Donald J. Trump “announced in mid June 2015 that he was running for president,” Jim Geraghty writes in the new issue of National Review magazine — “so we’re now in our eighth straight year of ‘yuge’ and ‘the greatest ever’ and ‘many people are saying’ and nonsense proposals and conspiracy theories and horse-pucky.”
Yes, you read that right — eight years.
But — as Jim lays out in his cover story, “Slouching toward Iowa” — “this country has real problems,” including
a skyrocketing cost of living, an insecure border, antisemitism running rampant, Hamas as bloodthirsty as ever, Iran still rogue and terrorist, Putin’s forces on the march, and China smelling weakness. The times call for serious, focused leadership.
I’m not sure about you, but does anyone think that’s what’s being offered?
If you’re ready for a patented Jim Geraghty “bucket of cold water” to the face, read his cover story as he thinks through the GOP’s dismal primary and the path forward. Depending on how much of an Eeyore you are, there might still be room to hope — a bit! — that 2024 brings a little bit more energy and verve to a campaign season that has so far been a “forced march that apparently was over before it started.”
No one covers politics like NR’s Jim Geraghty — that is, if you want the truth, warts and all.
Elsewhere in this issue, read the spirited debate between Clarke D. Forsythe and Josh Craddock on whether the 14th Amendment cloaks the unborn in the Constitution’s protection:
- “The Personhood Myth” by Clarke Forsythe
- and “Our Pro-Life Constitution” by Josh Craddock
We love presenting these intra-conservative debates in the pages of National Review. Essays such as these give our readers the chance to hear out all the best arguments and decide for themselves. We hope you’ll find it engrossing.
And while you’re at it, you can explore the entire new February 2024 issue, including:
- Frederick M. Hess on the consequences of college students’ sloth in “Campus Idleness Has Bred Extremism“
- John Noonan’s look at what, exactly, a U.S. military intervention against the drug cartels in Mexico would look like in “An Actual War on Drugs?“
- Jimmy Quinn on the Chinese Communist provocateurs who have organized inside America to rough up and intimidate opponents of Beijing in “Xi Jinping’s Goon Squads“
- Stuart Taylor on conservative attorney Paul D. Clement’s intolerable success in “Big Law Gets Smaller“
- Shay Khatiri on “Henry Kissinger, Geopolitical Giant” — an assessment of Kissinger’s legacy
- And Zach Kessel — one of National Review Institute’s William F. Buckley Fellows — on New Jersey and the 20th anniversary of The Sopranos in “Don’t Stop Believin’“
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