Arizona’s Former Governor Could Be the Right GOP Candidate for 2028

The following is an imagined announcement. The fellow supposedly speaking has not been consulted about this.– – –I am a former two-term governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. I say what Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, says: “I’m a conservative. I’m just not angry about it.”Americans who enjoy the tone and substance of today’s politics can choose from candidates promising more of the same. Yet voters who are exhausted and embarrassed by endless turmoil and vitriol from both sides of the political spectrum deserve a choice, not an echo.I promise calm after the current storm of animosities. One step toward this is a step back from what has become, under both parties, a hyperactive and inevitably disappointing presidency.A Ducey presidency will not be constantly in your face or on your mind. You might go weeks without being reminded that I am there, out of sight, conducting the president’s principal business as the Constitution defines it: taking care that the laws are faithfully executed.I will try to shrink the president’s prominence by encouraging Congress’s revival. Executive orders will be few because legitimate presidential power derives only from unambiguous acts of Congress, or the Constitution.Congress has enabled presidents to grab vast power to act unilaterally by declaring “emergencies.” Real emergencies are extraordinary and transitory. Today, declared emergencies are many, enduring, and usually spurious. I will ask Congress to end the approximately 55 emergencies we now live under, and to stipulate that any presidentially declared emergency terminates in 30 days unless Congress enacts a resolution of extension.I will urge Congress to circumscribe executive discretion, and to participate in governing, by voting on all regulations with a major (at least $100 million) economic impact. If Congress wants protectionism, which inevitably breeds crony capitalism, it must legislate it, not just allow presidential whims to impose it. Washington has blurred the distinction between public and private sectors. As president, I will disentangle the government from big-government semi-socialism — president-imposed federal ownership in Intel, United States Steel, and other entities.The Constitution says the president “shall from time to time” give Congress information and recommendations about the state of the union. I shall do this as presidents prior to Woodrow Wilson did: in writing. Thomas Jefferson correctly considered it monarchical for presidents to stand above Congress and lecture it. America would be improved by having one fewer nationally televised, politically saturated, president-centric spectacle.The antidote for presidential grandiosity, and consequent governmental strutting, is rediscovering republican — small “r” — simplicity. Jefferson practiced this with his penchant for informality when entertaining and his aversion to pomp: He preferred riding alone on horseback rather than in gilded carriages. The White House itself, which until recently was devoid of ostentation, exemplified republican modesty, the aesthetic analogue of limited government.My face, which is nothing to write home about, will appear on no banners draped over Washington buildings. No president should be the face of the national government, or the nation. A Ducey presidency will remember that there are legislative and judicial branches with their own dignity and indispensability.America’s greatness does not wax and wane with particular presidencies. It is as enduring as Plymouth Rock, and cannot be enlarged by gaudy testimonials it erects to itself. Nations that incessantly boast about their greatness seem unsure of it. Our nation needs no huge triumphal arch. If you seek the most eloquent testimony to America’s triumphs, look around and see what you do not see: the worst of the last century — Asian and European fascism and communism.And see immigrants. I believe the axiom that immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.I am the son of a Toledo, Ohio, policeman. As governor of the youngest of the contiguous 48 states, I was a full-spectrum conservative. I championed charter schools — nonunionized public schools free from the calcification and conformity that stifles pedagogical experimentation. Charters enlarge options for minorities who cannot afford private schools. Sixty years ago, politicians stood in the schoolhouse door and wouldn’t let minorities in. Today, union-backed politicians stand in the schoolhouse door and won’t let minorities out. If Arizona’s charters were the state’s entire K-12 system, Arizona would be among the nation’s leaders in math, reading and science.Before I entered politics, I joined an Arizona start-up, eventually becoming chief executive of Cold Stone Creamery. To all who will vote in 2028 Republican primaries, my goals for America are: less overheated presidentialism, more ice cream.The Washington Post

Arizona’s Former Governor Could Be the Right GOP Candidate for 2028

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