Midge

About two-thirds of the way through that fine 1992 film, A League of Their Own, star catcher Dottie Hinson has had enough of the grind and is ready to quit.

Her work in directing the Committee for the Free World was vindicated by the Revolution of 1989 and the Soviet crack-up of 1991. And that is not pleasant to contemplate, because America today badly needs the wisdom and example of a Midge Decter. And I expect Midge found it a sadness that ambition was warping the judgment of otherwise intelligent politicos who talk nonsense when kowtowing to the populist throng (Josh Hawley, J.D. Vance, and Ted Cruz come to mind). A good spanking from Midge Decter, who never, ever kowtowed, whether to woke cancel-culture barbarians or their right-wing mirror images, might have done some of today’s aspirants to conservative leadership some good. As a matter of prudential judgment, she was right: the human capacity to muck things up is virtually limitless. Some years ago, at a lunch honoring Midge Decter, who died this past May 9, I quoted the fictitious Jimmy Dugan while trying to capture something of the character of Marjorie Rosenthal Decter Podhoretz, “Midge” to her parents and all those privileged to be her friend. The combination of circumstances and personality that made her a giant are not replicable.