” as you sometimes see on social media.

• Mike Pompeo is out of the presidential race. He never got in, actually. He “explored” a race. I have my objections to Pompeo — but I certainly admire his support of Ukraine and his opposition to the Kremlin. He understands that war, and he understands the stakes, for all of us. This is not something to take for granted in the Republican Party. Far from it.

I think of a statement by Thomas Brackett Reed, a speaker of the House in the late 19th century — a Republican. Asked whether his party might nominate him for president, he said, “They could do worse, and probably will.”

• From the Associated Press, there was this headline last week: “Trump and Iowa evangelicals: A bond that is hard to break.” (Article here.) I was thinking, “If someone had fallen asleep in 2015 and woken up today, he would be bewildered by that headline. Maybe Trump had a conversion?” There was a conversion, all right.

• Trump stood before some donors and said, “The old Republican Party is gone, and it is never coming back.” Well, someday, the Trumpified GOP will be gone. I look forward to the next era — hoping it is more Reagan and Thatcher than Trump and Orbán et al.

• Apropos, here is a headline from the Guardian: “Viktor Orbán’s support for Trump seems to wane as ally meets with DeSantis.” (Article here.) Call it “the Orbán primary.” In all likelihood, Orbán is the favorite foreign leader of the American Right. Maybe Netanyahu. Bolsonaro is out of power (but still a leader, of a sort). MBS? One could go on, but I’d better shift subjects.

• I was quite interested in this article from the New York Times: “A Tiny Number of Shoplifters Commit Thousands of New York City Thefts.” The subheading reads, “Nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in the city last year involved just 327 people, the police said. Businesses say they have little defense.”

What a travesty.

Many years ago, I knew a prosecutor in my home county (in southeastern Michigan). He told me something like this: “If you could just exile about four families, crime would all but disappear.” He also told me a remarkable story. He had prosecuted someone on six or seven charges. Afterward, the man told him something like, “You know, I wasn’t guilty of one of those. But I did so many things you didn’t get me for, I figured I wouldn’t make an issue of it.”

• I have been reading about a controversial case in Texas — so have you, I bet. Daniel Perry was convicted of murdering Garrett Foster. Governor Greg Abbott immediately pledged to pardon Perry. The pardon of Perry seems to be a GOP cause now, a populist cause. I recommend two articles in particular: by Nick Catoggio and Radley Balko.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan came up with a famous phrase: “boob bait for Bubbas.” This is when you throw populist chum to the “base,” to rile ’em up or placate them. The “bait” that Moynihan had in mind was rhetorical. He was talking about rhetoric, primarily. But the pardon of people convicted of murder? That is not something to play with. That is very serious business.

(Moynihan had his own version of “boob bait” — as when he warned that welfare reform would bring “scenes of social trauma such as we have not seen since the cholera epidemics.”)

• Speaking of New York politicians: Congressman George Santos, the Long Island Republican and pathological liar, has announced that he will run for reelection. (He was sworn in, for the first time, only three months ago.) He got into a Twitter spat with Joshua Lafazan, a Long Island Democrat who wants that same House seat.

Here was one of Santos’s sallies:

This was Lafazan’s response:

As a rule, I don’t believe that people should make fun of other people’s looks. That is an antique view. But I know that there are some who cling to it.

• Enrique Krauze is a Mexican historian and an eminent public intellectual. Just before the pandemic, I went to interview him, in Mexico City. For Part I of the resulting piece, go here, and for Part II, go here.

Last week, Krauze penned a column for the Washington Post: “In Mexico, López Obrador’s provocations may soon get opponents killed.” For many of AMLO’s fans — fans of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president — that would be no problem. Krauze, writing of AMLO, says,

His speeches are littered with ad hominem attacks. . . .

López Obrador also indulges in slander and defamation. Anyone who criticizes him is part of a conspiracy aimed at his overthrow. All his critics are corrupt, driven only by material interest. He frequently refers to his critics as “enemies of the people” and publicly displays their personal information — tax documents, property, photos, videos — to reveal their income and insinuate that they came by it through disreputable means.

Among a group of critics considered “enemies,” I have been among the most attacked. To date, I have been mentioned — insulted — 298 times.

López Obrador behaves like populists everywhere — particularly in Latin America, but in every other region too. We have known this kind of behavior in our own country. Unfortunately, López Obrador, like Hugo Chávez and others before him, is talented. A very effective populist and demagogue, a menace to ordered liberty.

• Something pleasanter. Did you see this beautiful object, from about 25 centuries ago? It shows a Greek god, Eros, riding a dolphin. The object was just discovered. Read about it — and see it! — here.

• Regular readers know that I like names, a lot. Below is a splendid — splendid — roll call.

• My new favorite NBA coach is Mike Brown of the Sacramento Kings. I just love him here. See whether you do too.

• On Sunday, I jotted a tweet, which occasioned many responses. Read them, if you have the time. Rather moving.

• This is kind of sharp, I think — along the Hudson River in New York:

Also sharp — an attractive burst:

This is kind of pretty, right? A little purple, a little white, a little green . . .

The above was in Riverside Park (NYC). Below is a shot of Central Park. Anybody can snap a picture (as I prove). But how about painting the scene? Now, that’s something else.

Thank you for joining me, my readers and friends, and I’ll talk to you soon.

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