Fresh vs. Tired
In 1965, a striking young liberal from Manhattan named John Lindsay ran for mayor of New York City. He was a Republican, a rising star in the party’s progressive northeast wing, and the minute he entered in Congress, he seemed marked for greater things. It would be trite to call Lindsay Kennedyesque, but he was. He represented the new frontier, and women couldn’t look away.
In the mayoral race, he was pitted against Abe Beame, the city comptroller and a graying machine Democrat. Men like Beame typically won mayoral races. (William F. Buckley, the father of modern conservatism, was the Conservative Party candidate that year.) Lindsay, like Fiorello LaGuardia before him, was running as a reform liberal, and the local Republican Party in that period (along with the Liberal Party, which had not yet succumbed to corruption) was a vehicle for young, brainy, and anti-establishment politicos who wanted to make a difference in municipal government. The Lindsay years would curdle, but it should be remembered how bright his star once burned; when national magazines were read by millions every week, Lindsay graced the covers of TIME and Life. He was, for a period, a genuine political celebrity, and Richard Nixon even briefly mulled picking him as his running mate.
When Lindsay was running against Beame in 1965, the legendary New York newspaper columnist, Murray Kempton, succinctly described the difference between the two men: “He is fresh and everyone else is tired.” Lindsay, above all else, was new, and this helped propel him to victory.
Kempton’s line keeps coming back to me as I consider Kamala Harris v. Donald Trump, and why, even with his inarguable Electoral College edge, so much momentum has seemed to shift Harris’ way.
Trump, on presidential campaign number three, is tired. His bits aren’t landing. “Comrade Kamala” isn’t “Crooked Hillary.” No one thinks her laugh is a liability. Few, for now, are blaming her for the policy and macroeconomic headwinds buffeting Joe Biden, like inflation and immigration.
The question, for Trump, is if he can ever be fresh again.