CHAUTAUQUA – Alaskans understandably cherish summer months, when days are warm and long, much longer than elsewhere in the country.

In fact, Kimberly Strassel, who lives near Anchorage, told audiences at Chautauqua Institution on June 23 and 24, that since moving to Alaska eight years ago, she has never left the state in June or July.

The Wall Street Journal editorial-board member and weekly columnist light heartedly told those gathered at a reception at Chautauqua Institution on June 22 that she may never leave the state again in June or July.

Yet she was happy to make an exception to her never-leave-in-June-or-July rule to come to Chautauqua.

The original invitation was from Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua, or ABC, to speak on June 23.

There followed a second invitation, this one from the institution itself to deliver the morning-amphitheater lecture on June 24.

This Chautauqua-ABC collaboration was a smashing success.

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Trying to jot down Strassel’s noteworthy points while she makes a presentation is like trying to drink water out of a fully open fire hydrant.

Before the June 24 audience, Strassel rightly distinguished political-pendulum swings from political realignments in this center-right country:

�–� Pendulum swings occur first because of “gravity”: Overreach or missteps by those in power.

An additional reason for the recent pendulum swing in the United States is that, regardless of individual Americans’ political philosophy, “Americans have come to believe government is fundamentally broken.” Polarization is a symptom, not the cause, of that problem.

She recalled her father’s 2015 firm prediction, which she firmly doubted then, that Donald Trump would be the next president.

Strassel said that while Trump’s habit of saying exactly what he thinks can be annoying, this habit shows that he means what he says and is a reason he won. In fact, the conservative brand has become “the get-it-done party” here and in Europe.

�–� That, in turn, is leading to an increase in Republican enrollment.

Yet Strassel rightly sees more to it than that. She sees some wealthy, college-educated Americans shifting to the Democrats, and some working-class Americans shifting to the Republicans. Citing 2024, she also sees shifts to the GOP among blacks and Hispanics.

“They voted that way, because they wanted to see change,” she said.

The next question is whether this realignment lasts. She rightly laughed yet was rightly serious while adding that one should “never put it past Republicans” to mess things up.

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Before the June 23 audience, Strassel recalled that after the 2020 election, Trump never stopped and never doubted he’d win again. Thus, he and his team analyzed the first term and planned for the second.

In the second term, one focus is on restructuring government, including reining in bureaucracies, reforming agencies, and restoring federalism.

“We’re having serious discussions about serious issues in D.C.,” she said.

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Speaking of Trump, Strassel didn’t make these two unrelated points, yet this column will.

First, Trump 47 is an even better president than Trump 45, in part, and in no small measure, because Trump 47 is noticeably and much better at not saying almost everything he thinks, even when those thoughts are right. One can’t help wondering whether that comes not only from experience since 2015 but also from a certain episode in Butler, Pa., in 2024.

Think about this from your own life: Even without a bullet nicking your ear, haven’t life’s benchmarks been points at which you shifted?

Second, when history assesses the Trump 45 and Trump 47 administrations’ actions outside the United States, the targeting–with a reported 14 bunker-busting bombs–of Iran’s nuclear capability during the night of June 21-22 will be among the administrations’ finer hours.

We’ll never know for sure what this targeting has prevented. It’s frightening to imagine.

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The hard truth is that in this unpleasant world there are sometimes unpleasant tasks that (1) need accomplishing and (2) will be accomplished only if America accomplishes them.

Eight decades have passed since the end of World War II. You, faithful reader of this column, have long understood reasons for urging our allies’ continually to bear their share of world leadership. For just one example of our previous forays into this subject, please recall the Dec. 6, 2024, column at https://www.post-journal.com/opinion/local-commentaries/2024/12/united-states-is-not-ancient-rome and https://www.observertoday.com/opinion/commentary/2024/12/u-s-must-not-spread-itself-thin.

Nevertheless, sometimes the United States needs to be in the clean-up slot of the batting order, step up to the plate, and swing for the fence.

To say that, with respect to Iran, the United States during the night of June 21-22 hit the ball over the fence and cleared the bases is an understatement.

Yet it’s an understatement worth making.

Bravo.

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Dr. Randy Elf’s Aug. 20, 2020, ABC presentation, on “How Political Speech Law Benefits Politicians and the Rich,” is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ebymA7xOo. This newspaper doesn’t publish next Friday, so this column will return in two weeks.

COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY RANDY ELF