Think about what America was like in 1970, the year the E.P.A. was founded. It was still an industrial nation, with roughly a quarter of the work force employed in manufacturing, often at relatively high wages, in large part because of a still-strong union movement. (Funny how Trumpist pledges to bring back the good old days never mention that part.)
Chris Christie: a bruiser attacker
In the summer of 2012, everyone was talking about Mitt Romney’s running-mate: Who would it be? We had nothing else to talk about for several weeks, or months (I forget). I asked a very smart political journalist, “Whom do you think Mitt should pick?” He said, “I would pick Christie.” I was surprised. No one else was saying that. I asked, “Why?” My friend said, “Because he’s a bruiser. The Obama machine is absolutely ruthless. Destructive. And Romney could use a bruiser at his side.”
.. “Establishment” is the epithet de nos jours. (I wrote an essay about it in late 2013: “The E-Word.”) But as Mona Charen pointed out in a recent podcast of ours, the “Establishment” left us a pretty damn good country. And it has taken Alinsky types to weaken it, severely — to transform it fundamentally, or try to.
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