David Frum

And in a way, that was kind of disqualifying because neoconservatism was as much a milieu as it was a set of ideas.

And I was not a member of that milieu.

Maybe I'm just antisocial.

But the question I think about a lot, as we are trying to move beyond Trumpism, is it does seem like there's about to be a big swing of political power in the United States in 26 and 28.

I worried for through the year 2025 that Trump would somehow be able to

distort the election enough to hold on to power, the coming congressional election.

I think the tide against him is now too big for those methods to work.

I mean, unless he tries an outright coup d'etat, I don't know how he stops it.

So there's likely to be a shift in power.

And the question I find myself thinking about a lot, and I have no answer to this, and I'd be very interested to be guided by the wisdom you draw from these texts and your own wisdom,

When President Biden entered office in 2021, clearly his thought, or clearly to me, his thought was we need to get past the recent unpleasantness.

We need a policy of accommodation.

We need a policy of looking forward, not backward.

And while when people have actually sacked the Capitol, they have to be held to account, we're not going to object too much.

If they're higher ups, the justice system goes real, real slow on bringing justice to the people who gave the orders for the sacking on January 6th, 2021.

We'll punish the actual foot soldiers, but we'll leave the colonels and generals alone mostly to the extent we can.

The question I am struggling with is if and when power does shift, was the Biden attitude the right one?

be reapplied in 27 and 29 or do we need some kind of lustration like something something like you know what the czechs and hungarians and poles did after 1989 they said look we have an elite that was authoritarian corrupt and criminal in some cases homicidal and

We can't do justice in every case, but we need to find some system to hold the previous administration to a moral and legal account and exclude them from power.

I can't make up my mind what's the right answer.