In 2013, I wrote a piece called “The E-Word: Thoughts on the use and abuse of ‘establishment.’” I said,

The current poster boy for establishment Republicanism is Mitch McConnell — one of the smartest, ablest, most valuable conservatives in America. He has performed any number of services (such as standing athwart unconstitutional, or unwise, limits on campaign finance). We’re lucky to have him in politics. But now he wears a scarlet E.

McConnell sent me a note, saying, “As someone who has spent most of his career being decried as a right-wing lunatic, it’s been something of an out-of-body experience to be condemned in some quarters as an establishment moderate.”

I mention all this in an article today: “What McConnell Has Meant: Some reflections on Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.” I also mention the reaction of the “House Freedom Caucus” when McConnell announced that he would be stepping down as Republican leader in the Senate in November:

Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine). No need to wait till November… Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader.

You will note, among other things, that “(D-Ukraine).” As I say in my piece today,

“D” is bad, of course. So is Ukraine. And it is true: McConnell cares about Ukraine, and freedom, and stopping aggression. He has a sense of history and a solid understanding of the world.

Last week, David Brooks published an essay on the trajectory of the Republican Party. He described McConnell as “a child of the Eisenhower-Reagan party” — a party that is, of course, no more. A party that has been supplanted by the kind of politics represented by Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán (among others). And this brings me to some reader mail.

A reader in California — in the 41st congressional district, specifically — alerts me to an ad being run by Will Rollins. This Rollins is a Democrat, trying to unseat the longtime Republican incumbent, Ken Calvert (first elected in 1992). The ad is here. Now, Republicans aren’t going to like it very much. But I know they are not snowflakes and I’m going to quote the ad because it is of interest to students of politics.

Rollins says,

My grandparents were Republicans. They met in the military during World War II, served their country proudly, then opened a business selling parts for U.S. fighter jets. Their political heroes were Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, and they taught me that the GOP stood for smaller government, personal responsibility, law and order, and standing up to Russia.

The reason I’m a Democrat today is that the party my grandparents once believed in no longer stands for any of those things . . .

My career has been about public service, first working for a Republican governor, then in counterterrorism at the Department of Justice, and a prosecutor protecting Riverside County. I’m a lot of what the Republican Party used to be, but isn’t anymore. I care about your freedom and your security, just like you.

Don’t shoot the messenger (me, or my reader). It is an interesting ad, providing a snapshot of our political time.