SHATTERING KRISTOL

I'm a great fan of Billy Crystal, the actor, the humorist, the director. He manages to plumb the depths of human compassion in whatever he does. Not so, William Krystol, the neo-con and conservative commentator. I have been at odds with Krystol my entire adult life. I'm pretty sure that I have seldom been at odds with Billy, the better, Crystal. 

William Krystol has announced that he is now a Democrat. I welcome him, cautiously. That is what Democrats do. We have a broad coalition which prevents us from getting the things many of us want, but tries to offer hope to those who have been made to fear FDR-style Democratic Socialism. What these people fear puzzles some of us but we continue to play the long game. Usually it works. In short, we have an active if not populous reform wing. Republicans no longer have that small group of loud reformers. They have been taken over by a reform-school wing of right-wing reactionaries that offended even John McCain. We can thank such luminaries as Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, and a core of dirty tricksters (such as Roger Stone), which remained concealed in the Republican hierarchy since Richard Nixon.

Perhaps Mr. Krystol will bring enough people with him that he will help defeat Donald Trump. Perhaps he will cause us to remain connected to the military-industrial wing of the Democratic party longer that many of us would be comfortable with. We cannot know the future. One thing is clear. The Republican party, as it is now constituted, has become too toxic for many thinking Republicans (if such an animal still exists). They must suffer the embarrassment of a sound thumping in elections for the foreseeable future before that autocratic wing slinks away into the darkness.

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