This November will offer the opportunity to revive much needed sensitivities

I can't help but laugh when I think about the so-called “existential” questions that defined our politics at the turn of the millennium.

It was a time when Republicans and Democrats fought tooth and nail over marginal tax rates, the morality of the federal estate tax, term limits, tort reform, and even a balanced budget (yes, you read that right). Members of both parties believed that these issues would surely define our politics for decades to come. But they were wrong.

Note that not only were these issues of real importance, but it was a time when both the right and the left recognized (and operated within) cultural barriers. Marginal members – and their ideas – were therefore relegated to the margins of daily debate. In a nutshell, the parties were engaged “in the 20s” (soccer term), nowhere near the red zones (soccer term) that frame today's progressive era.

Those more innocent days seem quaint now…and so long ago.

In other words: back then, university professors wouldn't dare celebrate the rape and slaughter of Jews by a notorious terrorist group.

Back then, speech codes and language guides would have been anathema to campus free speech liberals.

Then again, no politician of either party would accept a national administration that openly and notoriously advocates – and actively participates – in facilitating unlimited illegal migration across an open border.

Back then, women's intercollegiate sports teams were populated by women…and only women.

Then again, no sane teacher would try to convince a seven-year-old that he or she wasn't… neither he nor she.

Back then, no state would have legalized simple theft along the lines of a $900 “no-theft” safe harbor, or a cashless bail process that throws violent criminals out on the street, quickly.

A homeowner could then leave his home for an extended period without worrying that an illegal migrant squatter might break into the place, live openly on the premises, and then use the legal system to resist the homeowner's attempt to remove the

It would then have been impossible to contemplate the specter of the party's chosen presidential candidate out of power undergoing a Stalinist show trial where prosecutor, judge, jury, venue, and media were stacked against him, and where 98% of the general public are (still) unable to articulate the alleged “crime of the week” after the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Then anyone advocating an identity politics paradigm that condemned babies to a social status of “oppressor” or “oppressed” should be laughed off the public stage.

Then it would have been political suicide to dismiss the uniqueness and authenticity of the great American experiment as a mere racist and colonialist enterprise.

Then, of course, the prologue. We live in the present, where profound change is still possible. And so these old railings of sanity and sovereignty – of pluralism and courtesy – of sobriety and common sense – remain within our grasp… much along the lines of old Ben Franklin's famous description of what the authors had created: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The next opportunity to hold it and revive those old sensibilities is November 5, 2024. Make a note of it.

Bob Ehrlich is a former Maryland governor, member of Congress, and state legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in major U.S. newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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