1) I’ve jotted some notes about the late, great Robert Conquest — a most consequential historian. These notes are mainly personal. But they are general as well.
2) Let me recommend a column by Bret Stephens — an extraordinary thing. (The column, I mean, though Bret is too.) It’s headed “Farewell to the Era of No Fences.” It’s about what has happened to Europe, the United States, and indeed the world at large in a very short period of time.
The column packs big, important points into a limited space, and is highly readable. An achievement.
3) Seeing Carly Fiorina on television, Donald Trump said this: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
I will confine myself to two comments. First, there has always been a certain chivalry in conservatism, a certain emphasis on character. And Donald J. Trump is the embodiment of today’s conservatism? He’s our darling? Great, just great.
And second: I followed Carly on the stump in New Hampshire for about three days. And, as I wrote in my subsequent piece, men dig her. And they’re not wrong to.
Maybe not Donald Trump, the One True Conservative. But others, yes.
4) A reader writes,
How disheartened are you at the ascension of Trump and his followers? I must confess, the rhetoric coming out of these people saddens me. As you probably remember from our conversation in Dallas, I am an immigrant. I have been in this country for almost two decades. Since becoming a citizen, I’ve always voted Republican, because this is the party I most identify with. I never felt unwelcome in the country or the party, until now.
5) “Brad Anderson, Creator of ‘Marmaduke,’ Dies at 91.” I have a memory from The Simpsons: Homer is reading the paper at breakfast. He chuckles and says, “That crazy Marmaduke.”