Yesterday brought with it the end of four long and regrettable years of chaos, dishonesty, manipulation, and bad faith. Conservatives who argued against the basic fitness of the previous President, and who pointed to great character flaws in his most enthusiastic supporters, are now confronted with that which they sought. Trump is out of office, replaced by another northeastern septuagenarian with a decidedly different demeanor and resume. President Biden is an “old-school” Democrat, and his rounded edges will not fit well with either his own restive base or the great mass of the GOP. His margins in the House and Senate are slim, and any hope he has of advancing an agenda seems dependent on that agenda’s appeal to what is left of moderating influences in either party.
His speech was solid, aspirational, uplifting, and unobjectionable. It was comforting to listen to a speech that seemed to reflect a genuine sense of presidential duty to the electorate, rather than the opposite. Repeated several times, the quatrain that included responding to the pandemic, jump-starting the economy, saving “the planet”, and ending systemic racism seemed to lump these issues together as equal priorities, putting aside obvious questions of the ability of government to address them effectively at all, and the timelines along which each need be addressed. But if taken as a list, it seems to provide strategic direction to his team and a playbook for whatever opposition that develops.
Late in the day, the President’s spokesperson took to the White House press room and delivered what used to be considered a “standard operating procedure” press briefing. No one was insulted and no obvious factual misrepresentations were promoted. Dishonesty will likely return to subtlety and nuance in the press room, rather than obvious disinformation and propaganda. The evening ended with the entertainment class breathing a sigh of relief for public consumption in properly social-distanced doses. The final firework presentation was quite a spectacle.
During the day, the President reminded us of his campaign promises by issuing a series of Executive Orders, documents which a conservative ought by nature be wary of irrespective of the party in power. There were a potpourri of issues addressed, including re-embrace of the “Paris Climate Accords”, which in an a functioning constitutional republic would have been considered a treaty requiring supermajority consent in the Senate. President Obama found this requirement inconvenient, and President Trump found Obama’s finding inconvenient. It remains to be seen what a future GOP executive does with Mr. Biden’s pledge.
FOX Doubles Down
Faced with increasing competition from the likes of OANN and Newsmax, Fox News has lost its status as state-run media and must now hustle to regain viewers lost due to inconstancy to the cause. There is much discussion in the media—which likes to talk about nothing so much as itself—as to where FOX would go in the post-Trump Era. Would it pivot to “Mitch McConnell Television” and represent the broad opposition likely to coalesce? Would it become the medium for the inheritors of Trumpism to to catch magic in a bottle through the development of further development of national-populism? Or would it remain a megaphone (MAGAphone?) for the ex-President as he battles impeachment (again), and likely to follow indictments from the State of New York?
It appears for the time being that FOX has decided on the third approach, and it will bring its considerable resources to bear on burnishing its Trumpy credentials in order to crush the competition. From the perspective of the broader American public and the noble goal of returning some semblance of operating from a common set of facts, FOX’s attempt to corner the market could be a positive development. That is, as long as other news organizations cut their dependence on the Trump heroin drip. If they turn their attention to the actual governance of the country rather than the carnival sideshow based on the Florida coast, Trump will begin to slip from public consciousness except for those who wish to bathe in his orange glow. His great power was never simply in persuading adherents; the country is loaded with the easily duped. It was also in the passion he stoked in his opponents. Remove that, and the fire will slowly be doused.
Other elements of right-of-center media continue to move away from the carnage in order to (re)establish their bona fides as something other than amplifiers of one man’s glandular excretions. The return of National Review to a journal of the sane is welcomed, and if they are to hope to be successful in this quest, they could do worse than raising Kevin Williamson’s profile. Two pieces in the past 24 hours highlight the man’s staggering genius and precision sarcasm. In the first, Williamson says goodbye to Donald Trump as only someone who has consistently bashed him can (“Witless Ape Rides Helicopter”), and in the second, Williamson lays out a solid case against one interpretation of the “unity” called for by the new President in his inaugural address (“Against Unity”). One National Review offering that merits further scrutiny was this one from Dan McLaughlin entitled “For Conservatives, a Break from the Trump Monopoly”. The subtitle of this piece went as follows:
For the first time in five years, it is possible to propose and promote conservative ideas without having to go through or around Donald Trump.
Perhaps this applies to the editorial staff of National Review, but there was no shortage of conservative ideas proposed and promoted during the past five years. They simply had little political impact as the party that once reflected conservative ideas turned itself into a populist personality cult no longer interested in free trade, limited government, individual liberty, and the rule of law.
Here’s a solid tweet from a National Review alum, a founder at The Dispatch, and constant conservative Jonah Goldberg that captures a common lament:
Finally, this month marks the six-year anniversary of the Siege on the Severn in which two noted navalists debated the merits of the large, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. New photos have come to light indicated how widely popular the event was.