Pause for reflection

Being out of power and out of fashion has advantages | Tony Woodlief

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

I'm looking forward to Time in the Wilderness. It's a phrase one must now capitalize, so often has it been repeated about American conservatives, and American Christians, and especially those American conservatives who call themselves Christians. The party that most claimed to represent these crowds has been thrashed at the polls. Milton Friedman is dead; John Maynard Keynes is reborn. King James is out; The Message is in. And so the various strains of conservatives and Christians with political aspirations are headed to the wilderness, as the narrative goes, to find themselves.

In truth, most of the people who make their living from politics will do no such thing. Temporarily deposed, they will write campaign manifestos thinly disguised as memoirs, or become lobbyists or consultants or television talking heads. They might slim down, or buff up, or get a tan. They will await the gradual unfolding of slip-ups and scandals that signal the impending downfall of their opponents. Surveying American politics is, in this regard, like watching a game of musical chairs between two surly teenagers with one chair. The kid on the chair puffs out his chest; the kid without the chair sulks and bides his time.