ESSAY: Modern China’s Precarious Existential High-Wire Act. “The genius of democratic republics like our own is that they tend to be self-correcting. For example, just enough traditionally Democratic voters were turned off by Barack Obama’s eight-year-long sequel to the Carter Administration, ‘Malaise II: The Un-Quickening,’ to take a chance on Donald Trump in 2016. The turnaround since then has been pronounced. But even when voters don’t exhibit such wisdom, elections allow citizens to vent their frustrations by throwing the bastards out — without, and this point is key, overthrowing the whole system or starting a civil war. That’s why authoritarian regimes are always more brittle than they appear.”

You could apply similar thinking to Iran.

Anyway, this one is for PJM/Town Hall’s VIP members, and the promo code VODKAPUNDIT provides a nice little discount, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a supporter.