Editors at National Review Online offer kind words to the latest official candidate for president in 2024.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina is running for president. We welcome his entry into the field and look forward to hearing more from him as this primary season progresses.
Scott is an admirable figure with a proper understanding of what America represents. His aim in running for president, he said this morning, is to counter the “lie that our country is evil,” to declare that “America is not a racist country,” and to celebrate the “goodness of our nation.” There are, Scott argued, two paths ahead: One can be “bitter,” or one can be “better,” but one cannot be both. These are not mere abstractions. Scott was raised poor by a single mother. His grandfather was an uneducated cotton-picker who grew up under Jim Crow. As a teenager, he almost failed out of high school. “Today,” Scott contended, “I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.” Indeed so.
Scott has a great deal to recommend him. He is popular with his colleagues in the Senate. He presents conservatism well, in a manner that is likely to attract converts. He has a friendly, honest, and open affect, which helps him discuss the thorniest issues in America in an unusually constructive way. In a word: He is an optimist. Historically, Republicans have done well when they have run optimists. All things being equal, the party has tended to do better when led by those who embodied the upward mobility from humble beginnings that the party preaches.
As both a member of the House and as a senator, Scott has exhibited a solid conservatism. He has backed tax cuts, supported American energy independence, made efforts to secure the border, and introduced legislation to tie welfare more closely to work.
