Towards a New Counter-Revolution

DECLAN LEARY

I was in Boston on the weekendthe Associated Press, and other esteemed arbiters of American democracy (Fox News, CNN, et cetera, et cetera,) preemptively declared Joseph R. Biden, Jr.—nominal son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and of the Roman Catholic Church—the forty-sixth President of the United States. You’d think the Patriots had just won the Super Bowl. A continuous stream of cars flowed by, honking in celebration. Windows and soft-tops were down, even in the brisk November air, as spontaneous paraders hollered in jubilation. (When I say I was in Boston, I ought to be more specific: this was Newbury Street, the heart of the city’s yuppie district. I doubt the mood was the same in Southie.)

The daylong blare of car horns was annoying to be sure, and the prematurity was at least as grating as it was amusing. But more than anything else, the elation that met…