Larry Hogan's Impossible Dream?
Plus: Who would you forgive?
Apparently something terrible happened to our culture over the weekend. While most of us were enjoying guac, chips, beer, and yet another entertaining NFL game — the 7th consecutive fantastic playoff game of the season— TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk was tweeting:
It was yet another reminder that full-time grifting for Conservativism Inc. is… exhausting. (Although “League of Sexual Anarchy” sounds like a great Netflix series.)
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Happy Monday.
Our word of the day is quixotic, which Merriam-Webster defines somewhat unkindly:
Because we are feeling more optimistic this morning, we prefer the Man of La Mancha version (which for some reason has gotten stuck in my head this morning).
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
I am of course, referring to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who hinted yesterday that he might make a 2024 presidential run and said he believes “there is a pretty large lane of sane Republicans and they're looking for a voice.”
I regret to tell you that there are jaded skeptics.
And I expect the professional Eeyores on this site — and I name no names here — to have a similar reaction. And they won’t be wrong.
But, this also seems a good time to remind ourselves that we are going to have to make a series of difficult choices in the near future about hope, realism, redemption, and principles.
Let’s start with the balance of hope and realism. Polls, history, and our own eyes tell us that there is a vanishingly small constituency for sanity in the still-Trump-dominated GOP. But despair is not really a viable strategy, as seductive as it might feel, and Hogan seems to be stepping up where so many others have whiffed (looking at you, Ben Sasse).
So, even though the odds are overwhelming…. Huzzah?