Biden's campaign platform is 564 pages long. When those flying ponies collide
with the marzipan rainbows and pixie dust starts to gum up the works of society,
we're going to be in for a mess.
On the other hand, I think we're done with this experiment of having the inmates run the asylum.
PJ O'Rourke is not happy.
I'm appalled by the choice that we have been delivered.
The 72-year-old political humorist, who cut his teeth writing for the National Lampoon,
and is author of Parliament of Whores, as well as other bestsellers,
is back with a new collection of essays, A Cry From The Far Middle.
As you might expect, the book is filled with comic observations on Republicans, Democrats,
socialism, nationalism, occupational licensing, presidential debates, Twitter, and more.
But it's hard to hide his lack of optimism, when a book includes quotes like, "This is the end of the world for classical liberalism."
"I'm betting that human nature will triumph over adversity and challenge. And I don't mean that in a good way."
And then of course, "we have a gigantic political tumor. I'm not optimistic about the biopsy."
Are you okay?
No, I'm not okay any more than any of the rest of us are at the moment. I am worried.
I have always belonged to the pessimistic wing of the libertarian attitude.
There are many libertarians who believe that people are ultimately rational, I am not among them.
This is probably because I spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent,
largely covering wars and insurrections and social upheavals and disturbances of all sorts of ugly cons.
I filed from 40-some, 44 countries, none of them the nice ones.
Ranging from sort of Lebanon to Bangladesh, to Kosovo, and parts in between.
And yeah, I'm not sanguined about human beings having a rational—we have a rational side, thank God.
And I hope we are appealing to that rational side, but it isn't the only side in our multifaceted,
and sometimes pretty ugly little personalities.
O'Rourke does see some bright spots.
I think there's been a generally liberal shift in the United States, but I partly mean that in a good way,
on issues of individual liberty and things like gay marriage and so on.
But he's concerned America has forgotten the benefits of free markets.
When one side gains, it doesn't necessarily mean another side loses.
More people seem to be moving into the category of regarding the economy as a kind of pie,
sort of pizza pie, where if you have too many slices, I have to eat the Domino's box.
And so, instead of baking more pies,
the tendency is to get out the pie knives and go at each other's throats with them.
We've degenerated into a tribal shouting match, which is just absolutely not helpful at all.
And the very fact of tribalism runs contrary to my concept of libertarianism.
It's all about individual liberty, individual dignity, and individual responsibility.
When we fall into quarreling tribes, we are negating all of those things.
And not only am I concerned that government outcomes and political outcomes
will be contrary to libertarianism, but the very basis that these decisions are made upon
will be contrary to libertarianism,
is already to a very large extent, contrary to libertarian.
O'Rourke now finds himself at odds with the party he once considered his home.
As I watched the Republicans not resist this dangerous and unpredictable man, not to mention,
like rude, divisive, and any number of other adjectives,
I went from being sort of a Republican in remission to being to a certain extent, outright hostile to the party,
to tell the truth. I mean, it isn't so much exactly what Trump has done,
there are even some things that he's done,
like lowering the corporate tax rate to the level that is customary in developed countries, that I'm fine with.
I hate his stand on immigration, but not all of his policy decisions have been wrong.
I think he has raised awareness, as we like to say these days,
because that's supposed to be something very positive to raise awareness.
But I think he's raised awareness that China is not our friend,
that the Chinese leadership does not wish us well.
So, it's not so much a matter of what he's done, it's a matter of what he can do
as the world's most powerful person, he's a giant toddler.
And anybody who's raised children will understand this metaphor.
He's a toddler at the top of the stairs. There's that moment when you failed to close the baby gate
and you're down there in the hall and you're looking up the stairs and you see the toddler at the top of the stairs,
and that's the meaning of fear. And with him, we have it every day.
As O'Rourke is quick to point out,
every presidential election has been touted as the most important in our lifetime.
Always. It's like the weather, "They are calling it the storm of the century!"
But this year, is there some truth to it?
Well, it's a little more important than usual, yeah, I would say.
A fair amount more important than usual.
I know it's unpleasant facing the Biden-Harris ticket, we're going to be in for a mess.
It's going to be a messy and expensive couple of years. They seem to be wrong, all wrong,
quite wrong about everything, but wrong within normal parameters of wrong. We've endured wrong before.
There's wrong and there's damn wrong.