Amity Shlaes, my favorite living writer, is being recruited to run for the Senate in New York by Adam Brickley of The Dogcatcher Project. Brickley notes that “With Shlaes in the race, we can apply serious pressure on Gillibrand to explain her stunning about-face on issues from gun rights to economic freedom – and turncoats have diffficulty in elections when they are called on the carpet.”
Shlaes would be a tremendous asset to politics in America if she was elected and her ideas had the influence of a vote in the Senate (after all, she wrote The Forgotten Man). In a state like New York, though, her chances of being elected would be slim (after all, she wrote The Forgotten Man). In fact, it would probably only serve to put her name on the map and, subsequently, to have to write “ran for the office of the Senate in New York” on her bio at the CFR. We need her to fry bigger fish, like Keynesians and collectivists. New York may think it deserves better, but since when has it voted that way?
Amity Shlaes is so above the sideshow of New York politics that it is not even funny to talk about her participation in jest. She is the opposite of Senator Gillibrand, though.
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Comments
Perhaps the notion of a citizen politician has become quaint, but in this day and age when "comedians" such as Al Frankin can waltz into the Senate chamber, why must we discount a very intelligent and thoughtful writer? There are many disparate professions represented in the Senate other than lawyers that went to law school to simply have their ticket punched on their way to elected office. Bill Frist comes immediately to mind.
The concept that we should be encouraging is that of public service. People, ordinary everyday people, should be running for these offices, not our current glamorized used car salesmen. You should be a Senator, Professor Jacobsen should run for the House – why not? That is the way it was intended to be!
It is sad that you would conceive of the title of Senator to be silly (current iteration of that body notwithstanding). It is still the world's greatest deliberative body.
Amity Shales would be a tremendous credit to such an institution.
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