Bret Stephens: Many years ago, when I was in high school, my father suffered a brain hemorrhage, which took a long time to recover. So I felt so sorry for John Fetterman as he took to the stage during that painful debate with Mehmet Oz last week. On the other hand, I wouldn’t offer my dad a Senate seat in his challenge, and I have a feeling that Pennsylvania voters are coming to the same reluctant conclusion about the Democratic candidate.
Gail, you wrote a pillar on this subject. How do you see the race going?
Gail Collins: Still saying vote for Fetterman. I know he lost the debate, but when it comes to the Senate, there’s no point in picking a better debater – the way you might want to go back to the day when our senators listened. each other’s arguments and sometimes their changes. mind. Now you only need one person who will vote to give a majority to the right party. Nothing he does during his term will make a fraction of the impact of the fundamental question: Will we have Republicans or Democrats in power?
Bret: Isn’t that the excuse so many Georgia Republicans are making for themselves when they stick their noses in and vote for Herschel Walker?
Gail: Well, if you have a strong personality candidate versus a completely duplicate idiot who exemplifies all the worst ways a man can treat a woman then , OK, yes, I guess the political loyalists can back off.
Bret: I think voters still need to ask themselves: Is this someone they can trust to be the perfect fit to serve in the United States Senate? Walker clearly doesn’t, which is why I will never vote for him for another thousand years, even though he will probably support most of the policies I support. I also think Fetterman hurt himself by not disclosing his full medical records, when his health was a legitimate concern. It was a mistake that could cost him the election.
Gail: As the Fettermans planned the final installment of this campaign, they were probably imagining that he was much better at the moment and proving it at the debate.
Unsuccessful. I suspect the medical records only reinforce the bad news, or they will reveal them. But I still stick to my basic rule: Vote with full heart against anyone who can make Mitch McConnell the Senate majority leader again.
Bret: And I say vote for the better candidate, regardless of party. That’s how we get moderate and thoughtful political leaders like Charlie Baker, a Republican, in Massachusetts, or Michael Bennet, a Democrat, in Colorado.
Gail: You will not force me to denounce moderate and ideological political leaders. But nowadays most of those cases are quite rare. Unfortunately, the voter’s I-must-for-someone dilemma is the same as the one we saw last week, and you know my rules.
Now Bret, before we talk about anything else, I want to thank you for that great piece during your visit to Greenland.
Bret: Thank! It’s… long.
Gail: It’s important to change your mind about global warming, and while we don’t quite agree on some details – like, um, how to tackle it – the fact that you put the effort in to get there and then come back to your mind should really move the debate forward.
Bret: The real hero of the piece is an American oceanographer named John Englander, who brought me to Greenland through his organization, Rising Seas Institute. He approached me a few years ago with the intention of persuading me rather than just shouting at me. The whole climate debate would be a lot more constructive right now if there were more Britons on the planet.
I apologize that I have not convinced you of the solution side of the argument. So you don’t think the free market solves any and all problems?
Gail: Surprise! This is a perfect case for government intervention. You’ve shown how much private enterprise can do for Greenland, but the idea of nuclear power and cracking without much oversight is simply terrifying to me.
Bret: I’m all for sound regulations to limit pollution and make sure no edges are cut when it comes to health and safety. But we were so over-regulated some of the industries we needed for a cleaner future that we kicked some industries out of business and sent others overseas. For example, it’s crazy that federal and state regulations that make it all but impossible to mine rare earth minerals – which are so essential to wind turbines – only leave us at the mercy of other nations. countries like China, where health, safety and environmental considerations are minimal. .
Gail: Speaking of crazy, let’s talk about what happened last week at Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco. Her husband, Paul, was seriously injured by a man who broke in trying to watch the speaker.
Bret: Thank God it didn’t get any worse.
Gail: I’m sure everyone in the House and Senate is thinking a lot about this right now, worrying about family members and wondering if political life is worth it. Any thoughts?
Bret: One of my early political memories is the assassination of Ronald Reagan. John Hinckley Jr., the shooter, was obsessed with Jodie Foster and oddly thought shooting Reagan would impress her – in a good way. Now we’ve got people pumped into conspiracy theories, many of them sold by Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alex Jones and other despicable people. I should add that there are plenty of fanatics on the left, as Brett Kavanaugh or Steve Scalise can attest.
Speaking of fanatics, what do you think of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West?
Gail: You know, when I was in school, I was so bad at singing, I was limited to a group of only one person called an audience and was forbidden to join the choir during Sunday Mass.
Bret: We have much in common. I’m terrible at singing a tune that my kids often make me squeal whenever I try to sing a good night lullaby.
Gail: Even as a listener, I’m not someone you want to consult about music. But Ye’s rise in anti-Semitism is on another level and very disturbing to me. Recently pillar what you wrote on it is a great reminder of how menacing it is. Did you get many reactions?
Bret: Above. Most are positive, and it’s good to see a wave of national protest covering Ye. But too many answers are simply scary. For example, one reader wrote: “The Jews are no more sinful or dishonest than any other people; they are simply better at it. “
Gail: Oh my God.
Bret: We have to take into account the fact that there is more anti-Semitism than many realize and it comes from many directions, not just the usual suspects on the far right.
Can I mention two other points?
Gail: Please. This is definitely the key issue of the moment.
Bret: The first is that West’s behavior shouldn’t be considered in any way mentally ill. It’s not fair to the mentally ill, and I don’t see many people making that excuse for other kinds of bigotry.
Gail: Not unless he signed up for an extended stay at a psychiatric sanatorium…
Bret: The second is that West and some of his defenders claim that he is a victim of a cancellation culture. Nonsense. West tripled his anti-Semitism. I also assume he signed some sort of standard ethics clause with his business partners written for exactly this kind of outrageous behavior. That is very different from the types of destruction that cross parts of American culture, in which relatively anonymous people have their professional lives ruined in often unclear or extenuating circumstances, and they are usually prepared to apologize.
Gail: We’ve talked a lot about how all the new media technologies have changed the culture. The sane world would have to come up with a whole new set of rules. Don’t want to banish everyone who posts a stupid thought. But these still count.
Bret: Agree. And here’s a hint to Elon Musk now that he’s become the swashbuckling dog that caught cars by acquiring Twitter: Give all tweets a 10-minute delay so people can retract their comments. say their silliest before they are made public. Any other examples in mind?
Gail: Well, Blake Masters, the Arizona Republican Senate candidate, got in trouble — for good reason — when he said that gun violence happens mostly because of “Black people, truth be told.” But should he be defeated and exiled forever? Well, maybe not if he apologizes, gives some reasonable thought on the subject of crime, and goes on to speak rationally about other matters. But since none of that happened, I definitely want to cancel him.
Bret: There is a more suitable penalty that I think we can agree on: Guaranteed that he loses the election next week.
