President Biden called Xi Jinping a “dictator.” Some people didn’t like this. Biden said, in essence, “Tough.” I begin my Impromptus today with this issue. I speak about many other subjects as well — for example, two “economic epithets,” as I call them. One is “trickle-down economics” (which Biden has been leaning into lately). The other is “free-market fundamentalism.” These phrases are pretty cheap.
Anyway, for my column, go here.
In my Impromptus on Wednesday, I spent some time on Chris Christie, who is dropping truth-bombs on Donald Trump day and night. It is an extraordinary about-face. Not unwelcome, as some of us see it. “Better late than never.” One of the things Christie is doing is this: He explains, patiently, that the 2020 election was not stolen. That Trump and others have lied about this, all along.
I think, too, of something Dick Cheney said: “A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters.”
After Wednesday’s column, I received some mail saying, in essence, “It’s good that Christie is doing this. He is softening up Trump and relieving DeSantis of the need to do so. DeSantis does not have to alienate Trump voters. Christie is doing the dirty work. He should just go on dropping his truth-bombs, while DeSantis remains above the fray.”
That’s an interesting point of view. But the 2020 election is a big issue. It requires some leadership. Our country, our politics, has been roiled by this issue. Millions upon millions of people believe that the 2020 election was stolen. (These include some of my nearest and dearest.) Trump has told them so. Other politicians have told them so. Any number of broadcasters and bloggers have told them so.
The belief is not harmless either. It led to January 6 — the assault on Congress, for the purpose of stopping a constitutional process. It was the worst attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812, and that long-ago attack was the work of a foreign power, not homegrown Americans.
This week, at a campaign event in New Hampshire, a high-school student asked Ron DeSantis whether Trump had “violated the peaceful transfer of power.” The governor’s answer: “I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing, you know, what happened. But we’ve got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past.”
His audience applauded. But is that leadership? Is that what an adult — in particular a governor who is asking to be president — should tell a high-school student?
After watching the exchange between the student and DeSantis, Christie, in his now liberated mode, said, “He wasn’t anywhere near Washington? Did he have a TV? Was he alive that day? Did he see what was going on? I mean, that’s one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve heard in this race so far.”
What’s more, “we had members of Congress who were running for their lives. We had people trying to hunt down the vice president of the United States, chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’” Etc.
(To hear Christie, go here.)
I think of something less dramatic, from December 2021. On Fox, Maria Bartiromo asked DeSantis whether he had received a booster shot. He answered, “So, uh, I’ve done whatever I did, the normal shot, and that at the end of the day is people’s individual decisions about what they want to do.” This was probably good enough for most viewers. To some of us, however, it seemed kind of small.
Was it “smart politics”? Is skirting the issue of the 2020 election “smart politics”? Maybe. But there is something beautiful about telling the truth, all on its own. Something beautiful about manning up. You may make some people uncomfortable. But you may also win their respect.
I think voters ought to demand more of their leaders, frankly. Also, I think leaders ought to remember to lead, and not just follow.
Politics is a complicated art. Often, I don’t envy those who are “in the arena.” To be continued (whether we like it or not).