After Brezhnev

"mimetic societies end in mass suicide"

Decades ago, details hazy, I was passing through Reno when I saw that Bruce Babbitt was speaking at the university. I dropped in. If I recall correctly, and I don’t guarantee that I do, he was serving as the Secretary of the Interior, having also been the governor of Arizona. It may also have been a moment in between those two jobs. Pardon my memory, but this was a moment in my life when I still had no gray hair at all.

He spoke extemporaneously, for maybe an hour and a half, talking about water policy and having a long back-and-forth with the audience. I don’t remember the details, but I remember the vibe very clearly. He was calm, relaxed, knowledgeable, comfortable with the exchange. He didn’t show up with a bunch of handlers who controlled the Q&A — he just talked for a while, and then let people in the audience talk for a while, and then he waded fluidly into the topics they’d raised. In a big auditorium, talking to hundreds of people like he was hanging out in somebody’s living room.

Babbitt wasn’t universally loved in Arizona. Digging back into his old views on policy, I find a lot to disagree with. But he wasn’t a gormless moron or an empty suit — he was a fully formed human being, capable of speaking and thinking. I dug up an example of the way he spoke to crowds here, if you’re interested.

Thirty years ago, Democratic politicians were people you disagreed with, but they were from and of the body of the people. They were us, our brothers and sisters who saw things differently. I lived in California when Jerry Brown was the governor, twice, and I liked him. He was a brilliant crank, colorful and interesting. Whatever else he was, he was never dumb. If you remember the 1992 Democratic primaries — yes, this is a deep reach — the campaign season was full of distinctly likeable people, with the exception of the one who prevailed. Paul Tsongas used to say, often, that he was socially liberal but absolutely certain that federal transfer payments were on an unsustainable trajectory. His best line in the primaries was, “I’m not Santa Claus.” He was an unorthodox Democrat, when it was still possible to be one of those.

The current cultural model of the Democratic Party has produced a generation of politicians who are nakedly stupid and empty.

I’ve compared the Biden years to the Brezhnev years, with the army of handlers covering up the decline of the old party hack who’s been elevated beyond his ability. What we’re seeing now is the generation of dismal, time-serving party hacks that comes after the old decaying party hack. Democrats have credentialed their leaders on their ability to fit themselves tightly to the ritual grooves carved into the discourse. When asked about transgender issues, they say, “Trans women are women.” They have the whole list of correct slogans available for the moments when the machine is expected to push those slogans through the slot. Hate has no home here! (applause) They above all do not say things that are not the slogans. It’s time for the billionaires to pay their fair share!

And so we get Kamala Harris, and holy cow please help me. This may be the first person in the history of the world who has never answered a question. She seems programmed in her core functions to turn away from the actual substance of anything that anyone might ever ask, like she was brainwashed after that one combat patrol that ended vaguely.

Her cigarette is yak dung — very tasty!

Watch this exchange about immigration:, which quite specifically references subsidies and costs before drawing a string of vibes and platitudes:

She just…won’t. She won’t approach the center of any question. Madam Vice-President, do you like Almond Joy bars? Thank you for asking, Rick, I have always believed that we must think carefully about goats.

This isn’t an accident. A generation of Democratic politicians have been culturally trained into a deflective and hollow discourse. It’s fascinating to watch them sort JD Vance, who talks like a person, into the category of “weird.”

They’ve learned that talking normally is bizarre behavior. Their performance is off-putting at a nearly biological level, like an animal sensing that a predator has sneaked into the herd in a skinsuit. This is why they need HITLER HITLER HITLER. (AND DID WE MENTION LiTErAllY AdoLf HiTLeR!?!?!?!?) Failing completely at any level of ordinary human connection that can pull people their direction, they can only try to sow panic to shove people away from the other one. They can’t convince. At all. Whatever else happens, a political party that elevates Kamala Harris to its top has no future. I’m beginning to think it won’t actually take much of a fight. The thing just…crawls away and dies, like the Federalists and the Whigs. We’ll see.