The Ballot Blues, &c.

On New York’s mayoral race; Germany and Japan; ‘jack-booted thugs’; Naismith/Nesmith; and more

New York City (Photo by ben o'bro on Unsplash)

The world has bigger problems than my personal dissatisfaction with ballot choices—with the candidates I’ve had to choose from for the last umpteen years. But it has been a long time since I saw a ballot with a candidate I could enthusiastically pull the lever for.

(We used to pull levers, when voting. Now “pulling the lever” is a metaphor.)

I’m talking about ballots presidential, congressional, mayoral . . .

Jonathan Martin, of Politico, has written a jazzy piece about the current New York mayoral campaign. J-Mart begins, “How on earth are voters in America’s largest city choosing between a 33-year-old socialist and a sex pest for mayor?”

(The former would be Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, and the latter would be ex-governor Andrew Cuomo.)

I have a question of my own: Couldn’t a common-sense law-and-order politician clean up in a New York mayoral election? Why do our candidates have to be so outlandish?

(Maybe I should run my own bad self.) (Maybe not.)

***

A regular theme of my column, and other articles, for the past ten years or so has been the rearmament of Germany and Japan. Those two nations “are responding to new threats,” I wrote in 2017. “They are also responding to a new America, which is ready to abandon or lighten the burdens it has long carried.”

Frequently, I have quoted Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister. He has been in that job since 2023, and he was in it once before, from 2007 to 2014. In 2011, he made a statement in Berlin, startling:

“I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. You have become Europe’s indispensable nation.”

This morning, two news reports caught my eye. One is headed, “Germany to raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP in 2029.” The other is headed, “Japan conducts its first missile test on its own territory.”

Good. I mean, not good that rearmament is necessary. But (a) preparedness is always wise and (b) flinching from the necessary won’t do.

***

Stick with Germany and Japan for a moment. A headline in the Kyiv Independent reads, “Amid Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Trump wonders why ‘everybody hates’ Russia.” (Article here.) The American president says that both he and Vladimir Putin are confused. The Soviet Union was our ally in World War II. Germany and Japan were our foes. And “now everybody hates Russia and loves Germany and Japan,” said Trump. “It’s a strange world.”

Is it?

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were allied until Hitler double-crossed Stalin. They had been embarked on a joint project: the dismemberment of Poland, for example.

After the double-cross, the Soviet Union was on “our side”—but those quotation marks serve a purpose. Once Hitler had been defeated, the Soviet Union held half of Europe in chains.

Germany and Japan? West Germany was a democracy, and so was the whole of Germany when the Wall fell. Japan became a democracy too, after the war. Both nations are part of the “West” (in the political, not the geographical, sense). They are part of the Free World.

Russia? Under Putin, it is a police state, a dictatorship. Putin has re-Sovietized Russia, abolishing civil society, abolishing independent media, instilling fear. Today, there are more political prisoners in Russia than there were in the last stage of the Soviet Union.

And, of course, Putin is waging a war of annihilation and subjugation against a neighbor, Ukraine.

These facts should not have to be stated, so elementary are they. But, by the evidence, they do have to be stated.

***

“No one cares about January 6th,” said a Republican politico of my acquaintance. She meant this approvingly. It may be true that relatively few Americans care about that event. But that does not mean it is unimportant.

A headline from yesterday: “Jury orders man to pay $500K for assaulting police officer who killed himself after Capitol riot.” (For the article, go here.)

***

All my life, I have been a defender of law enforcement—maybe a reflexive one. Maybe too reflexive. My bias is on the side of law enforcement. This is probably natural in a conservative.

In 2014, I wrote a little essay called “A Job Like No Other: On policing.” It encapsulates my views.

“Back the blue” has been a mantra, for years. Of course, some people are rather selective when it comes to backing the blue, aren’t they? Did the back-the-bluers back the blue on January 6th?

Anyway, like you, I have been seeing videos of ICE arrests. They are unsettling. You can’t tell everything from a video. Indeed, a video can be misleading. But the behavior we see in some of these videos does not strike me as very . . . American, I want to say.

I have thought of a phrase from the mid-1990s—a hot phrase: “jack-booted thugs.” It was used by a National Rifle Association official about federal agents. This prompted George H. W. Bush, the former president, to resign his membership of the NRA.

To read his letter—his letter of resignation—go here. You may find it stirring.

There are a hundred things to say about this general subject, and I am writing short items. But I do know this: Without law enforcement, there is no chance of a decent society. Also, law enforcement must be watched, vigilantly.

Is that too elementary? Well, I’m in an elementary mood . . .

***

Fred Smith, the founder and chairman of FedEx, has died. He was one of the most famous businessmen in America (and one of the most admired, I think). Fascinating life—not necessarily spotless (whose is?). For the obit in the New York Times, go here.

And here is what George W. Bush said:

Fred Smith was one of the finest Americans of our generation. He built an innovative company that helped supercharge our economy. FedEx changed the way we live and do business. My Yale fraternity brother loved America. He was a citizen, not a spectator. He served as a Marine in Vietnam and was rightly proud of his association with our military. I twice asked him to serve as Secretary of Defense, and he declined twice only because of his devotion to his family. Laura and I send our condolences to Fred’s beloved children and grandchildren and his wife, Diane.

***

End on a sports note? Okay, just a quickie. During the NBA Finals, I thought I was hearing the name “Naismith”—as in James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. “Naismith scores!” But it turned out to be “Nesmith”—as in Aaron Nesmith, one of the Indiana Pacers.

In any event, bless all Naismiths and Nesmiths, and you too.