It's Friday, March 10, 2023, and the day of the week when I reprise quotations meant to be uplifting or educational. I'm off to downtown D.C. to moderate a panel this morning on the current state of journalism (spoiler alert: it ain't great), so this morning's newsletter will be brief.
At Thursday's hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee exploring the "Twitter files" revelations, every Democrat on the committee chose to defend the FBI while attacking not just Elon Musk, but the two courageous and accomplished journalists summoned to Capitol Hill as witnesses.
If you're my age and remember anti-liberal FBI outrages of generations past (infiltrating the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era, smearing Martin Luther King Jr. as a Communist, sexually blackmailing Democratic politicians -- that sort of thing), yesterday's hearing was one big Opposite Day.
It reminded me of two observations made by a liberal-Democrat-turned-conservative Republican named Ronald Reagan. While campaigning, Reagan would often explain his political conversion simply: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me."
And in his farewell address as president, Reagan made a more sweeping observation that is applicable to us all, regardless of party or philosophy.
"If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are," he said. "I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."
And that's our quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
