{"id":143435,"date":"2026-02-20T12:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143435"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:02:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:02:43","slug":"ct-ben-sasse-and-a-dying-breed-of-politician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143435","title":{"rendered":"(CT) Ben Sasse and a Dying Breed of Politician"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his first speech on the Senate floor<\/a>, in November 2015, Sasse essentially gave a lesson on the Constitutional order and on the abject failure of modern-day Congress to assert its authority against the administrative state and the executive branch. It\u2019s a remarkable speech, given only after he\u2019d spent a year in the chamber and spoken with many of his colleagues to understand what was going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No one in this body thinks the Senate is laser-focused on the most pressing issues facing the nation. No one. Some of us lament this fact; some are angered by it; many are resigned to it; some try to dispassionately explain how they think it came to be. But no one disputes it. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As a result, he also said, \u201cThe people despise us all.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of the Senate\u2019s long terms, Sasse concluded, is to \u201cshield lawmakers from obsession with short-term popularity to enable us to focus on the biggest long-term challenges our people face.\u201d And the character of the chamber matters, he explained, \u201cprecisely because it is meant to insulate us from short-termism . . . from opinion fads and the short-term bickering of 24-hour-news-cycles. The Senate was built to focus on the big stuff. The Senate is to be the antidote to sound-bites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Former senator Ben Sasse is battling cancer.

Losing him would be one more sign that a certain kind of conservatism\u2014and a certain kind of politics\u2014is disappearing, writes @MikeCosper<\/a>.https:\/\/t.co\/5clU0XfODE<\/a><\/p>— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 20, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>