Mr. Bret blames the Democrats

Library of the Philological Departments, in the still tuition-free FU Berlin, by Norman Foster, 2005.

Shorter Mr. Bret Stephens, "The Democrats Are Not Up To Their Historic Responsibility", 1 August 2019:

Due to circumstances beyond their control, Republicans are unable to provide a Republican candidate for the 2020 presidential election, so Democrats need to step up and offer one. This is their historic responsibility but I am sorry to say they are shirking it. Perfectly respectable Republicans like that guy Delaney and that other guy seek the Democratic nomination but are ignored. Instead the entire party seems to be focused on nominating a candidate who disagrees with me on important policy issues. This will not end well.

Besides, we wouldn't just be helping out the Republicans in a pinch, we'd be helping ourselves, because nominating a Republican is the only way we can win. This is proven by the fact that in the Democrats' 2018 capture of the House some of the seats were won by candidates who were more conservative than some of the other ones.

Steve was all over this silly column first thing in the morning, so I won't dwell. Suffice it to say that no, Democrats don't feel it's their historic obligation to supply Mr. Bret with somebody to vote for, because we disagree with him and everything he stands for.

But I particularly liked this:

I do not admire anyone embracing the bad idea of free college. The surest way to strip nearly anything of its value is to make it free.

Yes indeed. This is why Oxford and Cambridge, the Sorbonne and the Freie Universität Berlin and the Cooper Union in New York have become such despised places.