" How did democracy throw up such a pathetic mayoral field in New York?"
Pathetic is not new in New York. The whole business is tribal.
I remember Lefkowitz, Fino and Gilhooley for Mayor, City Council President and Comptroller in 1961. The city has survived Stuyvesant, Tweed, Walker, O'Dwyer, Dinkins and Giuliani.
Mr. Nordlinger. You and your friend Kevin are two of my favorite writers on true conservative matters. I hope you two keep us in the light amid the Trump darkness. Thank you.
War is hell…the necessary evils my father had to order and never spoke a word about it, not even to the woman he married as soon as he made it back alive…from Korea…Know wonder he drowned his sorrows, for the next fifty plus years on this earth, with that god awful liquid butane called Martinis. As much as I could sense he hated Alan Alda’s juvenile, pretentious, pacifist useless idiocy, Hawkeye and Trapper did make him laugh…as my dad once let it slip bathtub gin was no joke (as this preteen kid had no idea of the toxic effects, but I had already had my face curl, like a deflated balloon, once sampling that liquid kerosene, out of a big glass jug that would always be chilling in the fridge…I haven’t sipped a martini ever again…since Reagan’s….first term). My mom did not even know my dad had a Silver Star until after they were married, while making like 50’s housewives were want to do, tiding up my Dads office. I did see with my teenage eyes how his comrades from the godforesaken Ardennes forest treated my humble old man…like he walked on water…at their forty year celebration of life…at West Point. As much as he would shake his head if he heard me telling you this, what is etched in stone to the gateway of the United States Military Academy, as God is his witness, my father never once, and do mean NEVER, violated…in my life. As there are two reasons I am thankful he is already buried in Americas greatest traitors former back yard…for the Korean War survivor would have had an fing heartbreak, I mean attack, if he saw a President of the United States dancing on his comrades graves while shaking hands with a North Korean dick tator for life at the D.M.Z. …let alone if he had bared witness to someone he actually believed is the Vicar of Christ smiling, while shaking hands, with The Devil, I mean Fidel (rhymes with where Jorge Mario Bergoglio should have told the mass murderer he is sure as hell is going to…if you do not repent, atone, and go check into a cell, right now…Lord knows that’s what my old man would do if he a met faces of death real life bad character in the flesh). Speaking of…as good as whose line is it anyway…there is no way my dad would have ever checked us into a cot in a box like Mothell Six…leave aside it would have brought back bad memories of sleeping in a M.A.S.H. unit…
Heaven knows, anyone with a brain has soured on politics…but, like my poli sci professor nailed it on the first day of class, way back in 89’, the quandary of democracy is stupid people can vote…I mean throw up, emphasis on throw up. But this maybe a manufactured memory…as I seem to remember my old man likening The Don to the sleazeball Hugh Hefner…after the first time I had ever heard of the billionaire boys club playboy…during our Sunday after dinner ritual…watching 60 Minutes…like it was as important as honoring the sabbath…sometime way back in…something now called The Eighties.
I think one of the few times I ever emailed an N.R. contributor, I mean former…as I wish I thought of the Before End Times and After End Times…like Covid, everything Heat Miser touches, he burns…I don’t write letters, I just hit the comment button below and try to make one think a second time…and even better, make you laugh at my random thoughts on your much more beautiful thoughts. Again, I am a Clash fan attic…not much of a composer, I mean was never into the sobering music. As, again, I am perversely thankful my old man is not alive to see what a minority, majority of his beloved party got elected President of the United States, not once but twice…a P.O.T.U.S. smiling, shaking hands with Un and Putin…with millions of innocents blood on the two crime family boss gangster regimes hands, literally…It can happen here is no longer the question…it has, and everyone Heat Miser has touched he has turned into evil doers, I mean like Capos eager to kick up to their mob boss. We the People literally have a Secretary of War now, who has multiple Iron Cross tattoos (I know, I know, there not the same thing that little Austrian turd proudly donned…but…) and an Il Duce wannabe Tony Soprano in the flesh having literally turned the Oval Office into the Bada Bing…making like Presidente Duterte and ordering hit jobs on “‘suspected’ drug traffickers”, and millions of our fellow Americans are amused….to the death of a drug salesman. Hell, why not just whack all suspected drug dealers…wait, wait, don’t tell me The Don really can have someone shot in Manhattan now. So, it is safe to say I share your letter writers lament, as anyone that has not jumped on the Trump Train. Don’t get me started how many of your fellow N.R. contributors I would love to, proverbially that is, shove off the high speed locomotive that is most surely going to end in a train wreck…speaking of democracy, I actually do still have faith…The Don will not live forever and the Nuremberg trials time did finally come…God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Here we are now, Trump entertain U.S. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant Onward and Upward. Peace through superior mental firepower
I'm a Reagan conservative, too. When I discovered National Review and The Weekly Standard, I felt at home there. Yes, my favorite people are scattered, but not that hard to find.
Thank you for your dedication to the suffering of political prisoners and compassion for those in the countries beyond our own. It has helped open my eyes and guided me to a greater understanding of our brothers and sisters.
I could have written that letter and I respectfully disagree with people who say that Never Trump is the same as TDS. There are gradations. Several never Trumpers that I read and listen to are very happy that the border is closed, Iran’s nuclear program has been crippled, numerous terrorist groups have been decapitated and Israel got the support they needed to do all that and defeat Hamas. Even though they didn’t vote for Trump they acknowledge that none of this would have happened under a President Harris. TDS sufferers are happy about none of the above.
Further down the continuum, between Never Trump and MAGA, lies what I call “Compared to What” which is where I find myself. I’m glad Kamala Harris isn’t the president. I hope to be reunited with Jay and other Reagan conservatives soon.
Fascinating, as I should like to respectfully disagree, my being someone that is not joking when I say T.D.S. stands for…to the Village Idiwitt…Trump is a Deranged Sociopath. But, speaking of not making the grade, the borders being closed is a good thing, like Bastiat’s Parable of the Broken Window. Last I checked, a man that looks, sounds and dresses like Darth Vadar still reigns like Supreme Allah in downtown Terroran…and speaking of decapitation…millions of young men east of Israel still think Osama Bin Laden was really cool, as their countries are still ruled by strongmen that even make The Don jealous (and even richer too…as he and his two turd bitcon bros Uday and Qusay and his deeply creepy son in law Jarad are only too happy to jump in bed with such monsters, I mean mobsters, for the love of the Almighty dollar converted into bitcoin…for it cannot even be traced!). And even though I did not vote for The Don, as counterfactuals are non falsifiable as they are not really good, bad or otherwise arguments…if one could have voted for a Haley, or a DeSantis, the little good I can acknowledge The Don has accomplished would have been surely done by any generic Republican…as, speaking, of Kamala, The Don got elected President of the United States, not once, but twice, for having the almost cosmic fortune of running against Nurse Ratchet, then Selina Meyer. If only the loyal opposition party had nominated the best man…or woman…and not someone based on race, gender and upper class luxury beliefs. And don’t even get me started about the election in between days….Ashli Babbitt still cannot be reached for comment…speaking of suffering death for a big fing lie that will be answered for…in this life…or The Don’s decrepit soul…So, I cannot speak for Jay, nor would he want me too, but respectfully, speaking of being reunited, like Peaches and Herb…NOT…The Don’s decrepit soul puts the “man” in con…don’t you know that🤪🍺✌️
Thanks for publishing the letter, Jay. I can definitely relate. I have lots of relatives and friends who I thought believed in certain principles and who have been sucked into the Trumpy black hole. A sad time indeed.
I subscribed just so I could post this comment (OK, there may have been other reasons): You didn't need to point out you were patting yourself on the back QUITE so much. In fact if you just said "I want you to ignore the nice things he says about me and hear his story," it woulda been fine. So many people come to this aha moment with history. I feel fortunate that it happened when I was 19 and a friend showed me Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address. I read it and was so intrigued I asked "what else has he written?" and was steered, not to Ivan Denisovich but to the Gulag Archipelago. I read all three volumes that summer, and back at school in the fall I began my Paul Johnson journey. That old friend and I disagree a lot these days but we're still friends and my prayer is the kid becomes friends with his dad again. The stories of the past could provide a way back.
" How did democracy throw up such a pathetic mayoral field in New York?"
Pathetic is not new in New York. The whole business is tribal.
I remember Lefkowitz, Fino and Gilhooley for Mayor, City Council President and Comptroller in 1961. The city has survived Stuyvesant, Tweed, Walker, O'Dwyer, Dinkins and Giuliani.
We've still got a few more tribes to go.
Mr. Nordlinger. You and your friend Kevin are two of my favorite writers on true conservative matters. I hope you two keep us in the light amid the Trump darkness. Thank you.
War is hell…the necessary evils my father had to order and never spoke a word about it, not even to the woman he married as soon as he made it back alive…from Korea…Know wonder he drowned his sorrows, for the next fifty plus years on this earth, with that god awful liquid butane called Martinis. As much as I could sense he hated Alan Alda’s juvenile, pretentious, pacifist useless idiocy, Hawkeye and Trapper did make him laugh…as my dad once let it slip bathtub gin was no joke (as this preteen kid had no idea of the toxic effects, but I had already had my face curl, like a deflated balloon, once sampling that liquid kerosene, out of a big glass jug that would always be chilling in the fridge…I haven’t sipped a martini ever again…since Reagan’s….first term). My mom did not even know my dad had a Silver Star until after they were married, while making like 50’s housewives were want to do, tiding up my Dads office. I did see with my teenage eyes how his comrades from the godforesaken Ardennes forest treated my humble old man…like he walked on water…at their forty year celebration of life…at West Point. As much as he would shake his head if he heard me telling you this, what is etched in stone to the gateway of the United States Military Academy, as God is his witness, my father never once, and do mean NEVER, violated…in my life. As there are two reasons I am thankful he is already buried in Americas greatest traitors former back yard…for the Korean War survivor would have had an fing heartbreak, I mean attack, if he saw a President of the United States dancing on his comrades graves while shaking hands with a North Korean dick tator for life at the D.M.Z. …let alone if he had bared witness to someone he actually believed is the Vicar of Christ smiling, while shaking hands, with The Devil, I mean Fidel (rhymes with where Jorge Mario Bergoglio should have told the mass murderer he is sure as hell is going to…if you do not repent, atone, and go check into a cell, right now…Lord knows that’s what my old man would do if he a met faces of death real life bad character in the flesh). Speaking of…as good as whose line is it anyway…there is no way my dad would have ever checked us into a cot in a box like Mothell Six…leave aside it would have brought back bad memories of sleeping in a M.A.S.H. unit…
Heaven knows, anyone with a brain has soured on politics…but, like my poli sci professor nailed it on the first day of class, way back in 89’, the quandary of democracy is stupid people can vote…I mean throw up, emphasis on throw up. But this maybe a manufactured memory…as I seem to remember my old man likening The Don to the sleazeball Hugh Hefner…after the first time I had ever heard of the billionaire boys club playboy…during our Sunday after dinner ritual…watching 60 Minutes…like it was as important as honoring the sabbath…sometime way back in…something now called The Eighties.
I think one of the few times I ever emailed an N.R. contributor, I mean former…as I wish I thought of the Before End Times and After End Times…like Covid, everything Heat Miser touches, he burns…I don’t write letters, I just hit the comment button below and try to make one think a second time…and even better, make you laugh at my random thoughts on your much more beautiful thoughts. Again, I am a Clash fan attic…not much of a composer, I mean was never into the sobering music. As, again, I am perversely thankful my old man is not alive to see what a minority, majority of his beloved party got elected President of the United States, not once but twice…a P.O.T.U.S. smiling, shaking hands with Un and Putin…with millions of innocents blood on the two crime family boss gangster regimes hands, literally…It can happen here is no longer the question…it has, and everyone Heat Miser has touched he has turned into evil doers, I mean like Capos eager to kick up to their mob boss. We the People literally have a Secretary of War now, who has multiple Iron Cross tattoos (I know, I know, there not the same thing that little Austrian turd proudly donned…but…) and an Il Duce wannabe Tony Soprano in the flesh having literally turned the Oval Office into the Bada Bing…making like Presidente Duterte and ordering hit jobs on “‘suspected’ drug traffickers”, and millions of our fellow Americans are amused….to the death of a drug salesman. Hell, why not just whack all suspected drug dealers…wait, wait, don’t tell me The Don really can have someone shot in Manhattan now. So, it is safe to say I share your letter writers lament, as anyone that has not jumped on the Trump Train. Don’t get me started how many of your fellow N.R. contributors I would love to, proverbially that is, shove off the high speed locomotive that is most surely going to end in a train wreck…speaking of democracy, I actually do still have faith…The Don will not live forever and the Nuremberg trials time did finally come…God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Here we are now, Trump entertain U.S. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant Onward and Upward. Peace through superior mental firepower
I'm a Reagan conservative, too. When I discovered National Review and The Weekly Standard, I felt at home there. Yes, my favorite people are scattered, but not that hard to find.
Thank you for your dedication to the suffering of political prisoners and compassion for those in the countries beyond our own. It has helped open my eyes and guided me to a greater understanding of our brothers and sisters.
Thank you for sharing your light!
Shauna,
Exactly right. Thank you.
Bless you, Shauna. Thank you.
I could have written that letter and I respectfully disagree with people who say that Never Trump is the same as TDS. There are gradations. Several never Trumpers that I read and listen to are very happy that the border is closed, Iran’s nuclear program has been crippled, numerous terrorist groups have been decapitated and Israel got the support they needed to do all that and defeat Hamas. Even though they didn’t vote for Trump they acknowledge that none of this would have happened under a President Harris. TDS sufferers are happy about none of the above.
Further down the continuum, between Never Trump and MAGA, lies what I call “Compared to What” which is where I find myself. I’m glad Kamala Harris isn’t the president. I hope to be reunited with Jay and other Reagan conservatives soon.
Fascinating, as I should like to respectfully disagree, my being someone that is not joking when I say T.D.S. stands for…to the Village Idiwitt…Trump is a Deranged Sociopath. But, speaking of not making the grade, the borders being closed is a good thing, like Bastiat’s Parable of the Broken Window. Last I checked, a man that looks, sounds and dresses like Darth Vadar still reigns like Supreme Allah in downtown Terroran…and speaking of decapitation…millions of young men east of Israel still think Osama Bin Laden was really cool, as their countries are still ruled by strongmen that even make The Don jealous (and even richer too…as he and his two turd bitcon bros Uday and Qusay and his deeply creepy son in law Jarad are only too happy to jump in bed with such monsters, I mean mobsters, for the love of the Almighty dollar converted into bitcoin…for it cannot even be traced!). And even though I did not vote for The Don, as counterfactuals are non falsifiable as they are not really good, bad or otherwise arguments…if one could have voted for a Haley, or a DeSantis, the little good I can acknowledge The Don has accomplished would have been surely done by any generic Republican…as, speaking, of Kamala, The Don got elected President of the United States, not once, but twice, for having the almost cosmic fortune of running against Nurse Ratchet, then Selina Meyer. If only the loyal opposition party had nominated the best man…or woman…and not someone based on race, gender and upper class luxury beliefs. And don’t even get me started about the election in between days….Ashli Babbitt still cannot be reached for comment…speaking of suffering death for a big fing lie that will be answered for…in this life…or The Don’s decrepit soul…So, I cannot speak for Jay, nor would he want me too, but respectfully, speaking of being reunited, like Peaches and Herb…NOT…The Don’s decrepit soul puts the “man” in con…don’t you know that🤪🍺✌️
I am among the never Trumpers you describe. I don’t suffer from derangement.
There is no such thing as T.D.S…but Trump is a deranged sociopath…take it from me, Benjy Compson 🤪🍺✌️
I said they’re not the same thing.
Yes, I understood that.
I'm still pondering how we ended up with the electoral choices we had in 2024; the NYC race seems like small potatoes by comparison.
Great column. I share that persons view. Proud to have TDS.
Thanks for publishing the letter, Jay. I can definitely relate. I have lots of relatives and friends who I thought believed in certain principles and who have been sucked into the Trumpy black hole. A sad time indeed.
I subscribed just so I could post this comment (OK, there may have been other reasons): You didn't need to point out you were patting yourself on the back QUITE so much. In fact if you just said "I want you to ignore the nice things he says about me and hear his story," it woulda been fine. So many people come to this aha moment with history. I feel fortunate that it happened when I was 19 and a friend showed me Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address. I read it and was so intrigued I asked "what else has he written?" and was steered, not to Ivan Denisovich but to the Gulag Archipelago. I read all three volumes that summer, and back at school in the fall I began my Paul Johnson journey. That old friend and I disagree a lot these days but we're still friends and my prayer is the kid becomes friends with his dad again. The stories of the past could provide a way back.