There was just one piece of the Trump puzzle missing in Matthew Continetti’s cut-and-dried, but useful article, “Trump’s Youth Revolution,” in the Free Beacon last Friday: he doesn’t address the advancing age of Democratic Party apologists in the mainstream media. That’s also true of conservative websites—is there anyone under 35 in a position of power at The Wall Street Journal?—and it’s a self-enforced conundrum that the media has no interest in fixing. That might change, but at a glacial pace, compared to Elon Musk’s lauded and criticized hiring of youths for his work at DOGE.
For example, The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus (66), an Illusionist entrenched in a Beltway Club that’s splintering (or retiring) wrote a story last week that might’ve been composed in her sleep or, less generously, with an assist from ChatGPT. She writes, with the hyperbole tattooed, at least symbolically, on the crowd that once thrilled at attending the now-diminished White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and embarrasses herself for those who still read the Post.
Marcus: “No president in modern history has caused more damage to the nation more quickly… The country survived Trump 1.0. Now, it faces a real threat that the harm he inflicts during his second term will be irreparable. The United States’ standing in the world, its ability to keep the country safe, the federal government’s fundamental capacity to operate effectively—all of this will take years to repair, if that can be achieved at all.”
Marcus has either forgotten or repressed the implications of Trump’s win over the hapless, and lavishly-funded Kamala Harris (who?) last November. A slim majority of the country—at least those who voted—believe the federal government is bloated with career bureaucrats who don’t do much and are just ticking off the months until their retirements and pensions kick in. And the cliché of America’s “standing in the world.” The United States, for decades piled upon decades, is either loved or hated by citizens of other countries, and their leaders, no matter if a Republican or Democrat is in the White House. Remember Barack Obama’s “apology tour” after he was elected in 2009? I don’t recall the particulars either, but it was as meaningless as his absurdly premature Nobel Peace Prize that same year. Obama, at one time a demonstrable force in the Democratic Party—at least for those trying to curry favor and endorsements—is now on the verge of following Joe Biden to the “legacy” retirement home.
Also in The Washington Post was Karen Tumulty (69), repeating DNC talking points. “To say what is happening now is a constitutional crisis is to put it too mildly,” she writes. “Let’s call it what it is: a constitutional collapse. Congress’s abdication of its constitutional powers to an executive branch run amok—or, you might say, run-a-Musk—would surely have horrified the Founders.”
When nothing’s going your way, invoke the Founders. What these calcified Illusionists don’t realize is this: never take Trump’s five-ideas-a-day at face value. Making Gaza “the Riviera of the Middle East”? Provocative rhetoric that has almost no chance of happening, just like the ridiculous promise of The Wall (which Mexico would build!) during his first term. Trump taking over as chairman of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, a trifle, was his way of poking the Permanent Government in the eye. And it worked. As I’ve noted previously, Trump could really wreak havoc if he withdrew the United States from the United Nations, a toothless organization like USAID. And while dismantling the Department of Education, Trump ought to bust the union behind the National Education Association, as well as privatizing USPS. Big ideas (which may or may not happen) that would add some bite to DOGE.
Getting back to Continetti (the son-in-law of TDS-afflicted Bill Kristol, once the driving force behind the excellent Weekly Standard in the 1990s, which must be kind of weird), who, line by line enumerates how the GOP is now infused with the youth that eluded them for so long, and was once considered the Democratic Party’s inviolable demographic.
He writes: “Trump may be the oldest man elected president, but he leads a youth movement that will shape politics for decades to come.” Continetti is also guilty of hyperbole: the entire government apparatus could be flipped back to the Democrats in six or so years. He continues: “That was why Trump took in so many UFC matches, visited college football games and NASCAR races, and made Joe Rogan’s endorsement a priority. He wanted to demonstrate solidarity with the rising generation.”
It remains baffling that the Democrats haven’t yet produced a stable of centrist and reasonably young leaders to make the case against Trump and J.D. Vance (40). Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Jerry Nadler and the Clintons don’t matter anymore; in fact, they’re only helping the GOP. Maybe some cash is changing hands.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023