 Biden's campaign platform is five hundred and sixty-four pages long when those flying ponies collide with the marzipan rainbows and a pixie dust starts to gum up the works of society we're going to be in for a mess. On the other hand I think we're done with this experiment of having neon mates run the asylum. PJ O'Rourke is not happy. I'm appalled by the choice that we have been delivered. The 72 year old political humorist who cut his teeth writing for the national lampoon and his author of Parliament of Horrors as well as other bestsellers is back with a new collection of essays, a cry from the far middle. As you might expect the book is filled with comic observations on republicans, democrats, socialism, nationalism, occupational licensing, presidential debates, twitter and more. But it's hard to hide his lack of optimism when a book includes quotes like this is the end of the world for classical liberalism. I'm betting that human nature will triumph over adversity and challenge and I don't mean that in a good way. And then of course we have a gigantic political tumor. I'm not optimistic about the biopsy. Are you okay? No I'm not okay any more than any of the rest of us are at the moment. I am worried you know. I have always belonged to the pessimistic wing of the Libertarian attitude. There are many libertarians who believe that people are ultimately rational. I am not among them. This is probably because I spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent largely covering wars and insurrections and social upheavals and disturbances of all sorts of ugly cons. I filed from 40 some 44 countries none of them the nice ones you know ranging from sort of Lebanon to Bangladesh to Kosovo and parts in between. And yeah I'm not sanguine about human beings having a rash. We have a rational side thank god and I hope we're appealing to that rational side but it isn't the only side in our multifaceted and sometimes pretty ugly little personalities. O'Rourke does see some bright spots. I think there's been a generally liberal shift in the United States. I partly mean that in a good way on issues of individual liberty and things like gay marriage and so on. But he's concerned America has forgotten the benefits of free markets. When one side gains it doesn't necessarily mean another side loses. More people seem to be moving into the category of regarding the economy as a kind of pie sort of pizza pie where if you have too many slices I have to eat the dominoes box you know. And so instead of baking more pies the tendency is to get out the pie knives and go at each other's throats with them. We've degenerated into a tribal shouting match which is just absolutely not helpful at all. And the very fact of tribalism runs contrary to my concept of libertarianism. It's all about individual liberty individual dignity and individual responsibility. When we fall into quarreling tribes we are negating all of those things and not only am I concerned that government outcomes and political outcomes will be contrary to libertarianism but the very basis that these decisions are made upon will be contrary to libertarianism is already to a very large extent contrary to libertarianism. O'Rourke now finds himself at odds with the party he once considered his home. As I watched the Republicans not resist this dangerous and unpredictable man not to mention like rude divisive and any number of other adjectives you know I went from being sort of a Republican and remission to being to a certain extent outright hostile to the party to tell the truth. I mean it's you know it isn't so much exactly what Trump has done there are even some things that he's done like lowering the corporate tax rate to the level that is customary and developed countries that I'm fine with. I hate his stand on immigration but you know but not all of his policy decisions have been wrong. He's I think he's he's he has raised awareness as we like to say these days because that's supposed to be something very positive to raise awareness but I think he's raised awareness that China is not our friend that the Chinese leadership does not wish as well. So it's not so much a matter of what he's done it's a matter of what he can do as the world's most powerful person he's a giant toddler and anybody who's raised children will understand this metaphor he's a toddler at the top of the stairs there's that moment when you failed to close the baby gate and you're down there in the hall and you're looking up the stairs and you see the toddler at the top of the stairs and that's the meaning of fear and with him we have it every day as a work is quick to point out every presidential election has been touted as the most important in our lifetime always it's like the weather you know they're calling it the storm of the century but this year is there some truth to it well it's a little more important than usual yeah I would say it but fair amount more important than usual I know it's it's unpleasant facing the Biden-Harris ticket we're gonna be in for a mess it's gonna be a messy and expensive couple of years they seem to be wrong all wrong quite wrong about everything but wrong within normal parameters of wrong we've endured wrong before you know there's wrong and there's damn wrong