Is the GOP in Congress going to, you know, actually do anything now that we have all of Congress and the White House? I am pretty sure the Constitution gives them the power to pass laws without the President telling them how to do it.

For years, I have seen promises and propaganda by the GOP that once it had power, it would make real conservative changes. Always it was “send us money now” and “vote GOP now.” From where I sit, it appears to be that the GOP, in all its times of saying “Wait until…” really hoped that it would never come to pass that things would change, and they would be in power. Clearly, no matter who entered the White House from the GOP, Congress was not actually ready to move on conservative issues.

Hot dog and smoothie food trucks on Columbus Circle in New York City. (Andriy Blokhin / Shutterstock.com)

I’m just back from a week-long family vacation in New York City. This was our second such visit to the city, and as before, I came away with an odd reaction to the place.

Several years of campus protest, suppression, and violence directed at conservatives has had an effect on public opinion. The share of Republicans and Republican leaners who view colleges and universities positively has plummeted from 54% to 36% — a drop of 18 percentage points in the past two years. A Pew Research Center poll demonstrates this trend across most GOP demographic and ideological groups.

A relevant and forward-looking 2016 presidential campaign would have seen Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump talk a lot about technology and its impact on 21st century America. Ideally there would have been a vigorous debate about government’s proper role in a myriad of related issues such as innovation, privacy, the future of work, cyberwarfare, inequality, and antitrust.

I think ignoring technology on that level is unlikely to happen again. Certainly policymakers are becoming more aware of all these issues. For instance: While I still occasionally meet a member of Congress who doesn’t think there will be much public interest in self-driving cars and trucks, I sense that the majority opinion is that the technology will be extraordinarily important and disruptive.

Here’s a not-uncommon occurrence that always makes me laugh. A friend, acquaintance, or even pundit, goes on a rant against the government, elites, Washington, and so on, assuring me that they are wholly incompetent and morally bankrupt, and that a major collapse or breakdown of some sort is imminent. (Usually it is clear that the person takes some satisfaction in this thought.)

Not long afterward, that same person goes on a rant about some very particular grievance, concerning some very specific task that elites or the government ought to manage better. It might be, “How have they not figured out how to prevent terrorist attacks by now?” or “Why don’t they do a better job clearing the roads when it snows?” or “Can’t these airport security people be more efficient?”

From 1971:

“Someone should be pointing out that when an upper-middle-class Ivy Leaguer says something particularly outrageous, official America is supposed to respond that ‘he is trying to tell us something’. But when a young construction worker says something in response, we are to conclude that he is a dangerous neo-fascist who must be silenced.”