4. Yglesias instead seems to implicitly argue that politicians should only do what wins elections, virtue be damned. One wonders what he thinks of those foolish 1850s abolitionists. As Condleeza Rice once said, politics is the art of making the impossible inevitable. That ain't this.

3. Leadership is about doing what is necessary, not just what is popular. Read literally anything our founders wrote about virtue, and the inherent risks to a society based on democratic processes to sustain the rule of law to the extent that unvirtuous people gain power.

That and just a misunderstanding of linear time, if that makes any sense? Don't think of it as "getting back to where we were" because that's depressing AND impossible. You literally CAN'T "go back". Think of it as "The future is unwritten, America. Build what you want."

I also think there's a tremendous amount of just... not comprehending how easily fixable most of the science stuff is. NIH, NSF, etc. is just budget line items and a provision or two of protection from exec orders.

What's hardest to fix is H1-B sentiment.