Finally, Something to Love About Washington

Breaking News

August 6, 2013

Dear Jolt Reader,

There's a whole lot of love swirling around today — from the first of Jim's five reasons to love modern politics (see below) to Lee Habeeb's column on how conservatives might use the word "love" to change our political and cultural landscape. An example (one of many) from Lee: "We believe that no government worker can love a child the way his parents can, and yet we still can't say the word." Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

And now we interrupt this message to return to scandal. Where to begin?

It must be good to work for Congress, even better to be a congressman. Job security, a pension, health care. Oh wait, Obamacare instructed that they too (members and staff) had to join the exchanges and pay for their plans out of pocket. Not to worry, Obama to the rescue! Both groups, even as every other American's health-care costs are on the rise, will receive funding to pay for their health-care plans — even though the law doesn't provide for it. Now the whole lot of them are indebted to the president. Michael Cannon has the story.

Benghazi-gate. IRS-gate. NSA-gate. The "gates" are beginning to pile up. Obama often compares himself to Lincoln, JFK, Reagan . . . really any president that a majority of the country believes was great. But in reality, Victor Davis Hanson lays out the argument for why Obama's true presidential soulmate is . . . Richard Nixon.

There are more than 2 million people in prison in the United States. These men and women, however, may not be repenting for their crimes, but instead getting a graduate degree in criminology. Rich Lowry delves into the conservative, compassionate case for prison reform, which includes an honest day's work.

On a brighter note, here's Jim with his first reason to love modern politics.

Something Worth Loving About Washington, Part One: Hooray for Youthful Idealism!

One of the frustrating aspects of This Town is that, for all of the spectacular, detailed reporting, you feel like Mark Leibovich is giving you an intricate detailed portrait of city by focusing on one street, and not a particularly representative one, either. Again, I haven't finished the book, but I suspect most readers will finish and conclude that Washington, D.C. — and by extension the world of national politics, those who work in it, those who cover it, and those who care about it — is a horrible place full of horrible people doing horrible things to each other, who only get more horrible over time, and who spend their time at horrible parties lamenting how horrible the people who weren't invited are.

Yes, in Washington, horrible people do horrible things to each other. It's also home to oodles of military families, cops, firefighters, charity volunteers, good neighbors, good teachers, and millions of people who never attend a party at Tammy Haddad's house.

Hey, everybody's flawed. But let me take a moment to stand up for the people idealistic enough — perhaps naïve enough, or foolish enough! — to come to Washington in their first suit with a printed-out resume eager to change the world.

A preview of my novel coming out next June, describing the view of a protagonist who arrives in the nation's capital in the early 1990s:

Like many in Washington, Ava was smart, and also like many, restless and eager to leave a mark on the world. If you were young and wanted to make a lot of money, you majored in finance and set your sights on Wall Street. If you craved fame, you set out for Hollywood; rumor had it they were handing out sitcoms to stand-up comedians at LAX. If you wanted to invent some amazing new gadget or tool, you went to Redmond, Washington or Silicon Valley. But if you came to Washington, you were driven by something bigger.

The focus of that drive could be almost anything — abortion, foreign policy, the environment, economics. Young people in Washington tended to know a bit, or even a lot, about something beyond themselves and the pop culture of the moment. The twentysomethings of the nation's capital tended to be a little more interesting to talk to than their flannel-wearing peers elsewhere, who had dreams of fame and fortune but little sense of how to get them.

To the rest of the country, Washington was boring and stuffy; to the young people inside the Beltway, it was Nerd-vana, an endangered species preserve for geeks. It was a national dumping ground for all the folks who cared a lot about things that most people didn't care about much at all — the rights of women in Afghanistan, or the habitat of the snail-darter, or aggressive Chinese naval maneuvers off Taiwan, or suburban sprawl, or early childhood foreign language education, or the homeless.

People come to Washington to work. It's not a beach town, or necessarily a fun place to relax. It is the opposite of laid back. I understand why folks from other parts of the country lament that Washington isn't friendly. (I think D.C. folks are positively cuddly kittens compared to New Yorkers, but maybe my perception is shaped by the bygone days when New Yorkers would riot if a mayor tried to take away their large sodas.) It is indeed a city of northern charm and southern efficiency. But if you want a culture that is gracious and mannerly like the South, or Minnesota nice, or California cool . . . well, they have those places. This city is for the workaholics, and if you enjoy your work, you'll find a lot of other people who have the same attitude.

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