Source: New York Times
by Ross Douthat
“The election of 2016 … created a sudden swell of ideological ambition. Conservative thinkers rushed to fill in the outlines of Trumpian populism, building various intellectual frameworks for an incipient ‘post-liberal’ age. Meanwhile among progressives there were two big projects: a cultural revolution in the name of antiracism and social justice that gathered force throughout Trump’s presidency, and a Sanders-inspired revival of big-spending social democratic blueprints. These efforts seemed to promise that a great clash of visions would define the 2020s …. But whatever the current election season is delivering, it isn’t a grand ideological debate. Instead, there is a flight from ideological ambition on both sides, with the Democratic candidate offering a mix of poll-tested incrementalism and nonspecific pabulum and the Republican candidate closing out his campaign with inconsistent pandering — tax cuts for some, legal pot for others, mass deportations but also free I.V.F.” (09/21/24)