It’s getting to be that time in the political calendar, later in the second term of a Republican presidency, when we are approaching the inevitably disappointing midterms and must face the airing of grievances. Twenty years ago, I was making my first forays into Washington, D.C., to see the carnage, after what George W. Bush called “the thumpin’” in 2006. Everyone would gather and make his case in panels over chicken dinners: “If it were more like me, the Republican Party would be better off. It’s failing because it’s like you.”
Twenty years ago, I sat in those rooms as the libertarians were asking for more libertarianism and less social conservatism. Give up on the anti-gay stuff, they said. The paleocons were asking for immigration restriction and a rethink of trade policy. The social conservatives were asking for more fighting on the issues that mattered to them. And don’t get me started on foreign policy! At the time, I thought they were all probably wrong. And Obama’s election seemed to confirm my judgment. Wilderness time for all of us.
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