The Atlantic Sneers at Truck Driver Edward Durr’s Ability to Govern

The Atlantic, a left-liberal publication that has become a clearinghouse for anti-Republican commentary, published an essay in which it expressed skepticism that a blue-collar truck driver like Edward Durr could perform the duties of his elected office.

Last week, Durr shocked the political world by defeating incumbent New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state and the longest-serving legislative leader in its history.

The essay in The Atlantic, by Tom Nichols, titled “Populism Always Sounds Great in the Abstract,” mocks Durr: “A New Jersey truck driver defeated the state Senate president, but politics needs people who know what they’re doing.”

Nichols said Durr represented a dangerous populism rejected by America’s Founders, and compared him to a “Philistine”:

The notion that a virtuous people will select virtuous representatives to exercise their judgment is at the core of the American experiment. Populism—the notion that “the people” are always right by virtue of being numerous and ordinary—is utterly antithetical to our national idea. The Founders hoped that America would be led by people of moral and intellectual excellence; they built anti-majoritarian firebreaks into the Constitution precisely to avert sudden and intemperate movements.

…

I sincerely hope this truck driver turns out to be a good legislator. The early signs are not encouraging. His tweets and posts suggest that he might not be the virtuous and patriotic underdog his supporters believe him to be. In December 2019, for example, he tweeted, “Mohammad was a pedophile! Islam is a false religion! Only fools follow muslim teachings! It is a cult of hate!” His Twitter account is now deactivated. (In a statement issued to several media outlets yesterday, he wrote, “I’m a passionate guy and I sometimes say things in the heat of the moment. If I said things in the past that hurt anybody’s feelings, I sincerely apologize. I support everybody’s right to worship in any manner they choose and to worship the God of their choice.”)

People who air grievances tend to carry more than a few of them, and so it seems in this instance. I love the David and Goliath stories of politics, but only if David isn’t also a Philistine—in which case, the contest is a draw no matter who wins.

In response, Durr said he could hardly do a worse job than New Jersey’s current leaders: “How much worse could I make it?”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.