I promised a thread on this, so here it goes. This should be taken as a "yes, and..." provision of context. Alex is absolutely right that the decision to run again in 2020 was entirely on McConnell and all that implied going forward.

https://twitter.com/alexthechick/status/1689299121104945154

If that's all you care about -old people have to know they are old and they have to understand they should step aside for younger people -then nothing that follows should change your mind. I'm explaining the system, not endorsing it, even if I have fewer gripes than Alex.

This is a good thread -and may even be correct in a few places. However, I don't think it is the full story. In 2002 or 2003, when we were gearing up for the second Iraq war, I wrote an op-ed -never published because I was like 18 and not that smart -arguing against it.

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1402639468536999938

My argument, having just come off reading about the Cuban Missile Crisis -was that we could simply increase the pressure from the No Fly Zones and the Embargo, which would more than contain Iraq and prevent nuclear weapons proliferation.

The argument isn't great -Classics is about studying Western Civ, which precludes it from being diverse in the relevant way, regardless of the color of Augustine's skin. But this alone doesn't make the discipline political.

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1402333446815371264

Also required is the current debate about whether Western Civilization exists, should exist, or is worth existing. There is no politicization to having a Chinese Classics class, nor is there politics in having a curriculum studying East African pre-colonial history.