Great piece Joe, eminently sensible and hopefully not falling on deaf ears. (Shouldn’t the term, if not the concept of “the Resistance” be mercifully retired?) Your brave take on identity politics is born out by a tough election and echos what Ruy Texiera and Doug Schoen and other sensible types in your party have been saying, (as well as your earlier comments). You will be off the Joy Reid holiday card list! 😺

As a conservative and an unenthusiastic Trump supporter, I just have to sit back and gasp at the sheer dominance that Trump is having on what will be 15 years of American political life. Whole forests will be cut down to form the library of books to explain this phenomenon, this colossus that bestrides our age. It all says something profound about us and our politics but I am not wise enough to know what.

Some random thoughts:

—Trump’s populism (i.e. tariffs, tip tax etc gimmicks, will face a willing but hopefully sensible Senate. As much as he is imagined to be a “fascist,” I think his instincts are more of a deal making Rockefeller Republican.

—The Democrats will pretend to conduct an honest postmortem but will fall back to the default position of Trump derangement. The media will not even bother with a reflective moment but continue on their merry way to irrelevance and oblivion.

Mark Halperin’s call for grace from all sides will be as dead as Kamala’s political career.

Ps Love the reference to Philip K Howard’s The Death of Common Sense—One of my faves!