In Some Other Universe, This Might Be Funny

Opinion|The Trump Dumpster Fire Is Lit

Frank Bruni: Well, Bret, as panicked as our president must be over his falling approval ratings, he has at least one great consolation: He’s not Keir Starmer. What do you make of — and what can be learned from — the British prime minister’s spectacular implosion?

Bret Stephens: I’m sad about Sir Keir. I had hopes that he could exemplify the adeptness and stability of a centrist leader in the mold of Tony Blair, his most successful predecessor as a Labour prime minister. And that he could rid Labour of the ghost of Jeremy Corbyn, his far-left, antisemitic predecessor as party leader. Instead, he’s turned out to be just another overmatched politician. And he’ll probably be remembered as the man who, through sheer ineptitude, pushed British voters to the extreme left and extreme right.

Frank: I’m worried about what his failure means not only for Britain but also for America — specifically, how it will color the debate among Democrats about whether to fight President Trump and MAGA with ardent progressivism or with a more moderate approach. To me, Starmer’s failed centrism isn’t proof that a politician’s policy prescriptions must be unusually bold or revolutionary. But those ideas must show consistency and conviction — his didn’t — and they must be sold by someone less crushingly phlegmatic. I’ve been more inspired by the instructions for assembling an IKEA night stand than by most of Starmer’s public remarks.

Bret: You’re putting your finger on the biggest challenge in Western politics today: Competence and sanity generally lie toward the ideological center of politics, but charisma tends to take root at the extremes, whether it’s someone like Zohran Mamdani on the left or, well, Donald Trump on the right. Charisma at the center is hard to find, though I think I may have located it last week in the person of Jake Auchincloss, the sort-of-young and very bright Democratic congressman from Massachusetts.

Who else?

Frank: There are more than a few Democratic politicians who, I think, are trying to solve precisely this riddle — how do you make reasonableness compelling and good-sense sexy — and are rehearsing their acts. That’s what Elissa Slotkin is doing, and it explains her arrestingly blunt language. It’s what Pete Buttigieg is doing, and it explains his beard. Ruben Gallego. To some extent, Josh Shapiro. The way Shapiro talks about his Jewish faith, in fact, assures voters that a politician of great practicality can also be a person of deep feeling. Raphael Warnock, an actual reverend, sometimes does something similar along Christian lines.

Bret: I just hope we haven’t reached the stage where Shapiro’s faith and his old-fashioned support for Israel aren’t politically disqualifying as far as a critical mass of Democratic primary voters is concerned. It’s been depressing to witness the speed with which the progressive critique of Israel has shifted from fair and reasonable criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu to an unhinged conviction that Israel is a rogue state — no better, if not actually worse, than terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. I don’t think it serves Democrats well when they sound as crazy on this subject as Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens.