On the Good Book in public schools; Joe Biden and the 2024 campaign; Israel and Charles Krauthammer; and more
Only last week, I was talking about religion as political cudgel. The occasion was a new law in Louisiana, mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom. I did not use the word “cudgel.” I said “football” (a little softer?). Let me excerpt:
I would rather politicians, and others, obeyed the Ten Commandments than that they turned them into a political football — a football in our endless game of “red” versus “blue.” I seriously doubt that boosters of the law, many of them, give a rip about the Ten Commandments.
All right, here we go again. A headline from the Associated Press reads, “Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12.” (Article here.) Personally, I favor the revitalization of Sunday schools. And I recall an old truth: Education begins in the home, and is centered on the home.
I was interested in the response of Matt Stokes, to the news in Oklahoma: “I oppose this as a Christian parent. There’s no way such instruction won’t be free of sectarian preferences, and I don’t want that for my kids outside of my home and my church.”
To be continued, as always. You know what they say: What do you get when you mix religion and politics? Politics. You also know some version of this: What do you get when you blend vanilla ice cream with mud? Mud.
Education policy is an interesting, complicated subject, with few clear-cut answers. I do think, however, that the Bible is too precious and too important to be taken up as a political cudgel, or used as a political football. Godly men (and women) are more valuable than “culture warriors” (or “social-justice warriors”).
• Last year, I visited the Liberty Sculpture Park, in Yermo, Calif. — out in the desert. It is the creation of Weiming Chen, a sculptor from China. To read the resulting piece, go here. One of the sculptures commemorates Tiananmen Square and its “tank man.” Here is a photo:
Not long ago, that sculpture was vandalized. The Liberty park has been hit by vandalism before. (Wonder who could be responsible.) Jonas Yuan, who works with Weiming Chen, sent me a photo of the damaged tank man:
The sculpture has been restored, however.
And there is a new sculpture — a monument — constructed since my visit: a victims-of-communism monument. To see a video about this — the building of it — go here.
In this monument, Weiming Chen depicts a real-life person: Feng Guojiang, a survivor of the CCP’s gulag (laogai).
• You want to talk about politics? U.S. politics, presidential politics? Okay, strap in. On Thursday afternoon, I wrote,
Tonight’s debate carries great risk, for President Biden in particular. If he comes across as gaga — his campaign could be finished. Trump can behave as crazily as he wants — this is “priced in.” It is dog-bites-man. The pressure on Biden, I think, is greater.
Biden chose to stand for office again, with Donald Trump knocking on the door. This could prove an act of monumental, historic irresponsibility.
Yes.
And let me quote from a column I wrote last December:
It would take self-sacrifice for Biden to stand aside and let there be an open competition for his party’s presidential nomination. It would take humility. It would take a heightened sense of patriotism — of patriotic duty.
To ask a president not to run for reelection is to ask a lot. Too much, probably. I understand. I have an ego and ambition too. Wild horses couldn’t stop me from running for reelection.
But it would not necessarily be right.
In 2024, there is a great deal at stake.
The debate last week — Biden’s implosion — was bad news for the Ukrainian people and their future. It was bad news, I believe, for NATO and the West.
In the summer of 1974, a group of Republican leaders — Barry Goldwater et al. — trooped to the White House to tell President Nixon it was time. Do they have Democratic heirs today? The two cases are very different, obviously. One relates to venality, the other to infirmity. The point is: Responsible people must talk turkey.
On March 19, 1974, Senator James L. Buckley (R., N.Y.) called on Nixon to step down. This was about five months before the resignation. JLB said,
I propose an extraordinary act of statesmanship and courage — an act at once noble and heartbreaking; at once serving the greater interests of the nation, the institution of the presidency, and the stated goals for which [the president] so successfully campaigned.
“Statesmanship and courage.” “An act at once noble and heartbreaking.” Yes. Good goin’, Jim.
For the Washington Post, our Ramesh Ponnuru has written a column headed “Trump is too dangerous for Democrats to stick with Biden.” I recommend it, here.
If I had my way, this year’s presidential contest would be between, oh, Gina Raimondo and Doug Ducey. (A lot of people consider her the best Democratic governor of recent times; a lot of people consider him the best Republican governor of recent times.) Is either of those people nominatable? For president? The voters want what the voters want. Republicans wanted Donald Trump over Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and everyone else — by landslide after landslide, in the primaries.
In a democracy, people get what they deserve. (Good and hard?)
Before I leave this subject — meaning, presidential politics — I’d like to walk down Memory Lane. Something I read reminded me of Paul Laxalt. What I read was this:
The finger-pointing began quickly among some White House officials over how Biden’s inner circle had conducted the president’s debate prep.
“He was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy,” one person in Biden’s orbit told Axios. “They prepared him for the wrong debate. He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It’s confounding.”
For that article, from Axios, go here.
What I remembered, from Senator Laxalt, was the word “brutalized.” This was a bit of a scandal, toward the end of the Reagan–Mondale race. Let me quote for you a report by Lou Cannon, in the Washington Post, October 11, 1984:
Presidential adviser Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) said yesterday that President Reagan fared poorly in his debate last Sunday with Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale because he had been “brutalized by a briefing process” that overloaded him with statistics.
• I had another memory — this one involving Israel. And Charles Krauthammer. Last Tuesday, the AP ran a report headed “Israel’s high court orders the army to draft ultra-Orthodox men, rattling Netanyahu’s government.” A little Googling led me to what I wanted — a Krauthammer column published on June 26, 1998 (and datelined Jerusalem):
David Makovsky, a leading journalist, explained the problem succinctly. “The haredim don’t serve in the army. They don’t work or pay taxes [the men spend all day in study], and they want to tell everybody else how to live. These three things don’t add up.”
But they infuriate. I got a taste of the depth of feeling one night here when heading out to dinner with a friend. An ultra, instantly identifiable by his heavy black woolen clothing and fur hat (the garb of 17th-century Poland that they wear in the excruciating heat of Jerusalem), had crossed the street in front of a speeding car. The driver, enraged, screamed a word in Hebrew that I couldn’t quite make out.
“I’m behind on your slang,” I said to my friend. Is ‘leheetgayess’ the new term for ‘F— you’?”
My friend laughed. “It means: Enlist.”
• You want a great name? “Ed Policy.” (This was pointed out by Joe Perticone.) He ought, of course, to be a specialist in education policy. (Hey, I began my column with that!) But he is the new chairman, president, and CEO of the Green Bay Packers.
• Only a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about Martin Mull. Or rather, I published a letter from a reader, who did. (Our reader recalled the amazing song “Noses Run in My Family.”) Martin Mull has died at 80. (For an obit, go here.) You know how, when people say someone is “inventively funny,” he is maybe . . . not so funny? Martin Mull really was. Inventive. And funny. And inventively funny. What a talent.
Nice to see you, everyone. Thanks for joining me.
If you would like to receive Impromptus by e-mail — links to new columns — write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.