Comparing Formers July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 Talk about contrasts! This guy asked President Obama if he’s depressed. So cool. (Obama’s overarching life advice, albeit not part of this interview: “Be kind and be useful.”) The current former president (“I’d like to punch him in the face”), meanwhile, kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside and now is gearing up to be America’s first Mussolini, ending our 247-year experiment with democracy: . . . Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him. . . . In case you haven’t read the full story, it’s worth your time. We all have demons and angels battling within us, like wolves. (“But grandfather!” the children ask. “Which wolf will win?!” To which the old Cherokee replies: “The one you feed.”) For the past 7 years, the G.O.P. has been feeding the wrong wolf. Sure, Bush 43 was a terrible president in tremendously important ways. And Jimmy Carter was in many ways a failed president. But in retirement, Bush has been gracious and sane; Carter has been a terrific force force good — as have been former presidents Clinton and Obama and, for that matter, former vice presidents Gore and Biden. (Their former veeps, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, and Mike Pence, may not have done much for the world since leaving office, but all three have endorsed democracy and the rule of law, in defiance of today’s G.O.P. leadership. That may be a low bar, but in today’s G.O.P. it actually takes a lot of courage.) Trump is in a totally different ballpark. It’s not conservative versus liberal or taciturn versus gregarious or handsome versus brainy or tall versus short — or any of the other contrasts we’re used to seeing. It’s fascist-dictator-wannabe versus all the other men and women who have ever run for the presidency since 1789. ANIX A hopeful update on one of our crazy speculations, made only with money we can truly afford to lose.